| 3. |
The
negative particle n
which occurs with a verb in the non-past, different aspects and
different moods excepting the non-past potential, is preposed to
the verb including the copula, provided the verb is a simple one
and if the verb is a compound one, it occurs between the root
and the modal/aspectual marker.
|
| 4. |
When the
negative particle n«
occurs with individual words, it occurs before the word if the
word is simple and before the last compound, if the word is a
compound one.
|
|
Since all the three negative
particles have mutually exclusive environments, it is possible to set
up the negative particle n as
the negative morpheme and consider the other two as the positional
variants of n.
|
| 3.8.2. |
Interrogation
|
The
interrogative sentences stand in contrast to declarative sentences by
virtue of their ability to express/indicate the expectation of a
speaker in the same way a verb in the imperative or potential mood
expresses the attitude or the expectation of the speaker. The
interrogatives, however, are not traditionally considered as modal,
because in most of the languages, the opposition in modal is expressed
by certain modal markers suffixed to the verb and/or by the selection
of one auxiliary or the other, whereas the interrogative sentences are
formed by employing one of the interrogative pronouns/particles with
or without an inversion of the word-order on/of a sentence in the
indicative mood.
|
Though one does
not speak of an interrogative modal, the interrogative sentences could
be clearly modal and may be characterized by additional modalities
which indicate the expectations of the speaker, for instance,
depending upon the expectation of the one who puts the question, there
could be three types of yes/no question, viz.,
|
| (i) |
an open or
neutral type of question where the person who puts the question
is totally ignorant of the truth of the information he is
seeking and as such the answer could be either as yes or no;
|
| (ii) |
a question
anticipating an affirmative response, as the person who puts the
question already assumes/suspects that something has taken
place and merely wants a positive confirmation of the same; and
|
| (iii) |
a question
anticipating a negative confirmation which is similar to the one
above. The two types of questions would, however, be worded
differently.
|
|
such types of
questions indicating the expectations or otherwise of the one who puts
questions are found in Naga languages. This could be illustrated with
a few examples from Sema Naga (Sreedhar, 1980:178-9)
|
1. Open or
neutral type of questions like -
|
| noy pa ithi ani kesya? |
‘do you know him ?’ |
| 1 2
3 4 5 |
(lit. you he know is
what) |
| |
1 2 3 4
5 |
| noye li kimiye ceni
kesya? |
‘do you love her ?’ |
| Could
usually bring forth either of the answers: |
| ye, kimiye, ceni |
‘yes, I love her’ |
| 1
2 3 4 |
(lit. no. that do
habitually not) |
| |
1 2 3
4 5 |
|
or |
| moy tisi
cemo |
'no, I do not love her' |
| 1 2
3 4 5 |
(lit. no. that do
habitually not |
| |
1 2 3
4 5 |
| |
2. Question
anticipating an affirmative answer-
|
| noy kuchonoli ceni
kesya? |
‘do you love her?’ |
| |
And the
response would usually be :
|
| ye, tise ceni |
‘yes, I do love her’ |
| 1 2 3 4
5 |
(lit. yes, that do
habitually will) |
| |
1 2 3
4 5 |
But if the
person putting the question was misinformed, the response would
be :
|
| moy tisi cemo |
‘no, I do not love her’ |
| |
If a
negative confirmation is anticipated, the question would be :
|
| noye li kimiye cemo
kesya? |
‘don’t you love her?’ |
| |
|
If the
person who puts the question is less sure of his information,
the question would be :
|
| noye li kimiye cenikyo
mo kesya ? |
|
| 1
2 3 4 5 6
7 8 |
|
| (lit. you
she love habitual will what no what) |
1 2 3
4 5 6
7 8
|
|
|
|
