Showing posts with label pragmatics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pragmatics. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Invoking Questions


Warning: Dangerous bend ahead



English has a well-defined set of question words. In brief, we claim all of them can be expanded into a
what phrase. To demonstrate:

  • what ::= what
  • who ::= what be the actor of/that
  • when ::= what be the time of
  • where ::= what be the location of
  • how ::= what be the way of
  • which ::= what be the choice of
  • whose ::= what be the owner of
  • why ::= what be the reason of
Lets pursue this further.