Non-intrusive questions with matrix ‘dali’ in Bulgarian

Abstract

This paper provides novel insights into the meaning of the particles li and dali used in matrix polar questions in Bulgarian. The primary data source is a corpus of an online chat by five family members created for the purposes of this paper. The main finding is that the two particles give rise to two different types of questions: matrix li questions are canonical, information seeking questions. Matrix dali questions, on the other hand, are non-canonical questions which we identify as non-intrusive questions in the sense of Farkas (2022) and analyze in the Table framework of Farkas & Bruce (2010).