Where - Whither - Whence: Spatial interrogatives and their adverbial demonstrative equivalents in Europe and far beyond

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Thomas Stolz
• Subject Area: General and Comparative Linguistics, Experimental Linguistics, Typology, Non-European Languages
• Term: from 2016 to 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 319446122

This research project is the first comprehensive cross-linguistic investigation on spatial interrogatives and their adverbial demonstrative equivalents, which thus contributes substantially to the grammar of space and linguistics of space in general. The focus of the study is on the system of spatial relations under interrogation (in contrast to their system in the domain of adverbial demonstratives) in a global sample of 464 languages. Attention is paid particularly to the paradigmatic aspects of spatial interrogatives (where? whither? whence?) and spatial adverbial demonstratives (there, thither, thence). By way of comparing systematically both the degree of complexity and the occurrence of mismatches (as defined by the Surrey Morphology Group) in the above tripartite paradigms it is intended to establish the interrelations of the spatial categories PLACE, GOAL, SOURCE. The insights gained on the basis of spatial interrogatives will be compared to those of previous research dedicated to the spatial relations in declarative clauses in general and (studied crosslinguistically for the first time) in the domain of adverbial demonstratives in particular. A major task consists of answering the question whether it is possible to describe spatial interrogatives in terms of a system based on general principles. Therefore the project is also a contribution to the investigation of interrogativity - an area in which spatial categories hitherto have largely been neglected. As a working hypothesis it is assumed that there is systematicity, not only in the case of spatial interrogatives but also as to that of adverbial demonstratives. The project investigates, on the one hand, whether and in how far this assumed systematicity depends on sentence modality, on the other hand, the project attempts to determine to what extent spatial-interrogative-systems and those of adverbial demonstratives are subject to genetic, areal or typological factors. Qualitative as well as quantitative methods will be employed. A literary parallel corpus will be analysed. For the purpose of further analyses the relative descriptive-linguistic sources will be relied upon. Additional data are collected on the basis of a questionnaire. As to methodology and theory the project is situated within the framework of functional typology - more specifically within that of canonical typology.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants