Ki – the Interrogative Disjunction Morpheme in Bangla

Abstract

The main aim of the paper is to study the behavior of the particle ‘ki’ in both polar and alternative questions in the Indo-Aryan language Bangla. In the paper, it is observed that ‘ki’ is a polar question particle, and also surfaces as a disjunction marker in alternative questions. This observation generates the claim that in Bangla there is an identity relation between the polar question particle and interrogative disjunction morpheme. This further leads to the proposal that there is a disjunction operator in both polar and alternative questions in Bangla, and ‘ki’ is the lexical realization of that operator.