Questions and responses in +Akhoe Hai||om
This paper examines ╪Ākhoe Hai||om, a Khoe language of the Khoisan family spoken in Northern Namibia. I document the way questions are posed in natural conversation, the actions the questions are used for and the manner in which they are responded to. I show that in this language speakers rely most heavily on content questions. I also find that speakers of ╪Ākhoe Hai||om address fewer questions to a specific individual than would be expected from prior research on Indo European languages. Finally, I discuss some possible explanations for these findings. Keywords: Khoisan, ╪Ākhoe Hai||om, Interrogative, Hunter-gatherer, Natural conversation.
Journal of Pragmatics