Rhetorical questions in Papuan Malay · (Abrams and Harpham 2009: 315) ... Impossible to get inside the speakers’ head Impossible to know with certainty their intent Analysts’

Rhetorical questions in Papuan Malay

Angela Kluge

SIL International

APLL 10

Guildford

4-5 May 2018

Rhetorical questions in Papuan Malay

2

Pseudo question

(1) a, sembu apa?

ah be.healed what

[Nephew: ‘(I already) recovered’] Aunt: ‘ah, (from) what

(have you) recovered?’

Stimulus question

(2) jadi akirnya apa yang terjadi?, de biking malam

so finally what REL happen 3SG make night

[About an ancestor:] ‘so finally what happened?, he created

the night!’

Outline

Introduction

Syntactic and phonological features

Pragmatic uses

Pseudo questions

Stimulus questions

Quantitative analysis

Summary

3

Introduction

Papuan Malay [pmy]

LWC in coastal West Papua

1,100,000 or 1,200,000 speakers (Kluge 2017: 37)

Recorded corpus

16-hour of spontaneous

conversations and narratives

231 identified rhetorical

questions

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Introduction

Introduction

Rhetorical questions (Abrams and Harpham 2009: 315)

Question format

No request for information

Basic types of rhetorical questions (Hackstein 2004)

Pseudo questions

Stimulus questions

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Introduction

Pseudo questions with social functions (Bussmann 1996: 1009; Frank

1990: 737; Hackstein 2004)

Provide indirect way to imply more than is said

Declare an expectation or point of view

Strengthen or soften a statement

Answer is obvious and implicit

Example

“Are you crazy?”

Emotive meanings (Schmidt-Radefeldt 1977: 389; Beekman and Callow 1974; Larson 1998)

Express the speakers’ propositional attitude

Dismay, emphasis, indignation, perplexity, protest,

reproach, wonder, etc.

6

Introduction

Stimulus questions with discourse-marking functions(Hackstein 2004)

Raise an issue for discussion

Signal clarification, conclusion, or explanation

Announce new topic or new aspect of same topic

Answer is provided by the speaker

Example (Larson 1998: 260)

“Why is there so much unemployment these days?”

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Introduction

Interpretation of rhetorical questions (Frank 1990)

Difficult to define

Impossible to get inside the speakers’ head

Impossible to know with certainty their intent

Analysts’ subjective judgments

Speakers’ true intent

Speakers’ underlying emotions

As non-participant observers, analysts make best guesses

regarding intent and effect

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Introduction

Present study

16-hour corpus of spontaneous conversations and narratives

Analysis based on analyst’ subjective judgments

Experience as participant observer in Papuan household

231 rhetorical questions identified and analyzed

Outsider’s perspective

Not perspective of Papuan speakers of Papuan Malay

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Syntactic and phonological features

Rhetorical questions versus content questions

No formal, linguistic signals

Same syntax

Same intonation patterns

10

Pragmatic uses

Pseudo questions with social functions

Stimulus questions with discourse-marking functions

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Pragmatic uses as pseudo questions

Social functions

Negative and positive assertions

Negative evaluations

Statements of incertitude

12


Realization

Polar questions

“Didn’t you listen to …? (≈ “You didn’t listen to …!”)

Content questions

Polarity

“Who told you to …”? (≈ “Nobody told you to …!”)

Neutral polarity

“Why did you come”? (≈ “You shouldn’t have come!”)

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Assertions

Functions

Express speaker’s certitude

Challenge interlocutors

Rebuke interlocutors

Tease interlocutors good-naturedly

Make thoughtful statements

Realization

Polar questions

Content questions

14


Assertions

Functions

Express speaker’s certitude

Challenge interlocutors

Rebuke interlocutors

Tease interlocutors good-naturedly

Make thoughtful statements

Realization

Polar questions

Content questions

15


Assertions

(3) Challenge

a, sembu apa?

ah be.healed what

[Nephew: ‘(I already) recovered’] Aunt: ‘ah, (from) what

(have you) recovered?’

16


Assertions

(4) Good-natured banter

ko su bosang bicara deng bapa ka?

2SG already be.bored speak with father or

[Phone conversation between a father and his daughter:] ‘do

you already feel bored talking with me (‘father’)?’

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Evaluations

Functions

Express opinions as to whether an action, utterance, or

attitude is good or bad, right or wrong

Express disapproval

Realization

Content questions

18


Negative evaluations

Content questions

(5) Disapproval

kamu ana skola itu makang pinang untuk apa?

