We suggest a new semantic interpretation of interrogative NPs, based on a novel algebraic theory of the semantics of questions. We discuss the role of interrogative NPs in compositionally deriving the semantics of wh-questions, examine the coordination of interrogative NPs, and apply notions from generalized quantiier theory to their interpretation.

This paper presents results from two perception experiments designed to investigate intonational cues and visual facial cues to interrogative mode in Swedish. Results from the intonation test indicate that both a widened F0 range on a final focal accent and time alignment properties of the F0 rise and peak make important contributions to the interrogative percept. Results from the audiovisual t...

This paper investigates the phonetic correlates of interrogative prosodic features in Paiwan, an Austronesian language spoken in Taiwan. An attempt has been made to capture the typology of the Paiwan interrogative prosody. The interrogative sentence in Paiwan consists of one or more prosodic words which are usually larger than a verb stem. Yes/no, tag and alternative questions are characteristi...

In this paper, I examine the cross-linguistic variation in the use of non-selective interrogative pronominals, such as English who? and what?, in questions about nonhuman animates, i.e. non-human biologically living entities. For purposes of crosslinguistic comparison, I define the non-selective interrogative pronominals ‘who?’ and ‘what?’ as idealizations resulting out of the interaction betwe...

This study examined the development of and possible predictors of interrogative forms and functions in early childhood Mandarin. All the interrogatives drawn from the Early Child Mandarin Corpus (168 children 2;6, 3;6, 4;6, and 5;6) were analyzed. The main results indicated that (i) there were significant age effects in interrogative forms and functions, with the periods between the ages of 3;6...

Prosodic variations in unit-based speech synthesis: the example of interrogative sentences This paper proposes an automatic method to increase the number of possible prosodic variations in non-uniform unit-based speech synthesis. More specifically, we are interested in the production of interrogative sentences through the eLite text-to-speech synthesis system, which relies on the selection of n...

BACKGROUND Languages differ in the marking of the sentence mood of a polar interrogative (yes/no question). For instance, the interrogative mood is marked at the beginning of the surface structure in Polish, whereas the marker appears at the end in Chinese. In order to generate the corresponding sentence frame, the syntactic specification of the interrogative mood is early in Polish and late in...

This paper presents results from two perception experiments designed to investigate intonational cues and visual facial cues to interrogative mode in Swedish. Results from the intonation test indicate that both a widened F0 range on a final focal accent and time alignment properties of the F0 rise and peak make important contributions to the interrogative percept. Results from the audiovisual t...

A Google Scholar search for "interrogative verbs" brings up mostly references to verbs of asking, verbs with interrogative affixes, or verbs used in questions. A number of languages, however, have special verbs that include a semantic wh element in addition to their more typical question words. Verbs like this have not been extensively described, although Hagège (2003, 2008) suggests they are m...