scholarly journals An Epistemic Bridge for Presupposition Projection in Questions

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 ◽  
pp. 252
Author(s):  
Nadine Theiler
Keyword(s):  
Information Seeking ◽  
Presupposition Projection ◽  
Bridge Principle ◽  
Wh Questions ◽  
True Answer

It is often assumed that presuppositions in wh-questions project universally. However, Schwarz & Simonenko (2018) note examples of such questions where universal projection is absent. I discuss their account and propose an alternative: by reasoning about the pragmatics of question-answer discourse, I arrive at a version of Stalnaker's bridge principle that is sensitive to what the speaker already knows about the true answer to the question. This Epistemic Bridge predicts universal projection for canonical information-seeking questions, but less than universal projection for certain non-canonical question uses such as quiz questions.

scholarly journals Wer kann denn schon ja sagen?

2019 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 243-298
Author(s):  
Yvonne Viesel ◽  
Constantin Freitag
Keyword(s):  
Information Seeking ◽  
Exploratory Analysis ◽  
Follow Up Study ◽  
Discourse Particles ◽  
Wh Questions ◽  
Shared Information ◽  
Rhetorical Questions ◽  
Rhetorical Reading ◽  
Acceptability Judgment

Abstract The article explores German discourse particles (DiPs) in rhetorical wh-questions (wh-RQs). While schon (roughly ‘unexpectedly’) only marks rhetorical wh-questions, denn (roughly ‘I wonder’) marks contextually arising information-seeking or rhetorical Questions under Discussion (QuDs), with or without schon. Since ja (roughly ‘unquestionably’) marks shared information, it is incompatible with questions by itself, but occasionally occurs in wh-RQs left of DiPs like schon instead of denn. The results of two acceptability judgment experiments confirm that ja is strongly dispreferred in RQs, the presence of schon improves RQs with and without ja, and denn has no effect on acceptability. A follow-up study further indicated the rhetorical reading of our target questions to prevail independently from DiPs. We conclude that ja in RQs operates on the information contributed by elements like schon, denoting roughly that the issue in question arises ‘unquestionably against expectations’. Our contexts were neutral regarding the discourse functions of ja and denn (side remarks vs. QuDs), unlike the contexts of the findings, from which we deduce that the marked ja schon-RQs, while grammatical, require specific felicity conditions. A first attempt to confirm this experimentally was globally unsuccessful and could only reveal potential hints in an exploratory analysis.

scholarly journals Decomposing universal projection in questions

2018 ◽  
Vol 61 ◽  
pp. 361-374
Author(s):  
Bernhard Schwarz ◽  
Alexandra Simonenko
Keyword(s):  
Presupposition Projection ◽  
Wh Questions ◽  
Bridge Principles

Revising a proposal by Guerzoni (2003), we propose to derive universal projectionof presuppositions in wh-questions, where attested, from a family of three felicity conditions onquestion use. Assuming that these felicity conditions can be violated under certain conditions,this proposal predicts a typology of contexts where universal projection can exceptionally beunattested. We propose that this prediction is correct, presenting a family of scenarios wherethe expected absence of universal projection is observed.Keywords: wh-questions, universal presupposition projection, felicity conditions, bridge principles.

scholarly journals Covert movement in English probing wh-questions

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 180
Author(s):  
An Duy Nguyen ◽  
Géraldine Legendre
Keyword(s):  
Surface Structure ◽  
Information Seeking ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
Covert Movement ◽  
Wh Questions ◽  
Acceptability Judgment ◽  
Syntactic Difference ◽  
Probing Questions ◽  
Echo Questions

Besides fronted information-seeking questions, English also allows for two types of wh-in-situ ones: echo questions, which are used to request a repetition or a clarification of a previous utterance, and probing questions, which are often used in quiz shows, classroom settings, and child-directed speech to “prompt” the addressee for an answer. An acceptability judgment task shows that PQs with multiple wh-phrases get a significantly lower acceptability score than echo questions with multiple wh-phrases despite their similarity in surface structure, which suggests a syntactic difference below the surface. Independent syntactic evidence confirms the result and further suggests that while echo questions involve no syntactic movement (Dayal, 1996), probing questions involve covert wh-movement.

scholarly journals The Prosody of Rhetorical and Information-Seeking Questions in German

2018 ◽  
Vol 62 (4) ◽  
pp. 779-807 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bettina Braun ◽  
Nicole Dehé ◽  
Jana Neitsch ◽  
Daniela Wochner ◽  
Katharina Zahner
Keyword(s):  
Information Seeking ◽  
Voice Quality ◽  
Question Type ◽  
High Rise ◽  
High Plateau ◽  
Wh Questions ◽  
The Difference ◽  
In The Beginning ◽  
Rhetorical Questions ◽  
The Way

This paper reports on the prosody of rhetorical questions (RQs) and information-seeking questions (ISQs) in German for two question types—polar questions and constituent questions (henceforth “ wh-questions”). The results are as follows: Phonologically, polar RQs were mainly realized with H-% (high plateau), while polar ISQs mostly ended in H-^H% (high-rise). Wh-RQs almost exclusively terminated in a low edge tone, whereas wh-ISQs allowed for more tonal variation (L-%, L-H%, H-^H%). Irrespective of question type, RQs were mainly produced with L*+H accents. Phonetically, RQs were more often realized with breathy voice quality than ISQs, in particular in the beginning of the interrogative. Furthermore, they were produced with longer constituent durations than ISQs, in particular at the end of the interrogative. While the difference between RQs and ISQs is reflected in the intonational terminus of the utterance, this does not happen in the way suggested in the semantic literature, and in addition, accent type and phonetic parameters also play a role. Crucially, a simple distinction between rising and falling intonation is insufficient to capture the realization of the different illocution types (RQs, ISQs), against frequent claims in the semantic and pragmatic literature. We suggest alternative ways to interpret the findings.

