In linguistics, an A-not-A question or A-neg-A question, is a type of polar question used primarily in Sinitic languages that asks about something by presenting both its positive and negative possibilities. Instead of allowing a simple "yes" or "no" answer, these questions require the respondent to repeat either the positive or negative part of the original question. For example, in Mandarin Chinese, instead of asking "Do you want to go?" and expecting a "yes" or "no", the question might be structured as "Want-not-want to go? ()"
A-not-A questions are characterized by their inherent linguistic neutrality, with the interrogator deliberately avoiding any presumption about the truth of the statement being questioned.Law, Ann (2001) A-not-A questions in Cantonese. UCLWPL 13, 295-318. This neutrality is achieved through a value-neutral presentation that simultaneously offers both positive and negative forms of a proposition. A-not-A questions have been most thoroughly investigated in Mandarin and have been compared to similar interrogative structures in other Chinese languages, such as the kam questions in Taiwanese Hokkien and ka questions in Singapore Teochew (ST). However, these specific variations are not simply identical copies but possess distinct linguistic properties that can sometimes differ significantly from the Mandarin form.
Forms The wider category of A-not-A questions contains multiple distinct forms. These forms are differentiated on the basis of the location of the Negation constituent and the presence or absence of duplicate material.
A-not-A form This is the most atomic form of the A-not-A question, which contains two identical instances of the constituent A separated by negation.
AB-not-AB form This is a more complex form, containing two instances of the complex constituent AB separated by the negation. AB may represent an embedded clause, a subject joined with a prepositional phrase, or a verb phrase containing a DP.
A-not-AB form This form contains two unique constituents, A and AB, separated by the negation. A and AB are similar in that AB contains the entire content of A, but constituents are present in AB that are not present in A.
AB-not-A form This form is similar to the A-not-AB form, but the more complex constituent AB occurs before the negation.
a-not-A form This form is only found in instances where A is disyllabic constituent with initial syllable a, and the two constituents are separated by negation.
a-not-AB form This form is similar to the a-not-A form with a representing the initial syllable of A and the two separated by negation, but A is joined to another constituent to form the complex constituent AB.
Similar forms in English
For the English question (1.a) "Are you happy or sad?", the response to this question must be an echo answer, stating either "I am happy," or the acceptable alternative, "I am sad". In other words, this sentence is a leading question, where the speaker has an expectation as to what the answer will be. In contrast, (1.b) "Are you happy or not?" is a neutral question where the answer to this can be yes or no in response to the first and more explicitly stated alternative.Matthew S. Dryer. 2013. Position of Polar Question Particles. In: Dryer, Matthew S. & Haspelmath, Martin (eds.) The World Atlas of Language Structures Online. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
(1.a) Q: Are you happy or sad? A: I am happy. I am sad.
(1.b) Q: Are you happy or not (happy)? A: Yes. No. A-not-A questions are not usually used in English, but the following example shows how A-not-A questions are answered.
(2) Q: Did John eat beans or not? A: (Yes,) John ate beans. (No,) John didn't eat beans. *Yes. *No.
As seen in this example, simply answering "Yes" or "No" does not suffice as a response to the question. This question must be answered in the "A" or "not A" form. If this question was asked in the A-not-A pattern, its direct form would be "Did John eat or not eat the beans?". However, the above examples also illustrate that A-not-A type questions in English usually contain some comparative operator such as "or" which is not seen in the Sinitic forms. There is also no significant evidence of either of the disyllabic A-not-A forms in English. These factors complicate the inclusion of English in the set of languages that contain the A-not-A question type, and though there are close English approximations in some cases, the A-not-A question is more accurately exemplified in Sinitic languages.
Approximations Below are examples of English approximations of the A-not-A question. They are similar to the Sinitic A-not-A in that they present two possibilities and require an echoed response. However, they include an extra segment ("or" in the below examples) in order to read grammatically, which changes these approximations to an alternative question (AltQ) type. This extra segment is not seen in Sinitic A-not-A questions, and in fact the Mandarin segment haishi 'or' is used to contrast the syntax of the A-not-A form and demonstrate the latter's sensitivity to islands. Nevertheless, for the convenience of understanding this phenomenon from the perspective of an English speaker, the below examples are included to provide context.
A-not-A form (1) Was John at the party or not at the party?
AB-not-A form (2) Was John at the party last night or not at the party?
A-not-AB form (4) Was John at the party or not at the party last night?
AB-not-AB form (3) Was John at the party last night or not at the party last night?
In Sinitic
NQ Morpheme It is proposed that the A-not-A sequence is morpheme created by the reduplication of the interrogative morpheme (represented by the A in A-not-A). Though the specific syntactic location of this morpheme is not agreed upon, it is generally accepted that the A-not-A sequence is essentially a word formed by the concatenation of an abstract question morpheme and this duplicated predicate, which likens it to a VP-proclitic. This Morpheme is referred to as NQ in order to represent its character as negative and interrogative.