2PL child school D.DIST eat betel.nut for what

‘what for are you school kids (EMPH) chewing betel nuts?’

19



Functions

Express incertitude in various forms

Doubt and uncertainty

Perplexity

Deliberation

Realization

Content questions

Polar questions

20



Functions

Express incertitude in various forms

Doubt and uncertainty

Convey perplexity

Communicate deliberation

Realization

Content questions

Polar questions

21



Content question

(6) Expressions of doubt and uncertainty

a, bulang depang nanti bagemana?

ah month front very.soon how

adooo, bagemana ini?

oh.no! how D.PROX

[Insufficient financial support:] ‘ah, how (are things going to

be) next month?, oh no! how (EMPH)?’

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Pragmatic uses as stimulus questions

Discourse-marking functions

Cross-linguistically

Signal clarification, conclusion, or explanation

Announce new topic or new aspect of same topic

Papuan Malay

Announce new aspect of same topic

23

Pragmatic uses as stimulus questions

Announce new aspect of same topic

(7) siapa yang bawa dorang dari sana?, saya dengang Domi

who REL bring 3PL from L.DIST 1SG with Domi

[Preparations for a youth retreat:] ‘who’s going to (pick them

up and) bring them from over there?, I and Domi!’

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Quantitative analysis

Identified rhetorical questions 231 tokens

Pseudo questions 197 tokens (85%)

Stimulus questions 34 tokens (15%)

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Quantitative analysis of pseudo questions

Pseudo questions types across functions

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Functions

Question types Assert Eval

(neg)

Incert Total

Polar 43 6 49

Content (polarity) 71 71

Content (proper) 41 36 77

Total 114 41 42 197


Pseudo questions types across functions

27

Functions

Question types Assert Eval

(neg)

Incert Total

Polar 43 6 49

Content (polarity) 71 71

Content (proper) 41 36 77

Total 114 41 42 197


Pseudo questions across functions and underlying emotions

28

Underlying emotions

Functions Neg Pos Neut Total

Assertion 96 6 12 114

Evaluation (neg) 41 41

Incertitude 28 4 10 42

Total 165 10 22 197

Quantitative analysis of stimulus questions

Overview

Frequency

34/231 (15%)

Function

Introduce new aspect of same topic

Question type

Content question

29

Summary

Formal characteristics

No formal, linguistic signals

Context determines interpretation as rhetorical question

Functions

1. Pseudo questions with social functions

2. Stimulus questions with discourse-marking functions

30

Summary

Pseudo questions

Functions

1. Assertions

2. Expressions of incertitude

3. Negative evaluations

Underlying emotions

1. Negative

2. Neutral

3. Positive

31

32

References

Abrams, Meyer H. & Harpham, Geoffrey G. 2009. A glossary of literary terms, 9th edn. Boston:

Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

Bussmann, Hadumod. 1996. Routledge dictionary of language and linguistics. London: Routledge.

Beekman, John & Callow, John. 1974. Translating the word of God, with scripture and topical indexes. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House.

Frank, Jane. 1990. You call that a rhetorical question?: Forms and functions of rhetorical

questions in conversation. Journal of Pragmatics 14(5): 723–738.

Hackstein, Olaf. 2004. Rhetorical questions and the grammaticalization of interrogative pronouns

as conjunctions in Indo-European. In Rasmussen, Jens Elmegård & Hyllested, Adam (eds.), Per aspera ad asteriscos: Studia Indogermanica in honorem Jens Elmegard Rasmussen sexagenarii Idibus Martiis anno MMIV (Innsbrucker Beiträge zur Sprachwissenschaft 112). Innsbruck: Institut

fur Sprachen und Literaturen der Universitat Innsbruck, 167–186.

Kluge, Angela. 2017. A grammar of Papuan Malay (Studies in Diversity Linguistics 11). Berlin:

Language Science Press. Online URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.17169/langsci.b78.35; http://langsci-

press.org/catalog/book/78.

Larson, Mildred L. 1998. Meaning-based translation: A guide to cross-language equivalence, 2nd

edn. Lanham: University Press of America.

Schmidt-Radefeldt, Jürgen. 1977. On so-called ‘rhetorical’ questions. Journal of Pragmatics 1:

375–392.

http://dx.doi.org/10.17169/langsci.b78.35

http://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/78

Documents

Rhetorical questions in Papuan Malay · (Abrams and Harpham 2009: 315) ... Impossible to get inside the speakers’ head Impossible to know with certainty their intent Analysts’