Galician and Spanish in Galicia

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 438-461 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisa Fernández Rei
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Study ◽  
Information Seeking ◽  
Prolonged Contact ◽  
Wh Questions

Abstract The current study analyses the intonation of three types of utterances (broad focus statements, information-seeking yes-no questions and information-seeking wh-questions) in Galician and Spanish, in order to research the effects on the intonation of the prolonged contact between these two languages in Galicia. The main aims are to detect possible hybridisation processes in the intonation of these varieties and determine whether the intonation behaviour is different depending on the language used or on the language profile of the speakers. To that end, this study presents an empirical study which analyses these three types of utterances in Spanish and Galician, produced by 22 informants with different linguistic profiles. The results indicate little variability in the intonation based on the initial and habitual languages of the speakers or the language in which they produce the corpus. However, the existence of some hybrid patterns in wh-questions has been detected. The theoretical implications of these results will be discussed within the framework of hybridisation.

scholarly journals Preschoolers’ Questioning Strategies in Classroom Interactions

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 1173-1185
Author(s):  
Titik Sudartinah
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Information Seeking ◽  
Classroom Interactions ◽  
Complete Picture ◽  
Questioning Strategies ◽  
The World ◽  
Wh Questions

Preschoolers often actively participate in conversations by questioning, which come in many forms and serve many functions. This article aims to identify the forms and functions of the questions that preschoolers ask during classroom interactions with their peers and teachers. The research was a qualitative research involving eighteen preschoolers and two teachers. Data were collected by audio-visually recording the questions expressed by the preschoolers during classroom interactions. Their forms and functions were then identified. The findings show that preschoolers mostly use Wh-Questions for both information and non-information seeking, while other forms are mainly for asking for a clarification or confirmation. The employment of these questioning strategies signifies that preschoolers already have the capability of matching the forms of their questions with their functions in order that they can build a complete picture and understanding of the world around them by eliciting, collecting, and synthesizing information from their peers and teachers.

scholarly journals The Intonation and Pragmatics of Greek wh-Questions

2019 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-94 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary Baltazani ◽  
Stella Gryllia ◽  
Amalia Arvaniti
Keyword(s):  
Information Seeking ◽  
Acoustic Analysis ◽  
Compositional Analysis ◽  
Testing Hypotheses ◽  
Wh Questions ◽  
Intonational Meaning

We experimentally tested three hypotheses regarding the pragmatics of two tunes (one high-ending, one flat-ending) used with Greek wh-questions: (a) the high-ending tune is associated with information-seeking questions, while the flat-ending tune is also appropriate when wh-questions are not information-seeking, in which case their function can instead be akin to that of a statement; (b) the high-ending tune is more polite, and (c) more appropriate for contexts leading to information-seeking questions. The wh-questions used as experimental stimuli were elicited from four speakers in contexts likely to lead to either information-seeking or non-information-seeking uses. The speakers produced distinct tunes in response to the contexts; acoustic analysis indicates these are best analysed as L*+H L-!H% (rising), and L+H* L-L% (flat). In a perception experiment where participants heard the questions out of context, they chose answers providing information significantly more frequently after high-ending than flat-ending questions, confirming hypothesis (a). In a second experiment testing hypotheses (b) and (c), participants evaluated wh-questions for appropriateness and politeness in information- and non-information-seeking contexts. High-ending questions were rated more appropriate in information-seeking contexts, and more polite independently of context relative to their flat-ending counterparts. Finally, two follow-up experiments showed that the interpretation of the two tunes was not affected by voice characteristics of individual speakers, and confirmed a participant preference for the high-ending tune. Overall, the results support our hypotheses and lead to a compositional analysis of the meaning of the two tunes, while also showing that intonational meaning is determined by both tune and pragmatic context.

Foraging extends beyond food: Hoarding of mental energy and information seeking in response to uncertainty

2019 ◽  
Vol 42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica L. Alquist ◽  
Roy F. Baumeister
Keyword(s):  
Information Seeking ◽  
Potential Outcomes ◽  
Food Hoarding

AbstractWhen an environment is uncertain, humans and other animals benefit from preparing for and attempting to predict potential outcomes. People respond to uncertainty both by conserving mental energy on tasks unrelated to the source of the uncertainty and by increasing their attentiveness to information related to the uncertainty. This mental hoarding and foraging allow people to prepare in uncertain situations.

Responses of Language-Disordered Children to Wh-Questions

1986 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 95-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martha M. Parnell ◽  
James D. Amerman ◽  
Roger D. Harting
Keyword(s):  
Relative Difficulty ◽  
Normal Children ◽  
Cognitive Linguistic ◽  
Wh Questions

Nineteen language-disordered children aged 3—7 years responded to items representing nine wh-question forms. Questions referred to three types of referential sources based on immediacy and visual availability. Three and 4-year-olds produced significantly fewer functionally appropriate and functionally accurate answers than did the 5- and 6-year-olds. Generally, questions asked with reference to nonobservable persons, actions, or objects appeared the most difficult. Why, when, and what happened questions were the most difficult of the nine wh-forms. In comparison with previous data from normal children, the language-disordered subjects' responses were significantly less appropriate and accurate. The language-disordered children also appeared particularly vulnerable to the increased cognitive/linguistic demands of questioning directed toward nonimmediate referents. A hierarchy of wh-question forms by relative difficulty was very similar to that observed for normal children. Implications for wh-question assessment and intervention are discussed.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document