Wh-Phrases as Indefinites: A Vietnamese Perspective ∗
Thuan Tran, Benjamin Bruening · 2010
We refer to wh-words used as indefinites as wh-indefinites. The contexts where a wh-word can be interpreted as an indefinite in Vietnamese include yes-no questions, negative sentences, the protasis of a conditional, and some others. A complete list is given in section 2. A wh-word can also be used as an indefinite when it appears with the element đo, which in other contexts is a demonstrative (3). When this element follows a wh-word, it can be used as an indefinite in any context. For instance, unlike a bare wh-indefinite, a wh-word with đo can be used in a simple positive declarative, as in (4):