Interrogative pronouns as verb bases in Evenki

The paper considers the problems related to the partofspeech homonymy based on the data of interrogative pronouns and verbs. Questions consisting of the interrogative verb ә̅‘to do what’ are identified; their use is described. Such a question is classified as rhetorical or nonintruisive question (when the answer is irrelevant in the current situation). Also, traditional and formal approaches to the problem of partofspeech homonymy are viewed; the incorporation mechanism is considered in detail. The results indicate that incorporation along with conversion and wordformation are conceptually less adequate than A. Marantz’s theory of roots1 that are categorically undifferentiated. This is because incorporation assumes that the noun base is primary, whereas the verb base is secondary. At the same time, certain facts of wordformation and use of the verb ә̅can be accounted for by incorporation. Other shortcomings of the incorporation theory applied to the current data are discussed.