The Source of Implicit Negation in Mandarin Chinese Yes-No Questions

摘要

How is it possible that negation can be expressed without the explicit use of negation markers? This paper answers this question by looking at the cases of implicit negation in different types of yes-no questions in Mandarin Chinese. After arguing that Mandarin Chinese has at least three distinct classes of yes-no questions, and that the three distinct classes form a continuum of semantic features, we consider the sentence-final particle ma, based on its etymology, as a source of the negative meaning in affirmative yes-no questions, or inversion polarity in negative yes-no questions. Finally, we propose that negative yes-no questions can be analysed like English tag questions.