Dagnachew Degu Sulamo

Interrogative Constructions in Hadiyya: Special Focus on Yes-no Questions, Wh-questions and Echo Questions Dagnachew Degu Sulamo

This book is an instrument to see the interrogative constructions of Hadiyya, a Central East Cushitic spoken in Ethiopia. The language uses yes-no questions, alternative choice questions, tag questions, content questions and echo questions. Yes-no questions are derived from declarative sentences by suffixing the question morpheme -nniyye or by applying a rising intonation. Alternative choice questions are formed by suffixing the reduced question morpheme -nnii on the first alternative; the lengthened final vowel also serves as disjunction. Tag questions can be formed using the tag marker -lla or by posing yes-no questions on declarative or imperative sentences. Content questions are constructed using one of the wh-words and are mostly cleft. The basic wh-words can also be the base for the derivation of other wh-words. Another question types are echo questions. Pure or wh-echo questions can be formed based on declarative, interrogative and imperative sentences. Echo questions have similar syntactic structure to the corresponding echoed sentences. Hence echo questions are distinguished by the accompanying lengthened rising intonation.