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A Typologically Unusual Interrogative Word in Toqabaqita and Other Oceanic Languages

A Typologically Unusual Interrogative Word in Toqabaqita and Other Oceanic Languages In Toqabaqita and some other Oceanic languages the reflexes of Proto-Oceanic *sapa "what?, which?" are used to inquire about parts of whole and/or about kinship relations; for example, Toqabaqita tafa "which part of person's or animal's body?". While these interrogative functions may be unusual cross-linguistically outside of Oceanic, in Oceanic they follow naturally from a grammatical property of Proto-Oceanic, specifically the use of one type of attributive possessive construction to encode inalienable-possession relations. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Oceanic Linguistics University of Hawai'I Press

A Typologically Unusual Interrogative Word in Toqabaqita and Other Oceanic Languages

Oceanic Linguistics , Volume 46 (2) – Jan 3, 2007

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Publisher
University of Hawai'I Press
Copyright
Copyright © 2007 University of Hawai'i Press. All rights reserved.
ISSN
1527-9421
Publisher site
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Abstract

In Toqabaqita and some other Oceanic languages the reflexes of Proto-Oceanic *sapa "what?, which?" are used to inquire about parts of whole and/or about kinship relations; for example, Toqabaqita tafa "which part of person's or animal's body?". While these interrogative functions may be unusual cross-linguistically outside of Oceanic, in Oceanic they follow naturally from a grammatical property of Proto-Oceanic, specifically the use of one type of attributive possessive construction to encode inalienable-possession relations.

Journal

Oceanic LinguisticsUniversity of Hawai'I Press

Published: Jan 3, 2007

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