Commentary

I would like to address why I named this type of question “candidate answer queries” instead of calling them polar questions or yes-no questions. The term “polar questions” originated in linguistics, and the questions were so named because they were thought to invite two possible responses: yes (affirmative) or no (negative), hence the poles. Similarly, the name “yes-no questions” directs our attention to the conditionally relevant next responses of confirming or disconfirming....