Macedonian Grammar

13. Interrogative Clauses

Chapter 13 Interrogative Clauses 1. Types of Interrogative Clauses As in many European languages, the interrogative clauses in Macedonian can contain ‘yes–no’ questions or ‘wh’ questions. 2. Interrogative Clauses with ‘Yes–No’ Questions The interrogative clauses with ‘yes–no’ questions can be of three types: (a) clauses with the clitic interrogative marker li, present in all South Slavic languages and in Russian; (b) clauses with the non-clitic interrogative complementizer dali ‘whether’, originally derived by adding the interrogative marker li to the agreement marker da ‘yes’, and (c) clauses with no overt interrogative markers, i.e., clauses in which questions are marked by intonation alone, which are typical in the Balkans but do not occur in Bulgarian.1 (1) a1 Barate li nešto? look-for.2Pl Inter.Cl something a2 Dali barate nešto? whether look-for.2Pl something a3 Barate nešto? look-for.2Pl something ‘Are you looking for something?’ b1 Ti dadoa li jadenje? 2Sg.Dat.Cl give.3Pl.Aor Inter.Mark food b2 Dali ti dadoa jadenje? whether Inter.Cl give.3Pl.Aor food 1 There is a dialectal difference in usage: while in the eastern Macedonian dialects clauses with the clitic interrogative particle li prevail, in the western Macedonian dialects, the use of clauses with no overt interrogative markers is most common. In the extreme west of Macedonia, the latter type is actually the only type of ‘yes–no’ questions. 406 A GRAMMAR OF MACEDONIAN (1) b3 Ti dadoa jadenje? 2Sg.Dat.Cl give.3Pl.Aor food ‘Did they give you food?’ c1 Ќe dojdeš li so nas? will.Mod.Cl come.2Sg.Pf.Pres Inter.Mark with us.Acc c2 Dali ќe dojdeš so nas? whether will.Mod.Cl come.2Sg.Pf.Pres with us.Acc c3 Ќe dojdeš so nas? will.Mod.Cl come.2Sg.Pf.Pres with us.Acc ‘Are you coming with us?’ 2.1. Syntactic and Prosodic Behavior Both the interrogative marker li and the non-clitic interrogative complementizer dali are derived in a complementizer node to the left of a Tense/Subject Agreement Phrase (Tense/AgrSP).2 The syntactic and prosodic behavior of interrogative clauses with the interrogative complementizer dali are, however, distinct from those with the interrogative marker li. 2.1.1. While the verbs of interrogative clauses with the non-clitic complementizer dali may remain in the tense and subject agreement node (Tense/AgrS), those with the interrogative marker li, along with any clitics which may procliticize to them, have to raise to C (cf. (2a)), as do the interrogative clauses with no overt interrogative markers (cf. 2b)). (2) a. CP ru C Tense/AgrSP g ti+ja+dade+li b. CP ru C Tense/AgrSP g ti+ja+dade 2 Tense/AgrSP is discussed in section 2.2 of chapter 9, “The Structure of the Clause”. INTERROGATIVE CLAUSES 407 2.1.2. The distinct behavior of the verbs in different types of interrogative clauses is argued for by the fact that in interrogative clauses with the interrogative marker li and in those with no overt interrogative markers the subject may not precede the verb,3 whereas in interrogative clauses with the non-clitic complementizer dali it may and often does so, though the codifyers recommend the subjects to be placed preverbally : (3) a1 Bara li Petko nešto? look-for.3Sg Inter.Cl Petko something a2 Dali Petko bara nešto? whether Petko look-for.3Sg something a3 Bara Petko nešto? look-for.3Sg Petko something ‘Is Petko looking for something?’ b1 Ti ja dade li Petko 2Sg.Dat.Cl 3Sg.F.Acc.Cl give.2Pl.Aor Inter.Cl Petko knigata? book+the.F.Sg b2 Dali (Petko) ti ja dade whether (Petko 2Sg.Dat.Cl 3Sg.F.Acc.Cl give.2Pl.Aor (Petko) knigata? (Petko book+the.F.Sg b3 Ti ja dade Petko knigata? 2Sg.Dat.Cl 3Sg.F.Acc.Cl give.2Pl.Aor Petko book+the.F.Sg ‘Did Petko give you the book?’ 2.1.3. While dali is stressed distinctly from the rest of the clause, li is an enclitic clitic which, as a rule, is hosted by the verb to its left, whether or not the verb is preceded by clitics procliticizing to it:4 3 In their analysis of Macedonian and Bulgarian li-questions Rudin et al. argue that the verb raises to the right of li and its appearance to the left of...