Re: Communal/collaborative languages now possible at CALS
From: | David J. Peterson <dedalvs@...> |
Date: | Tuesday, August 19, 2008, 22:33 |
Jim Henry:
<<
sina toki ala toki?
Are you talking?
you talk not talk?
I could sort of squeeze that into "question particle"
but "ala" is a general negative particle, not primarily
used for questions, or I could call it "interrogative
word order" but the WALS examples involve
fronting the verb. This doesn't seem to be the
same thing.
>>
I would call that interrogative word order, of the
options presented.
Whenever I'm not sure what to put I always go
to the WALS page for an explanation. Remember
that these aren't going to fit even every natural
language. It's just to give folks an idea--a snapshot.
A way to compare various languages. Just pick
whatever's closest, even if all the options don't
fit, and I think that's in keeping with the spirit of
WALS.
-David
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