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Article In:
Journal of Argumentation in Context
Vol. 13:3 (2024) ► pp.319–372

Superquestions and some ways to answer them

ORCID logo | Università della Svizzera italiana
 | University of Dundee
 | University of Dundee
 | Università della Svizzera italiana
 | Università della Svizzera italiana
 | University of Dundee
Earnings Conference Calls, in which corporate management are quizzed by investment analysts, are a particularly rich source of a phenomenon of question-asking that, though less prevalent, also occurs in many other genres of discourse. When a participant in a dialogue is allowed to ask more than one question consecutively — particularly in order to extend or refine or recast — we see that respondents often react by answering either one or more of the individual questions, or by answering a question that was never actually asked, but which is related to the explicit questions and to other content introduced in the turn. We call this overarching implicit question a superquestion, and explore how they can be formed, how they can be answered, how they trigger argumentation, and, indeed, how they can be dodged.
Keywords: answerhood, answers, argumentation in finance, dialogical interaction, financial communication, maximal answering unit, maximal interrogative unit, questions, superanswers, superquestions
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Earnings conference calls
    • 1.2Inference anchoring theory
  • 2.Maximal interrogative and answering units
    • 2.1Maximal interrogative units
    • 2.2Maximal answering units
  • 3.Data
  • 4.Capturing MIUs and MAUs in IAT
    • 4.1Question structures in Maximal Interrogative Units
      • 4.1.1Non-interrogatives
      • 4.1.2Questions
      • 4.1.3Arguments in MIUs
      • 4.1.4Superquestions
    • 4.2Answer structures in Maximal Answering Units
      • 4.2.1Answering a question that forms a part of the MIU but is not part of the superquestion
      • 4.2.2Answering a question that forms a part of the MIU and is a part of the superquestion
      • 4.2.3Answering the superquestion
      • 4.2.4Superanswers
      • 4.2.5Individual question-answers that contribute to superanswers
      • 4.2.6Non question-answers in MAUs that contribute to superanswers
      • 4.2.7Arguments in MAUs
    • 4.3Answerhood
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Author queries
  • References
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