Communicative functions of negative yes/no questions Cover Image

Komunikační funkce záporných otázek zjišťovacích
Communicative functions of negative yes/no questions

Author(s): Jakub Kopecký
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies
Published by: AV ČR - Akademie věd České republiky - Ústav pro jazyk český
Keywords: communicative function; functional sentence perspective; negative; yes/no questions

Summary/Abstract: The article deals with communicative functions of negative yes/no questions, which are compared with their positive counterparts. On the basis of differences in functional sentence perspective, two fundamental types of yes/no questions are distinguished. In the first type, the negative does not express denial, but rather, it modifies the communicative function of the question: it helps to signalize the occurrence of expectation or preference of certain answer by the speaker. In the second type, the negative denies the proposition, the negative/positive form expresses what is expected or doubted to be true.

  • Issue Year: 2010
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 1-15
  • Page Count: 15
  • Language: Czech