Similarity to kam-type questions An extensive cross-dialectic survey conducted in 1985 concluded that the Taiwanese question particle kam appears in the same contexts as the hypothesized Mandarin NQ. From this, it was concluded that kam-type questions and A-not-A questions are in complementary distribution: a language either has kam-type questions or A-not-A questions but not both. It was also interpreted that kam and NQ are "different morphological exponents of the same underlying morpheme".
Movement, sensitivity, and parallels to weishenme 'why' Unlike the yes/no question type formed using the segment / (ma), the A-not-A question can be embedded, and may scope beyond its own clause. This scoping may be blocked if the original location of NQ and its intended final location are separated by an island boundary. These distributional characteristics of NQ are parallel to non-nominal adjunct question particle 'why'. Due to the uncontroversial nature of the movement-based analysis of , the similarity of the NQ to implies that NQ may be subject to the same analysis of its movement.
Sensitivity to islands
The dominant view on A-not-A questions is that NQ is similar to a wh-word and related by the movement of NQ. This movement is not seen in alternative-type questions using haishi 'or', and therefore delineates A-not-A questions from alternative questions in terms of structure. Due to this syntactic differentiation, A-not-A questions may be contrasted with haishi questions for the purpose of revealing island sensitivity.
Sinitic examples The following are examples of A-not-A questions in languages belonging to the Sinitic linguistic family.
In Mandarin
In forming A-not-A questions, A must remain the same on both sides. A is essentially a variable which can be replaced with a grammatical particle such as a modal, adverb, adjective, verb, or preposition.
Patterns In Mandarin, there are 6 attested patterns of A-not-A: A-not-A, AB-not-AB, A-not-AB, AB-not-A, a-not-A, and a-not-AB of which "A" stands for the full form of the predicate, "B" stands for the complement, and "a" stands for the first syllable of a disyllabic predicate.
A-not-A form Example (3) illustrates that A-not-A pattern, where A is the verb 'go', and is 'go not go'.
AB-not-AB form Example (4) illustrates the AB-not-AB pattern, where AB is the constituent consisting of the verb , 'know', as A, and the complement , 'this CL man', as B, combining to form the AB constituent 'know this CL man'. This produces , 'know this CL man not know this CL man.'
A-not-AB form Example (5) illustrates the A-not-AB pattern, where A is the verb , 'know', AB is the constituent consisting of the A verb , 'know', and the complement , 'this CL man', as B, combining to form the AB constituent 'know this CL man'. This produces , 'know not know this CL man'.
AB-not-A form Example (6) illustrates the AB-not-A pattern, where AB is the constituent , 'know this CL man' consisting of , 'know' as A and , 'this CL man as B; A is likewise , 'know', in the second part of the construction. This produces , 'know this CL man not know'.
a-not-A form Example (7) illustrates the a-not-A pattern, where a is the first syllable, , of the disyllabic predicate , 'convenient', and A is the full predicate , and is 'con(venient)-not convenient'.
a-not-AB form Example (8) illustrates the a-not-AB pattern, where a is the first syllable, , of the disyllabic predicate , 'suitable', and AB is the constituent consisting of , 'suitable' as A and , 'teaching fist' as B, combining to form the AB constituent , 'suitable teaching fist'. This produces , 'suit(able)-not suitable teaching fist'.
Grammatical particles used to form A-not-A questions A-not-A can be formed by a verb, an adjective, or an adverb, as well as modals.
Verb In the interrogative clause, A-not-A occurs by repeating the first part in the verbal group (with the option of an auxiliary) and the negative form of the particle is placed in between. However, this clause does not apply when using perfective in aspect. Instead, is used to replace the repeated verb used in A-not-A form.
V-NEG-V type: Here, the verb , 'go', is A, and there is no object.
V-NEG-V-Object type:
Here the verb , 'watch', is again A, and while there is an object, the object is not included in "A", and is therefore not reduplicated.
V-Object-NEG type: Here, the verb , 'watch', is likewise A, and while the object is included before NEG, it is not included in A, and is therefore not reduplicated, although it remains an option.
V-Object-NEG-V type(debatable): Here, the verb , 'watch', is also used for A, and while the object is included before NEG, it is not included in A, and is therefore not reduplicated. A is reduplicated here.
Answers to (9.a), (9.b), (9.c), and (9.d) must be in the form "V" or "not-V"
There is some debate among speakers as to whether or not 3.d. is grammatical, and Gasde argues that it is.
Adjective or adverb
A-NEG-A type: Here, the adjective , 'good', is A, and it is reduplicated. The word is a classifier, which means it is a counter word for the noun 'book'.
A-NEG type: Here, the adjective , 'good', is A, but it is not reduplicated.
Answers to (10.a), (10.b) must be in the form A or not-A.
Preposition
P-NEG-P type: Here, the preposition , 'at', is A, and it is reduplicated.
P-NEG-P type: Here, the preposition , 'at', is A, and it is not reduplicated.
Answers to (11.a) and (11.b) must be in the form P or not-P.
Modal
M-NEG-M-V-Object type: Here, the modal is A and it is reduplicated.
The answer to (12.a) must be in the form M or not-M.
A-not-A questions in Cantonese