Beyond questions: Non-interrogative uses of ano ‘what’ in Tagalog

Abstract

This paper examines the patterns of occurrence of the Tagalog question word ano ‘what’ in natural conversation. Contextual analysis of approximately 6 h of transcribed conversational data demonstrates that ano is used not only for interrogative but also non-interrogative uses, including functions such as rhetorical questioning and expressing negative stance, and as a generic pronominal, placeholder, filler, backchannel particle, confirmation particle, and assertive mood marker, each deviating from the interrogative use in one way or another in terms of morphosyntax, interactional behavior, and utterance prosody. Quantitative analysis of its functional distribution reveals that the non-interrogative uses of ano appear more frequently than the interrogative use, with the placeholder use being most frequent. Findings from this study shed light on descriptive and theoretical issues related to polysemy (as manifested in the polysemy network of ano with the placeholder use being basic), constructionalization (as seen in the recruitment of formulaic ano expressions as pragmatic markers), and the asymmetry between left periphery and right periphery (as evidenced in the correlation between syntactic location and discourse function, e.g., disaffiliative ano at left periphery vs. confirmational ano at right periphery). Whether other languages exhibit similar, different, or varied behavior with respect to their interrogative constructions deserves further study from both discourse-pragmatic and typological perspectives.