YES-NO QUESTION

DECLARATIVE

"So, you are looking at a blinking card?"

"The card has a blue moon on it?"

"The card isn't blinking?"

The Yes-No Question/Declarative type takes the form of a statement. It is a request to the conversation partner to indicate whether a preposition is or is not true.

This question type functions pragmatically as a question but does not have a typical question form.      

The declarative yes-no question type has no wh-word as the argument of the verb. It has declarative word order in which the subject precedes the verb.

YES-NO QUESTION

CANONICAL/FULL

"Have you got it?"

"Did you see that?"

"Is the card blinking?"

"Are you staring at a blinking lion"?

"Were the cards aligned?"

"Did the card have a blue moon on it?"

 "Were you moving the card?"

The canonical/full yes-no question is a complete sentence which includes, at a minimum, a subject and at least one verb.

If there is one verb in the statement the subject typically follows the verb (e.g. "Are the cards aligned?").

If there are two or more verbs, past or present, the subject typically follows the first verb, which is often an auxiliary (e.g. "Was the card blinking?").

YES-NO QUESTION

REDUCED

"You got it?"

"You see that?"

This reduced form includes a main verb and a subject but not an auxiliary.

"Oh, you did?"

"It doesn't?"

This reduced form includes an auxiliary verb and a subject but not a main verb.

"Don't see it then?"

"Can't get the blinking card?"

"Don't know where the card is?"

"Won't move it?"

This reduced form includes a main verb and a possible auxiliary, but no subject. This form is often used in clarification requests, wherein the initiator specifies the constituent in question without needing to utter a complete sentence to do so.

"Got it?"

"See that?"

"Moved?"

This reduced form includes a main verb but no subject or auxiliary.

WH-QUESTION

DECLARATIVE

"You're putting the lemon where?"

"You'd like to speak with whom?"

"You didn't do what?"

The WH-Question/Declarative type takes the form of a statement. Like the Yes-No Question/Declarative, this question type functions pragmatically as a question but does not have a typical question form. These include echo question types uttered when one conversation partner wishes to clarify the word in the object position.

This type includes the wh-word as the argument of the main verb. Like the declarative yes-no question, it has declarative word order in which the subject precedes the verb.

This form consists of complete sentences which contain, at a minimum, a subject and a main verb.

WH-QUESTION

CANONICAL

"Who is that?"

"What's blinking?"

"Where is the card?"

"Why is it blinking?"

"Where are you putting the lemon?"

"Which one was it?"

"How many cards are there?"

"What did you do that for?"

"To whom will you speak?"

"Whom are you writing?"                

"Who did?"

This form typically begins with a word chosen from the set: "Who" "Whom"," Whose", "What", "When", "Where", "Why", or "How".

The wh-word may replace the person or thing in question, and thus appear in the subject position (e.g. "What is blinking?", "Who did?").

The form may also have interrogative word order, wherein the wh-word precedes an auxiliary, subject and main verb (e.g. "How did you do that?", "To whom will you speak?").

WH-QUESTION

REDUCED

"Been where?"

"Which one you working on?"

"Working on what?"

"See what?"

"A what?"

"You what?"

"How come?"

"Which lemon?"

"To who?"

"Who?"

"You what?"

The WH-Question/Reduced category includes reduced forms of declarative wh-questions, reduced forms of interrogatives, and fragments containing wh-words. Label any forms that resemble wh-canonical or wh-declarative, but which are incomplete sentences, as WH-Questions/Reduced. This category also includes forms in which the wh-word replaces the verb (e.g. "You what?").

This category also includes wh-fragments. These fragments include a single wh-word ("Who?", "What?"), or a wh-word that replaces the object, without a verb (e.g. "A what?").

ALTERNATIVE
QUESTION

"Now, are they grouped together or, not?"

"Or is it more blue than green?"

"Does your card contain one object, or two, or... is it blank?"

This form can begin with an "Or" or a similar word that indicates that alternatives will be proposed. It may include a declaration that the speaker is proposing as an alternative to the partner, or a request to choose between alternatives given to the conversation partner.

TAG QUESTION

CANONICAL/FULL

"You like Mac computers, don't you?"

"You can remove that card, can't you?"

"The card isn't what we want, is it?"

"That's what we want, isn't it?"

The Tag Question/Canonical type includes an assertion followed by full auxiliary as well as a subject tag.  The auxiliary and subject tag words are uttered immediately after the assertion they refer to, as complete sentence. The tag word refers to the subject in the assertion that was previously uttered by the same speaker.

REDUCED

"You like Mac computers, right?"

"I'm going to look at that top card, ok?"

"Flip over that card and let's see what we get, alright?"

The Tag Question/Reduced type includes an assertion followed by only a single tag word typically chosen from the set: "no"," yes", "right", "ok", "alright". The tag word is typically uttered immediately after the assertion it is connected to. The tag word is connected to the assertion that was previously uttered by the same speaker rather than an assertion or statement made by the conversation partner.

FRAGMENT

"Really?"

"A Lion?"

"Right?"

"Okay?"

"No?"

"Yes?"

"Huh?"

A Fragment type can be distinguished from a Tag Question/Reduced type by examining the prior utterance it references. Typically the question references something that the conversation partner, rather than the speaker, uttered. Fragments do not contain verbs. Fragments which include wh-words should be labeled as WH-Question/Reduced rather than Fragment.