Universal #494
Legacy number: 494
| Number | 492 |
| Original | When a yes-no question is differentiated from the corresponding assertion by an intonational pattern, the distinctive intonational features of each of these patterns are reckoned from the end of the sentence rather than from the beginning. |
| Standardized | When a yes-no question is differentiated from the corresponding assertion by an intonational pattern, the distinctive intonational features of each of these patterns are reckoned from the end of the sentence rather than from the beginning. |
| Keywords | sentence type, interrogative, yes-no question, intonation |
| Domain | syntax, prosodic phonology |
| Type | no genuine implication; rather: provided that |
| Status | achronic |
| Quality | absolute |
| Basis | 30 languages of Greenberg 1963 sample |
| Source | Greenberg 1963: 81, #8 |
Discussion
Counterexamples
Western Desert (Pama-Nyungan), which was not in Greenberg’s sample and Finnish (Finnic, Uralic), which was (Joseph 1992: 31).
Log in to join the discussion.