Marshallese, an Oceanic language spoken on the atolls of the Marshall Islands, has a question particle, ke, which may appear in one of a number of positions in yes/no interrogatives. Interestingly, the availability of certain positions depends upon whether the sentential context is affirmative or negative. We evaluate Willson (2005)’s remnant movement analysis of the distribution of ke, and formulate a novel approach to the problem whereyes/no interrogatives in Marshallese are built on a core cleft construction, and ke is generated in the middlefield of the matrix clause.
Gagnon, M. and A. Wellwood (2008). Interrogative structures in Marshallese. Proceedings of the Canadian Linguistics Association annual meeting.