Re: Loaded Questions (Was: Re: Conlangcon Boston today!)

H.S.Teoh wrote:
>Ahh, typical case of confusion about English loaded questions. I used
>to have a Classical Greek prof who could never figure out which way a
>question was loaded in English, i.e., is it
>        "you don't ... do you?" --> expecting "no"
>and
>        "you do ... don't you?" --> expecting "yes
>or is it the other way round?

You've got it right way round.  Kash eliminates the problem by simply using
the same word in both cases-- yale 'it is, there is' with question/rising
intonation; the main clause has normal/falling intonation:

    2                       2  1
(a) yayimu poren yunoni 'he drank all the wine'

     2                       2  1  2 3
(b) yayimu poren yunoni, yale? 'he drank all the wine, didn't he?'  (perhaps
also = the accusatory '(so) he drank all the wine, did he?').

(c) ta yayimu poren yunoni, yale? 'he didn't drink all the wine, did he?'
(same intonation pattern as b).

My favorite Kash question tag is _iti_ 'or', which can be construed as
"...or not?" or (exasperated) "...or what?".  In this case the main clause
is in question form, with Q intonation, while iti has falling/trailing off
intonation.

2        3    21...
hacosaka, iti? 'are you going, or not?' (~....or what? [make up your mind!])

aka çenji yasisa minaye, iti? 'does Shenji love Mina, or not' (~...or what?
[just what are his feelings about her?]

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