Offering a Candidate Answer: An Information Seeking Strategy
Candidate answer queries (also referred to as polar or yes-no questions) are used massively in conversational interaction. Although such queries seem simple and straightforward, analysis reveals several kinds of complexities associated with these types of questions. Candidate answer queries carry claims about the speaker’s knowledge. They are understood as the speaker’s best guess and hence display the speaker’s knowledge about the matter at hand. They also have a moral dimension. Candidate answers may reference a normal, legitimate possibility versus an abnormal, illegitimate one. The moral status of the incorporated candidate answer may be read as reflecting the speaker’s attitude and sympathies about the matter at hand. Finally, by incorporating a candidate answer in a query, a questioner provides a model of what would satisfy the questioner’s purpose in asking.