Interrogatives in Dagara

Abstract

Interrogative structures exist in all languages of the world and the use of interrogatives is a central activity in human communication. This dessertaiion seeks to explore the phenomenon of interrogatives as it obtains in Dagara, a dialect of Dagaare spoken in the Upper West Region of Ghana within the framework of the Basic Linguistic Theory as contained in Dixon (2012). The focus of this thesis is to identify and describe the typology of the interrogative clauses in Dagara and the strategies used in forming the various question types as well as the kinds of responses that are given as answers. It also discusses the interaction between focus and questions as well as the functions of polar interrogatives. I show from the data that three types of interrogatives exist in Dagara, namely: polar interrogative, alternative interrogative and content interrogative. Two main strategies are used in forming polar questions; the use of question particles and lengthening of final syllable vowel with a falling pitch. Alternative questions are formed by placing the coordinating conjunction bɪɪ „or‟ between two declarative structures. It is shown in the work that Dagara uses the ex situ strategy in forming content interrogatives thus Dagara prefers sentence initial position for its question words. Data for this research are sourced from both primary and secondary sources and my knowledge of the language as a native speaker.