Interrogative Adverbs, Interrogative Pronouns and Interrogative Modal Particles in Vietnamese

Abstract

Among the various linguistic devices used to construct interrogative sentences in Vietnamese, question words play a particularly crucial role. These words are not uniform in terms of word class and communicative function. Specifically, three categories-pronouns, particles, and adverbs are frequently employed to form interrogativity. To date, however, there has been no comprehensive comparative analysis of these categories. Drawing on the framework of Functional Grammar, the article examines the grammatical, semantic, and pragmatic properties of interrogative adverbs, interrogative pronouns, and interrogative modal particles. The findings highlight both convergences and divergences across the three categories.