Title: German bloss-questions as extreme ignorance questions
Source document: Linguistica Brunensia. 2020, vol. 68, iss. 1, pp. 7-22
Extent
7-22
-
ISSN1803-7410 (print)2336-4440 (online)
Persistent identifier (DOI): https://doi.org/10.5817/LB2020-1-2
Stable URL (handle): https://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/142810
Type: Article
Language
License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International
Notice: These citations are automatically created and might not follow citation rules properly.
Abstract(s)
We analyze German bloss as a marker of extreme ignorance questions Q, basically indicating that the speaker has dismissed answers to Q that she initially considered likely. We argue that bloss in questions is used in three varieties that all play on this common theme. The analysis can predict that bloss questions are not synonymous to wh-in-heaven ignorance questions, even though the two question types are similar in pragmatic content.
Note
Research was funded by the DFG as part of the Forschungsgruppe 2111 "Questions at the Interfaces" (Konstanz).
References
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[2] Biezma, Maria – Rawlins, Kyle. 2012. Responding to alternative and polar questions. Linguistics & Philosophy 35(5), pp. 361–406. | DOI 10.1007/s10988-012-9123-z
[3] Caponigro, Ivano – Sprouse, Jon. 2007. Rhetorical questions as questions. In: Puig-Waldmüller, Estela, ed. Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung 11. Barcelona: UFP, pp. 121–133 (online at http://mutis.upf.es/glif/pub/sub11/).
[4] den Dikken, Marcel – Giannakidou, Anastasia. 2002. From Hell to polarity. Linguistic Inquiry 33, pp. 31–61. | DOI 10.1162/002438902317382170
[5] Dretske, Fred. 1975. The content of knowledge. In: Freed, Bruce – Marras, Ausonio – Maynard, Patrick, eds. Forms of Representation. Amsterdam: North Holland Publishing Company, pp. 77–93.
[6] Eckardt, Regine. 2007. An analysis for inherent focus on wh-phrases. In: Puig-Waldmüller, Estela, ed. Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung 11. Barcelona: UFP, pp. 209–228. (online at http://mutis.upf.es/glif/pub/sub11/)
[7] Groenendijk, Jeroen – Stokhof, Martin. 1982. Semantic analysis of wh-complements. Linguistics & Philosophy 5, pp. 75–233.
[8] Groenendijk, Jeroen – Stokhof, Martin. 1984. Studies on the Semantics of Questions and the Pragmatics of Answers. University of Amsterdam.
[9] Hamblin, Charles L. 1973. Questions in Montague English. Foundations of Language 10, pp. 41–53.
[10] Iatridou, Sabine – Tatevosov, Sergeij. 2016. Our even. Linguistics & Philosophy 39, pp. 295–331. | DOI 10.1007/s10988-016-9190-7
[11] Kadmon, Nirit – Landman, Fred. 1993. Any. Linguistics & Philosophy 16(4), pp. 353–422. | DOI 10.1007/BF00985272
[12] Kwon, Min-Jae. 2005. Modalpartikeln und Satzmodus. Ph.D. dissertation, LMU Munich.
[13] Oguro, Takeshi. 2017. The true nature of WH-the-hell phrases. Florida Linguistics Papers 4(2), pp. 113–126.
[14] Rawlins, Kyle. 2009. Extreme Ignorance Questions. LSA 2009. online (15. 3. 2019).
[15] Romero, Maribel. 2015. Surprise predicates, strong exhaustivity, and alternative questions. In: Proceedings of SALT 25, pp. 225–245.
[16] Schwarzschild, Roger. 1999. AvoidF and other constraints on the placement of Focus. Natural Language Semantics 7, pp. 141–177. | DOI 10.1023/A:1008370902407
[17] Simons, Mandy. 2005. Dividing things up: The semantics of or and the modal or interaction. Natural Language Semantics 13, pp. 271–316. | DOI 10.1007/s11050-004-2900-7
[18] Thurmair, Maria. 1989. Modalpartikeln. Tübingen: Niemeyer.
[19] Uegaki, Wataru. 2014. Japanese alternative questions are disjunctions of polar questions. Proceedings of SALT 24, pp. 42–62.
[20] Villalta, Elisabeth. 2008. Mood and gradability: An investigation of the subjunctive mood in Spanish. Linguistics & Philosophy 31(4), pp. 467–522. | DOI 10.1007/s10988-008-9046-x