Requesting information using gender and number

This study adopts an interactional approach to grammatical gender and number by examining information requests produced by speakers of Gija, an endangered Australian Aboriginal language. Morphological agreement is a crucial ‘referential mechanism’ (Heath, 1984, p. 604) in Gija, and it stems from the largely canonical gender system of this language (de Dear, 2024). Selecting an inflected question-word when requesting information narrows the indexical field, and it generates distinct morphological consequences for response(s) and the sequences of action within which they are produced. Using conversation analysis and interactional linguistics, this study provides a novel perspective on the use of the features gender and number in sequences containing information requests. It also contributes to the documentation of Gija and our understandings of its morphology from an interactional perspective. Data are drawn from bilingual Gija-Kriol conversations.