Šimík (2024): Polar Question Semantics and Bias in Slavic #
@cite{simik-2024} @cite{bhatt-dayal-2020} @cite{dayal-2025}
Šimík's cross-Slavic survey of polar-question particles classifies each
particle by its left-peripheral layer in the @cite{bhatt-dayal-2020} /
@cite{dayal-2025} cartography [SAP [PerspP [CP ...]]].
The fragments in Fragments/{Russian,Bulgarian,Ukrainian,Polish, Slovenian,Serbian,Macedonian}/QuestionParticles.lean carry only theory-
neutral lexical primitives (form, gloss, bias profile). This study file
overlays @cite{simik-2024}'s layer assignments and proves the Slavic
generalization that the neutral PQ-particle of each surveyed language
sits at CP, while the biased mirative particles (the cross-Slavic
RAZVE family) sit at PerspP.
Particle layer assignments #
| Language | Particle | Layer |
|---|---|---|
| Russian | li | CP |
| Russian | razve | PerspP |
| Bulgarian | li | CP |
| Bulgarian | nima | PerspP |
| Ukrainian | čy | CP |
| Ukrainian | xiba | PerspP |
| Polish | czy | CP |
| Polish | czyżby | PerspP |
| Slovenian | ali | CP |
| Serbian | da li | CP |
| Serbian | zar | PerspP |
| Macedonian | dali | CP |
The Slavic data is the empirical anchor for the cross-linguistic claim that the cartography in @cite{dayal-2025} extends beyond Hindi-Urdu and Japanese to a much wider typological range.
Layer assignment for each Slavic Q-particle. #
Each def records Šimík's classification of a Fragment particle. The
_ argument is unused because the layer assignment is a theoretical
overlay on the particle, not a computed property of its lexical fields.
Cross-Slavic generalizations #
The neutral polar-question particle of every surveyed Slavic language
sits at CP. The fragment-level evidence that this is the neutral
particle is the conjunction of requiresEvidentialBias = false and
requiresEpistemicBias = false.
The cross-Slavic RAZVE family — the mirative/dubitative particles that signal conflict between speaker's prior epistemic state and incoming contextual evidence — uniformly sits at PerspP.
Bridge between the layer assignment and the bias profile recorded in the fragments: every PerspP-layer Slavic particle in this study requires evidential bias, while every CP-layer particle does not.