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Re Unmarked questions

From: "M & E Anstey" <anstey AT raketnet.nl>
To: "Biblical Hebrew" <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
Subject: Re Unmarked questions
Date: Fri, 17 Aug 2001 08:07:07 +0200

Gday David,

Two other examples of questions looking like statements: the final sentence
of Jonah, "Shall I not have compassion ...?" and Uriah's comment to David,
"Will I go home ....?" in 2 Sam 11:11. This is a common phenomenon across
languages, a mismatch between illocutionary force and grammatical
illocution. In English:

a. Is he my brother?
b. He is my brother.
c. He's my brother?
d. Is he my brother!

The intonation changes as you can imagine. The difference between the four
would be located by most theorists in pragmatic/contextual subtelties of
use.

Regards
Matthew Anstey
------------------------------------------
Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam
Faculteit der Godgeleerdheid
"Werkgroep Informatica"
anstey AT raketnet.nl

+31 (0)20 - 444-6626 (W)
+31 (0)255 - 52-6541 (H)

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Re Unmarked questions, M & E Anstey, 08/17/2001