Keevallik2009
| Keevallik2009 | |
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| BibType | ARTICLE |
| Key | Keevallik2009 |
| Author(s) | Leelo Keevallik |
| Title | The grammar-interaction interface of negative questions in Estonian |
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| Tag(s) | EMCA, Interactional Linguistics, Polar Questions, Conduciveness |
| Publisher | |
| Year | 2009 |
| Language | English |
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| Journal | SKY: Journal of Linguistics |
| Volume | 22 |
| Number | |
| Pages | 139–173 |
| URL | Link |
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Abstract
Grammatically negative questions have been considered tricky because out of context it is basically impossible to predict whether they are conducive of a positive or negative answer (e.g. Sadock and Zwicky 1985). Furthermore, some of them convey reverse polarity affirmations rather than ask for information (Koshik 2002). The current study looks systematically at all negative polar questions found in Estonian spoken language corpora and shows that in actual usage, they are predominantly conducive of a confirming answer. However, a confirming answer may in some cases be either in a positive or negative form. Conduciveness of a negative question as well as its linguistic format depend on the action the question implements in a conversational sequence. The paper shows that each of the five negative question formats in Estonian regularly implement different kinds of social action ranging from challenging and topic initiation to requests for information and confirmation.
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