scholarly journals Prosody is adding what?: Echo questions are not a thing

2022 ◽  
Vol 31 ◽  
pp. 241
Author(s):  
Maria Biezma ◽  
Bettina Braun ◽  
Angela James
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Study ◽  
Information Seeking ◽  
Production Study ◽  
Echo Questions

While echo questions (EcQs) are often said to be identified by their prosodic properties, there is no empirical study actually supporting such claim. Focusing on wh-utterances we provide results from a production study, a classifier, and a perception study to argue that prosody is not a reliable cue to identify an inquisitive utterance as EcQ. We also offer a model that unifies the semantics of utterances inquiring about what has just been said (EcQs) and utterances inquiring about ‘non-discursive’ facts, information seeking questions (InfQs), while keeping the interpretation of the utterance true to form.

Monitoring, browsing and being aware – Keeping abreast and staying updated with professional information in Swedish regional libraries

2021 ◽  
pp. 096100062110429
Author(s):  
Ola Pilerot
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Study ◽  
Information Seeking ◽  
Substantial Part ◽  
Specific Kind ◽  
Work Activities ◽  
Individual Preferences ◽  
Work Tasks ◽  
Normative Dimension ◽  
Professional Information ◽  
Study Participants

A substantial part of the work conducted by librarians at Swedish regional libraries concerns staying alert and informed in ways that allow for continuous development of the kind of knowledge and abilities that are required for doing a qualified job, but this part of the work is elusive and hard to identify. This paper presents an empirical study that elucidates this specific kind of work of keeping abreast and updated with professional information. Empirical data were produced through interviews and logbooks with 10 members of staff at 4 regional libraries in Sweden. The data were analysed by employing Marcia Bates’ model of different information-seeking modes. The results of the study show that the activity in focus is seamlessly intertwined with other work activities and enacted in a variety of ways that are adapted after other work tasks (than the information seeking in itself) and dependent on individual preferences and routines. Since there is a certain conception of this activity as something that should be carried out in a certain systematic way and since it is something that one as a librarian ought to be good at, it is furthermore often associated with a normative dimension that provokes a sense of guilt among the study participants.

scholarly journals Serendipity and information seeking: an empirical study

2003 ◽  
Vol 59 (3) ◽  
pp. 321-340 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allen Foster ◽  
Nigel Ford
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Study ◽  
Information Seeking

scholarly journals The prosody of French wh-in-situ questions: Echo vs. non-echo

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-35
Author(s):  
ALIZA GLASBERGEN-PLAS ◽  
STELLA GRYLLIA ◽  
JENNY DOETJES
Keyword(s):  
Information Seeking ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Question Type ◽  
The Other ◽  
Focus Structure ◽  
Narrow Focus ◽  
The One ◽  
Focus Marking ◽  
Echo Questions

This study compares the prosodic properties of French wh-in-situ echo questions and string-identical information seeking questions in relation to focus. Thirty-six (12 $\times$ 3) wh-in-situ questions were embedded in dialogues designed to elicit (A) echo questions expressing auditory failure, (B) information seeking questions with broad focus or (C) information seeking questions with narrow focus on the wh-phrase, i.e. a focus structure similar to the one of echo questions. Analyses regarding the F0, duration and intensity of the utterances produced by 20 native speakers of French show clear prosodic differences between the three conditions. Our results indicate that part of the prosodic properties of echo questions can be attributed to the presence of narrow focus (A and C vs. B) while another part is truly characteristic of echo questions themselves (A vs. B and C). In combination with known differences regarding their pragmatics, semantics and syntax, this sets echo questions apart as a separate question type. At the same time, our results offer evidence for prosodic encoding of focus in French wh-in-situ questions, confirming and adding to existing claims regarding the prosody of focus marking in French on the one hand and the presence of focus marking in wh-interrogatives on the other.

Information-seeking intentions of residents regarding the risks of nuclear power plant: an empirical study in China

2017 ◽  
Vol 87 (2) ◽  
pp. 739-755 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jing Zeng ◽  
Jiuchang Wei ◽  
Dingtao Zhao ◽  
Weiwei Zhu ◽  
Jibao Gu
Keyword(s):  
Power Plant ◽  
Nuclear Power Plant ◽  
Empirical Study ◽  
Information Seeking ◽  
Nuclear Power

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.

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