A-not-A question

[2] This neutrality is achieved through a value-neutral presentation that simultaneously offers both positive and negative forms of a proposition.

However, these dialect-specific variations are not simply identical copies but possess distinct linguistic properties that can sometimes differ significantly from the original Mandarin form.

These forms are differentiated on the basis of the location of the Negation constituent and the presence or absence of duplicate material.

This is the most atomic form of the A-not-A question, which contains two identical instances of the constituent A separated by negation.

", the response to this question must be an echo answer, stating either "I am happy," or the acceptable alternative, "I am sad".

However, the above examples also illustrate that A-not-A type questions in English usually contain some comparative operator such as "or" which is not seen in the Sinitic forms.

However, they include an extra segment ("or" in the below examples) in order to read grammatically, which changes these approximations to an alternative question (AltQ) type.

Nevertheless, for the convenience of understanding this phenomenon from the perspective of an English speaker, the below examples are included to provide context.

An extensive cross-dialectic survey conducted in 1985 concluded that the Taiwanese question particle kam appears in the same contexts as the hypothesized Mandarin NQ.

[7] These distributional characteristics of NQ are parallel to non-nominal adjunct question particle weishenme 'why'.

A is essentially a variable which can be replaced with a grammatical particle such as a modal, adverb, adjective, verb, or preposition.

[10]Example (4) illustrates the AB-not-AB pattern, where AB is the constituent consisting of the verb rende, 'know', as A, and the complement zhe ge ren, 'this CL man', as B, combining to form the AB constituent rende zhe ge ren 'know this CL man'.

你nǐyou認得rèndéknow這zhèthis個gèCL人rénman不bùnot認得rèndéknow這zhèthis個gèCL人？rénman你 認得 這 個 人 不 認得 這 個 人？nǐ rèndé zhè gè rén bù rèndé zhè gè rényou know this CL man not know this CL manDo you know this man?

你nǐyou看kànsee這裡zhèlǐhere合不hébùsuit(able)-not合適héshìsuitable教jiàoteaching拳?quán?fist你 看 這裡 合不 合適 教 拳?nǐ kàn zhèlǐ hébù héshì jiào quán?you see here suit(able)-not suitable teaching fistIs this suitable for your martial club?

[1] In the interrogative clause, A-not-A occurs by repeating the first part in the verbal group (with the option of an auxiliary) and the negative form of the particle is placed in between.

[9] One distinction in Cantonese when compared to Mandarin is that certain forms of A-not-A questions are not attested due to dialectal differences.

?/*you like-not-like musicDo you like music?你niyou喜歡不喜歡xihuan-bu-xihuanlike-not-like音樂？yinyue?music你 喜歡不喜歡 音樂？ni xihuan-bu-xihuan yinyue?you like-not-like musicDo you like music?This form is only attested in Cantonese if the predicate is a monosyllabic word A, exemplified in (17.a) with the verb faan, 'return', with an object B, exemplified in (17.a) with the noun ukkei, 'home'.

[15] When the predicate is a bi-syllabic word, then AB-not-A form is not attested as shown in (18.a), unlike its Mandarin counterpart in (18.b).

*nei zungji keoi m zungji?you like she not likeDo you like her?你niyou喜歡xihuanlike她tashe不bunot喜歡？xihuan?like你 喜歡 她 不 喜歡？ni xihuan ta bu xihuan?you like she not likeDo you like her?Amoy exhibits A-not-A forms, and differs from Mandarin and Cantonese in its frequent use of modals or auxiliaries in forming these constructions.

While m-1 occurs as a free morpheme with its own semantic feature indicating volition, m-2 cannot function by itself as a verb and works only to express negation.

liyoubeqwanttsiaqeathuncigaretteaormnotli beq tsiaq hun a myou want eat cigarette or notDo you want to smoke?The use of a tiouq — m bian construction expresses a sense of obligation.

guaIt'angmayts'utoutk'igoaormnott'angmaygua t'ang ts'ut k'i a m t'angI may out go or not mayMay I go out?The use of an e — bue construction expresses a sense of possibility or probability.

liyoue saicouldkaforguaIkiamailp'ueletteraorbuenotli {e sai} ka gua kia p'ue a bueyou could for I mail letter or notCould you mail a letter for me?The use of an e hiau — bue hiau construction expresses a sense of one's knowledge.

{} Minsoo-TOP School-LOC go-PAST-COMP cannot go-PAST-COMPCould Minsoo go to school or not?Korean has three negative predicates that can form A-not-A question, molu-, eps-, and ani-.

이게ikethis네neyou책-이-니chayk-i-nibook-be-COMP아니-니ani-ni?not.be-COMP이게 네 책-이-니 아니-니ike ne chayk-i-ni ani-ni?this you book-be-COMP not.be-COMPIS this your book or not?Meaning 'desist from', mal follows an affirmative polar question, and will occur instead of a reduplicated full verb that has a post predicate negation, meaning that there is only one full verb in this type of A-not-A question.

First, the A-not-A operator targets the morphosyntactic word (MWd) which is the head that is closest to it and undergoes lowering.

The reduplicant tao is put at the left of the base taoyan and then the negative constituent bu is inserted in between.

张三ZhangsanZhangsan讨不讨厌tao-bu-taoyanhate-not-hate李四LisiLisi张三 讨不讨厌 李四Zhangsan tao-bu-taoyan LisiZhangsan hate-not-hate LisiDoes Zhangsan hate Lisi or not?

Otherwise, the reduplicant can move covertly, i.e. in such a way that there is no overt surface evidence, to the right of the base maximal projection containing the MWd.

张三ZhangsanZhangsan讨厌不讨厌taoyan-bu-taoyanhate-not-hate李斯LisiLisi张三 讨厌不讨厌 李斯Zhangsan taoyan-bu-taoyan LisiZhangsan hate-not-hate LisiDoes Zhangsan hate Lisi or not?