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Questions and Answers in K'iche'.

Record Type:	Language materials, manuscript : Monograph/item
Title/Author:	Questions and Answers in K'iche'./
Author:	Yasavul, Sevket Murat.
Description:	1 online resource (226 pages)
Notes:	Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 79-03(E), Section: A.
Contained By:	Dissertation Abstracts International79-03A(E).
Subject:	Linguistics. -
Online resource:	click for full text (PQDT)
ISBN:	9780355270167

Questions and Answers in K'iche'.
Yasavul, Sevket Murat.

Questions and Answers in K'iche'. - 1 online resource (226 pages)

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 79-03(E), Section: A.

Thesis (Ph.D.)

Includes bibliographical references

This thesis investigates the structure and interpretation of questions and answers in K'iche', an indigenous Mayan language of Guatemala, and aims to accomplish two interrelated goals. The first goal is to extend the limited previous work on questions and answers in K'iche' in order to come to a better understanding of the language. The second goal is to bring theoretically interesting data from an understudied language like K'iche' to bear on the modeling of question-answer exchange in discourse and thereby to facilitate an informed comparison between K'iche' and well-studied languages like English, and study the implications of the data for the formal analysis of questions and answers.

Electronic reproduction.
Ann Arbor, Mich. :
ProQuest,
2018

Mode of access: World Wide Web

ISBN: 9780355270167Subjects--Topical Terms:

557829
Linguistics.
Index Terms--Genre/Form:

554714
Electronic books.

Questions and Answers in K'iche'.
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035 $a AAI10660000
040 $a MiAaPQ $b eng $c MiAaPQ
099 $a TUL $f hyy $c available through World Wide Web
100 1 $a Yasavul, Sevket Murat. $3 1184058
245 1 0 $a Questions and Answers in K'iche'.
264 0 $c 2017
300 $a 1 online resource (226 pages)
336 $a text $b txt $2 rdacontent
337 $a computer $b c $2 rdamedia
338 $a online resource $b cr $2 rdacarrier
500 $a Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 79-03(E), Section: A.
500 $a Advisers: Carl Pollard; Judith Tonhauser.
502 $a Thesis (Ph.D.) $c The Ohio State University $d 2017.
504 $a Includes bibliographical references
520 $a This thesis investigates the structure and interpretation of questions and answers in K'iche', an indigenous Mayan language of Guatemala, and aims to accomplish two interrelated goals. The first goal is to extend the limited previous work on questions and answers in K'iche' in order to come to a better understanding of the language. The second goal is to bring theoretically interesting data from an understudied language like K'iche' to bear on the modeling of question-answer exchange in discourse and thereby to facilitate an informed comparison between K'iche' and well-studied languages like English, and study the implications of the data for the formal analysis of questions and answers.
520 $a I first discuss two focus constructions with different interpretations in K'iche' and distinguish between (what I call) answer focus constructions from aree focus constructions. I show that the interpretation of aree focus constructions gives rise to existence and exhaustivity implications (the latter when they are used to reply to constituent questions), neither of which necessarily arises from the interpretation of answer focus constructions. Previously, differences in the interpretations of these two focus constructions were either overlooked (e.g., Larsen, 1988; Trechsel, 1993) or not explicitly shown to be the case (Can Pixabaj & England, 2011). Moreover, this finding goes against the standard assumption, based on Aissen 1992, that focus constructions in Mayan are interpreted like it-clefts across the board.
520 $a Next, I discuss the distribution and interpretation of negation in K'iche' both in non-focus sentences and in focus constructions. In particular, I show that in answer focus constructions, the negation clitic =t( aj) 'NEG' has a variable distribution which has not been noted in the previous literature: it attaches to a prosodic word of the expression in the pre-predicate focus position but not necessarily to the first one (contra Henderson 2012). Interestingly, this variability in distribution has no effect on the interpretation of the sentence. The distribution of negation in aree focus constructions, on the other hand, is similar to its distribution in non-focus sentences: the clitic =t(aj) 'NEG' attaches to the first prosodic word of the predicate of the sentence to be negated.
520 $a Based on how negative answers are formed and interpreted in K'iche', I show that there are two different kinds of negative responses to positive constituent questions with different structures and interpretations. In the first kind of negative response, =t(aj) 'NEG' attaches to a prosodic word of the focused expression and I argue that this kind of response qualifies as a negative answer. For the second kind of negative response, where =t(aj) 'NEG' occurs on the verbal part of the sentence, I show that the preverbal expression is not focused but rather contrastively topicalized. I argue that this kind of response, although possible, does not qualify as an answer in the technical sense. Building on these observations, I take up the much-discussed issue of association with focus (e.g., Jackendoff, 1972; Rooth, 1996; Beaver & Clark, 2008; Herburger, 2016) in negative answers and argue that the facts about K'iche' motivate an alternative analysis which has implications for English. I propose an analysis of negative answers and negative responses in K'iche' and in English, without making recourse to association with focus or a mechanism to achieve that effect. The analysis also has the interesting implication that English does not have long negative answers.
520 $a Next, I turn to a discussion of broad focus and narrow focus polar questions in K'iche'. In particular, I show that the interpretation of a negative polar question in K'iche' gives rise to the inner versus outer negation ambiguity and that, similar to languages like English and German, this ambiguity has a morphosyntactic reflex (e.g., Ladd, 1981; Buring & Gunlogson, 2000).
520 $a I then discuss narrow focus polar questions and consider the relevance of inner versus outer negation to the interpretation of negative narrow focus polar questions. In particular, I show that the distribution of negation in narrow focus polar questions is sensitive to the inner versus outer negation interpretations associated with negative polar questions: negation occurs in the preverbal domain if the question has an outer negation interpretation and in the verbal domain if the question has an inner negation interpretation. Thus, the distribution of negation in narrow focus polar questions proves to be another morphosyntactic reflex of the inner/outer negation ambiguity in K'iche'.
533 $a Electronic reproduction. $b Ann Arbor, Mich. : $c ProQuest, $d 2018
538 $a Mode of access: World Wide Web
650 4 $a Linguistics. $3 557829
650 4 $a Native American studies. $3 1179522
655 7 $a Electronic books. $2 local $3 554714
690 $a 0290
690 $a 0740
710 2 $a ProQuest Information and Learning Co. $3 1178819
710 2 $a The Ohio State University. $b Linguistics. $3 1184059
773 0 $t Dissertation Abstracts International $g 79-03A(E).
856 4 0 $u http://pqdd.sinica.edu.tw/twdaoapp/servlet/advanced?query=10660000 $z click for full text (PQDT)