2025/02/04 by Walkden, George, Li, Tian, Weisshaar, Laura
#diachronic typology #grammaticalization #interrogatives #polar question particles
paper · doi:10.18148/hs/2025.v9i2-10.185
This paper deals with the diachrony of polar question particles (PQPs). We propose five source representations that can give rise to such particles: i) disjunction, ii) subordinators, iii) wh-words, iv) epistemic modality, and v) focus particles. Data is drawn from a typological survey, supported by in-depth case studies from the literature. The historical developments proposed are compatible with established formal approaches to grammaticalization.