KINDS
OF QUESTIONS IN ENGLISH
© 2002
by Orchid Land Publications
C.-J. N. Bailey
[20010101, updated 20021003]
(Cf. further C.-J. Bailey, Essays on time-based linguistic
analysis
(Oxford University Press [1996], pp. [156,] 166-167.)
In addition to embedded indirect
questions, which do not have verb-subject word order or rising intonation, there
are at least half a dozen kinds of questions in English.
YES-NO questions
are formed by inverting the word order and inserting do where no other
auxiliary verb is present: "Have you done it?"; "Did they useta do that?"; and
"Were they being watched?" Note do-SUPPORT where
no other auxiliary verb is present. The intonation varies in different
varieties of English, though the final cadence is mostly rising except in the
creole daughter languages of English.1 These questions, which have
inverted word order, are more marked than an unmarked statement.
-
Direct W
H-questions
begin with a WH-pronoun (what, who,
which), WH-adjective (which), or WH-adverb (when,
where, why, how): "Who did it?"; "What did they do it
with?"; "Which one did she buy?"; "Where did they go?"; "When did they
leave?"; "Why did they do it?" and "How did they get here?" Note that
Why? is usually fairly formal, contrasting with "What . . . for?" "How
come?" Direct WH-questions
have falling intonation, often with the part of the question follow the
WH-word low-toned, but at all events lower. find a tonal
element in stress, rather than just suprasegmental length) analysts of
intonation) of the contour may fall steadily with the tail syllables falling
relative to the preceding core—which creates a descending zigzag pattern in
the lects where this is heard.
|
In contrast with What for?, How
come? is for all practical purpose a lexical unit in English¾
in effect a single word, as though How-come? or Howcome?
A question can have three WH-words; e.g. "Who did what
to who?" (Notice that whom is not used after a preposition
which has not been pied-piped!)
Worth mentioning is the new
locution, How-(a)bout? in "How-bout we leave early?" It is a
sort of colloquial replacement for Why not?—a rather polite way of
suggesting or inviting some action. |
Alternative questions
like "Are you goin’, or are you
stayin’?" The word order is verb-subject order; the tunit rises up to
the word or but from or of course on falls; for if the
forepart is not right, the afterpart must be.
WH-questions
add another degree of markedness, so that the double reversal ends up with the
form of a statement.
Insistent
like "Are you leaving?" in which the head and
tail syllables of each tonit do not fall (as in the plain YES/NO
type) but continue to rise—though the cadence may be a neutral tone level with
the preceding head. The effect is insistent. An answer may be
expected, as in YES/NO questions;
but if no answer is expected, we call this a rhetorical question.
Rhetorical WH-questions reverse the falling
tone of non-rhetorical WH-questions and the tonit heads
ascend; e.g. "What was I thinkin’?"
Echo questions like "She wore jeans?" have rising
tonit heads, but they do not alter the word order word order. Echo
WH-questions can best be illustrated:
we
What
did she ar?
Reclamatory questions
like
"She wore what?!" and "They gave it to who?!" have a tune like an
insistent question, but the word order is subject-verb.
T
AG-questions
and the pseudo-tag question: Genuine TAG-questions reverse the negativity of
the preceding main question and the word order, but the tunit is falling or
low for those that begin with a WH-pronoun or a
WH-adjective; e.g. "You went there, didn’t you?" (The did
or didn't of the tag may be high-toned and emphatic.) The tag may
be—and have the rising cadence of—a true question; e.g. "You went there . . .
didn’t you?" Tags appended to questions beginning with a WH-adverb
like "You didn't go there, did you?" have falling intonation on the forepart,
while the tag rises.
A pseudo- or rhetorical-
TAG
question is different from the foregoing: Neither the forepart nor the tag is
ever negative; e.g. "You went there, didn't you!" The question presumes a
yes-answer and hence doesn’t expect an answer; it is usually accompanied
with connotations of disapproval.
___________________
1
An intonational tune consists of an optional anacrousis
(unstressed syllable[s]), a tunit, and a cadence. The tunit
consists of a head and a tail. The head has got to be a stressed
syllable, though a stressed syllable is not necessarily a head. (Well-known
studies of English stress confuse the distinction and attribute pitch to "some"
stresses!) The tail is relative to its head and may be lower than, level with,
or higher than that head. The cadence includes the unstressed syllable(s)
following the last head; it is merged with the tail of the preceding head if
both fall, rise, or are level)\; otherwise, the cadence is added to the
preceding tail. The tails of a tunit usually fall, but they move in the
direction of the following head to convey insistence. See
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