Publication: Interrogativity in Baskeet publication001

The book chapter analyzes the grammatical means of encoding interrogativity in Baskeet. At first, an overview of interrogative marking on verbal and non-verbal predicates is given. Depending on the type of predicate, direct questions are marked by intonation only, or, additionally, by an interrogative morpheme -a, or special interrogative verb forms. Secondly, the forms and functions of the six simplex interrogative pronouns, i.e. PERSON, THING, TIME, QUANTITY, MANNER, PLACE, and SELECTION interrogatives, as well as pronouns derived from them, are discussed. Finally, the article considers the use of interrogatives in non-interrogative contexts. The analysis is primarily based on a corpus of recorded spontaneous speech events. (Bibliographical information: Treis, Yvonne 2014. Interrogativity in Baskeet. In: Ronny Meyer, Yvonne Treis & Azeb Amha (eds.). Explorations in Ethiopian Linguistics: Complex Predicates, Finiteness and Interrogativity. (Abhandlungen für die Kunde des Morgenlandes, 91.) Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. Pp. 41-78.) Yvonne Treis is a linguist and works on Ethiopian languages at CNRS in France.