Publications
Publication details [#31042]
Weber, Elizabeth G. 1993. Varieties of Questions in English Conversation. (Studies in Discourse and Grammar 3). John Benjamins. 252 pp.
Publication type
Book – monograph
Publication language
English
Keywords
Language as a subject
Annotation
This book examines relations which hold between morphosyntactic form and communicative function in discourse by examining form-function correlations of noninterrogative questions in ordinary English conversation. So-called nontypical declarative and nonclausal questions are identified functionally. The role morphosyntax plays in the production and interpretation of these forms as doing questioning is then considered. Speakers are shown to use specific patterns of morphosyntactic marking to enable recipients to interpret noninterrogatives as functional questions. Explanations for morphosyntactic patterns found in the data are stated in terms of discourse use.