Re: Question words and word order

From: John Swindle (jcswindle_at_msn.deletethispart.com)
Date: 03/07/05 

Date: Mon, 07 Mar 2005 20:54:33 GMT

"Aslan Kral" <aslanski2002@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:392l57F5p517jU1@individual.net...
>
> "John Swindle" <jcswindle@msn.deletethispart.com>, haber iletisinde
> şunları
> yazdı:8CrWd.76009$uc.48330@trnddc04...
>
> <snip>
>
>> >
>> > How 'bout turning a sentence into a question sentence without using
>> > question
>> > words?
>> >
>> > I am OK.
>> > Which way does Esperanto take?
>> > 1- You are OK?
>> > 2- Are you OK?
>> > 3- Both
>> >
>>
>> The word order is flexible, but a question word is needed. In this
>> case it's the little word "chu" at the begining of a sentence that turns
>> a statement into a question. (That may be like the Russian "-li"
>> question, but I think the Russian requires a modified word order.)
>> In Esperanto,
>>
>> Mi fartas bone. (I am okay.)
>> Chu vi fartas bone? (Are you okay?)
>>
>> Mi bone fartas. (I am okay.)
>> Chu vi bone fartas? (Are you okay?)
>>
>> Fartas mi bone. (I am okay.)
>> Chu fartas vi bone? (Are you okay?)
>>
>> Bone mi fartas. (I am okay.)
>> Chu bone vi fartas? (Are you okay?)
>>
>> . . . and two more permutations that happen to sound odd to me
>> but are probably fine for someone else.
>>
>>
>
> Is "chu" always used at the beginning?
>
> In Turkish, we also use a word "mi/mI/mu/mü" (actually a suffix)
> similarly.
> But it comes right after the queried element.
>
> Let x, y, z be elements in a sentence:
>
> sentence = x y z
> question-1: "x-mi y z?" asks about x, a yes or no answer is expected.
> question-2: "x y-mi z?" asks about y.
> question-3: "x y z-mi?" asks about z or the whole sentence "(x y z)-mi?"
>
> IIRC, Chinese does it the same way using the same word ("mu" I guess).
> Somebody can correct me if I am wrong.
>

Right, to turn an Esperanto statement into a yes-or-no question you
put "chu" at the beginning of the sentence. "Chu" can also go at the
beginning of an indirect question imbedded in a sentence; or it can go
at the end of a sentence, usually in the form "chu ne?" meaning
something like "isn't it?" It doesn't really work like the Turkish that
you've described, but I agree that there's a similar principle involved.

Is the Chinese construction that you've described as similar to the
Turkish something from Classical Chinese? As you say, maybe
somebody else can give information.

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