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A question is a linguistic expression that will often request information in the form of an answer. Several kinds of questions can be formulated. For example, one may say that a question is the request itself, and an interrogative sentence merely expresses it. Questions can also resemble 'requesting expressions' as well as commands normally being used to elicit a response. Indeed some expressions, such as "Would you pass the butter?", have the grammatical form of questions but function as requests for action, not for answers.
Varieties of Questions Questions have a number of uses. 'Raising a question' may guide the questioner along an avenue of research (see Socratic method). A rhetorical question is asked in order to make a point, and does not expect an answer (often the answer is implied or obvious). Presuppositional questions, such as "Have you stopped beating your wife?" may be used as a joke or to embarrass the audience, because any answer a person could give would imply more information than he was willing to affirm. Questions can also be titles of works of art and literature (e.g. Leo Tolstoy's short story How Much Land Does a Man Need? and the movie What About Bob?). Grammar In grammar, most languages distinguish interrogative sentences, which put questions from declarative sentences that state propositions, by syntax. Some devices used by languages for marking questions include: Combinations of any of the above are possible, as well as alternative patterns for different types of questions. For example, English employs the syntactic approach (word order change) for common questions, but resorts to raising the tone and leaving the word order as it is for focused (emphatic) questions such as "You did what?". Spanish changes the word order only when interrogative pronouns are involved (not in yes-no questions). In Chinese, the word order remains the same for questions as for statements, with the particle added to create a wh-interrogative in situ. In languages written in the Latin alphabet, a question mark at the end of the sentence identifies questions orthographically. In Spanish, an additional mark is placed at the beginning (e.g. ¿Cómo está usted?). There are "negative questions," which contain negation in their phrasing, such as "Don't you have a passport?" These have different ways of expressing affirmation and denial from the standard form of question. Various languages have different particles (e.g., French "si"; German "doch") that head their answer. Such are significant points of grammar. There are three types of sentences in the English language where the predicate can come before the subject. An interrogative sentence is one such one. Example: Did you pick the car up from the shop? Questions and answers The simplest questions implicitly or explicitly request information from a certain range (finite or infinite) of alternatives. When information purporting to be that requested is presented back to the questioner, the question is said to be answered. The information thus presented is called an answer. Answers may be right or wrong. They are wrong if they present false information. If they present information from outside the profferred alternatives, they may be called wrong or simply inappropriate or irrelevant. This depends on the context, as do several other possibilities: Sometimes "I don't know" is an acceptable answer, sometimes even a right answer. The same is true of "None of the above" and "There is no answer." An answer is the, or a, right answer, if it presents true information which falls within the determined range of alternatives. Questions of this simplest sort usually begin with Who, what, which, where, when, does/do, is/are. Other questions do not so easily fit this mold. For example, questions beginning "Why" and "How" often request any information at all that will alleviate certain confusion in a person who wants to ask that question. Here the manner in which the information is presented might be more important than which information is presented; the questioner may even already know all of the information contained in the right answer, and merely needs it to be expressed in a more useful form. Ultimately, the interregotive pronouns (those beginning wh in addition to the word how), derive from the Proto-Indo-European root kwo- or kwi, the former of which was reflected in Proto-Germanic as xwa- or hwa-. The Proto-Indo-European root directly originated the Latin and Romance form qu- in words such as Latin qualis ("which") and quando ("when"). In English, a typographical error in copying by a series of monks is responsible for the transposition of the h and w. Although some varieties of Received Pronunciation and various Scottish dialects still preserve the original sound (i.e. hw rather than w), the majority only preserve the w. The words who, whom, whose, what and why, can all be considered to come from a single Old English word hw& Buddha: "There are these four ways of answering questions. Which four? There are questions that should be answered categorically straightforwardly yes, no, this, that. There are questions that should be answered with an analytical (qualified) answer defining or redefining the terms. There are questions that should be answered with a counter-question. There are questions that should be put aside. These are the four ways of answering questions." Source Learning Questions are used from the most elementary stage of learning to original research. In the scientific method, a question often forms the basis of the investigation and can be considered a transition between the observation and hypothesis stages. Students of all ages use questions in their learning of topics, and the skill of having learners creating "investigatable" questions is a central part of inquiry education. The Socratic method of questioning student responses may be used by a teacher to lead the student towards the truth without direct instruction, and also helps students to form logical conclusions. A widespread and accepted use of questions in an educational context is the assessment of student's knowledge through exams. See also | ||||||||
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