TriCons Notes: Interrogatives

[qiihoskeh]

This covers all types of questions; I'll continue to edit it.

Yes/No Questions

Interogative Sentences

The sentence begins with the interrogative particle /cun/, although the topic may precede it. The verbs in question are in the subjunctive mood.

tcun kalooree' guraakuu
INT hot-SUB-EXP water-ABS
"Is the water hot?"

Whether Clauses

Possibly, the interrogative particle is placed right after the subordinating conjunction.

WH-Questions (Queries)

Query Pronouns and Determiners

This deals with who or what. The pronouns and determiners distinguish animate from inanimate and possibly proximal from distal. The pronoun or the phrase in which the determiner occurs is usually placed in the focus position. The pronouns are constructed by combining a query morpheme /cey/ with the proximal and distal determiners:

tceik-, tceiy-, tceil-, tceidj- (tceiyeqqii is used instead of *tceiyii).

tceiluu kaloori
QUE-3IL-ABS hot-EXP
"What's hot?"

Degree Queries

This deals with how many, how much, to what degree, etc. The query morpheme particle is placed immediately before the relevent adjectoid or quantity word. When possible, the phrase is focused.

tcei kaloori guraakuu
QUE hot-EXP water-ABS
"How hot is the water?"