18
18.1 18.1.1
Direct and Indirect Questions; Finite Complement Clauses
Constituent Questions Direct Questions
Yes-or-no questions have been su‰ciently discussed in section 8.1.5; only constituent questions remain to be examined. As pointed out in section 8.6.1, the interrogative they contain must occur in focus position, that is, directly in front of the verb, at least in finite clauses. Interrogatives can be interrogative pronouns or interrogative adverbials. When pronouns, they admit the basic case endings of section 2.2.1. There are four of them: nor ‘who’, zer ‘what’, zein ‘which’, and zenbat ‘how much’ or ‘how many’. The latter is properly speaking an interrogative quantifier, which takes case endings in its substantival use only: Zenbatek egin dute? ‘How many (people) have done it?’ For the declension of these pronouns, see section 2.3.2, item 6. Except for nor, they can all occur adjectivally, in which case zer may be reduced to ze: (1) a. Ze(r) ordu da? (E.H. 624) What time is it? b. Ze gai erabiltzen da eta zein hizkuntzatan? (MEIG I, 100) What subject is treated and in which language? Interrogative adverbials are precisely those interrogatives that admit the adnominal su‰x -ko. There are three groups: 1. Locational: non ‘where’, together with its other locative case forms: nondik ‘from where’, nora ‘to where’, norantz ‘in what direction’, noraino ‘up to where’, ‘how far’. 2. Temporal: noiz ‘when’, and its elative noiztik (or its bookish variant noizdanik) ‘since when’. Instead of the allative noizera, only found in the noninterrogative noizetik noizera ‘from time to time’, the adnominal noizko ‘for when’ appears. A terminative noizdaino ‘until when’ exists, but noiz arte or noiz artean is preferred. 3. Referring to manner: nola (or its synonyms nolaz, nolatan) ‘how’ and its adnominal nolako ‘what kind of ’: nolako apaiza ‘what kind of a priest’ (note the presence of the article -a).