Seminar 2 LEC (seminar support sheet): Interrogatives

Seminar 2 LEC (seminar support sheet): Interrogatives

two main types of questions:

A) direct questions (Did Susan give Tom the parcel? Why havent you done your homework yet? How long are you going to sulk?)

B) indirect questions (He asked if Susan had given Tom the parcel. Bill asked his son why he hadnt done his homework yet. Bill asked Susan how long she was going to sulk.)

A) Direct questions are characterized by:

a) the placing of an auxiliary in front of the subject (subject auxiliary inversion):

(1) Will Jane meet the president today?

b) the initial positioning of an interrogative or wh element

(2) Who will Jane meet?

(3) What is she talking about?

c) rising question intonation

(4) Can you do it?

!! All the features that characterize interrogation in English are to be found in Romanian as well. However Romanian learners have difficulty in formulating Present and Past questions, because:

a) Romanian does not have do-insertion(5) Do you know English?

(6) tii englez?

b) unlike English, Romanian can drop the subject in a sentence since the verbal ending is sufficient enough for a speaker to know what kind of person it is that performs the action

B) Indirect questions do not make use of Subject Auxiliary Inversion, and their intonation is not rising. In the case of indirect questions, the interrogative force has been taken over by the main verb that introduces the indirect question.

(7) Where are you going?

(8) He asked her where she was going.

>> necessity that the tense within the indirect question should correspond to the tense in the main clause ( the sequence of the tenses need to be observed)

(9) He asked her *where she is going.

(10)He asked her *where was she going.

Quirks Classification of Direct Questions>> Major & Minor Questions

Major Types of Questions1) long or short:

What do you want? >> What?

Where are you going? >> Where to?

2) fc. of the type of answer: 2.a. Yes/No Questions (receive a yes/ no answer)

2.b. Wh-questions (the wh-phrase appears in sentence-initial

position and SAI takes place)

2.c. Alternative Questions (those questions that receive an

alternative answer)Obs. concerning Yes/No Questions:

- they qualify as non-assertive contexts > we expect them to use Negative Polarity Items:

Did anyone call last night? // Has the boat left yet? but they can equally use PPIs:

Did someone call last night? (Yes, they did) // Has the boat left already? (Yes, it has)

>> positively oriented (the answers are supposed to be positive)

- subtypes: - declarative questions (identical in form to a statement, except for the final

rising question intonation): He didnt finish the RACE?

- negative questions: Didnt you know she was my Mum?

Obs. concerning Wh-Questions: there is a group of informal intensificatory wh words (who ever, what ever, why ever, etc) or other expressions (on earth/the hell/in heavens name) that convey to the question an emphatic meaning:

What ever did you do that for? // Why ever didnt he tell me?// Who on earth did this? // Who the hell does he think he is? // Why in heavens name did you say that?

Minor types of Questions

1) Tag Questions: attached to an imperative or a declarative sentence

1.a. Constant Polarity Tags: have the same polarity as the host sentence >> the speaker using the tag disagrees with what the main sentence states (reactive tags / comment tags):

A: Wheres the rest of the money?

B: Im afraid its all spent.

A: Oh, its all spent, is it?1.b. Reversed Polarity Tags: negative when the host sentence is affirmative and vice versa.2) Echo Questions2.a. Recapitulatory echo questions - repeat part or all of the message, as a way of having its content confirmed: - general: same order as declarative questions but rising intonation

A: I didnt like that meat./ B: You didnt like it?

- special: the wh- word can be placed in sentence initial position or not. If

fronted >> SAI

A: I saw Bill yesterday./ B: You saw WHOM yesterday?

A: We went to Amsterdam. / B: WHERE did you go?

2.b. Explicatory Echo Questions ask for the clarification, rather than the repetition, of something just said and have falling intonation:

A: Take a look at this. / B: Take a look at WHAT?