Re: More Wind from the North

[cbmvax!uunet!grebyn.com!lojbab (Logical Language Group)]

With Russian, indirect questions seem to be indicated by using a postfix
cmavo (li) on the word that is 'questioned' (which is also usually brought to
the front of the clause).  My understanding thus far (but I'm not that far
along, so we'll make sure Ivan can correct me) is that "li" is a remnant of
an old interrogative which appears to work just like "xu".  When a statement
has question inflection, though, it no longer needs "li" to be a 'xu'-like
interrogative (and indeed, my textbook says that to do so is now non-standard),
and in statement inflection, a subordinate clause without a question word
is marked as an indirect question.  (If there is a question word, then there
is no need for the marker, and Russian is more like English and the other
languages you mentioned.

OK Ivan - tell me what I've got wrong %^)

lojbab