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