{"id":413,"date":"2025-02-04T12:39:43","date_gmt":"2025-02-04T19:39:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/qlab\/?p=413"},"modified":"2025-02-04T12:44:07","modified_gmt":"2025-02-04T19:44:07","slug":"this-is-a-blog-post-about-yes-no-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/qlab\/2025\/02\/04\/this-is-a-blog-post-about-yes-no-questions\/","title":{"rendered":"This is a blog post about yes-no questions?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Have you ever played that game 20 questions? You have to discover what someone is thinking of, and you\u2019re only allowed to ask them questions that can be answered with \u2018yes\u2019 or \u2018no\u2019. So, you can\u2019t ask \u2018Where do they live?\u2019 (answer: New Zealand), but you can<\/em> ask \u2018Do they live in New Zealand?\u2019 (answer: yes). (I was thinking of a kiwi. The bird, not the fruit.)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Knowing which questions can be answered with \u2018yes\u2019 or \u2018no\u2019 is easy, right? But have you ever noticed how many different ways there are to ask them? How do these sound:<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t they live in New Zealand?
\nDo they not live in New Zealand?
\nDO they live in New Zealand?
\nThey live in New Zealand?
\nThey live in New Zealand, don\u2019t they?
\nThey live in New Zealand, do they?
\nDo they live in New Zealand or not?<\/p>\n

All of these would sound weird in the 20 questions game, but they make sense in certain situations. Here are scenarios for each of them:<\/p>\n

A: I\u2019m going to Australia. Hope I see some kiwis there.
\nB: Wait, don\u2019t they live in New Zealand<\/em>?<\/p>\n

A: I wanted to see some kiwis on my trip, but I guess I won\u2019t, because I\u2019m only going to New Zealand.
\nB: Oh, do they not live in New Zealand<\/em>?<\/p>\n

A: I\u2019m so glad I\u2019m going to New Zealand because kangaroos live there and I might see one.
\nB: DO they live in New Zealand<\/em>, though?<\/p>\n

A: Guess what I saw on my trip to New Zealand \u2013 a kangaroo!
\nB: They live in New Zealand<\/em>??<\/p>\n

A: I need help with my project. What do you know about kiwis?
\nB: They live in New Zealand, don\u2019t they<\/em>?<\/p>\n

A: Look at my project about kiwis. I put in a map of their homeland.
\nB: Oh, they live in New Zealand, do they<\/em>?<\/p>\n

B: Do kiwis live in New Zealand?
\nA: That\u2019s for me to know and you to find out.
\nB: Quit being annoying, my project is overdue. Do they live in New Zealand or not<\/em>?<\/p>\n

If you think about it, it\u2019s fascinating that as a speaker of English you understand the subtle differences between all these ways of asking the question. You can even infer things about the prior knowledge or expectations of the questioners. Yet your parents or teachers never explicitly taught you this. It\u2019s part of your unconscious, complex knowledge of semantics and pragmatics.<\/p>\n

Another interesting thing is that question-types similar to these show up in many other languages (languages are surprisingly the same!) \u2013 but they can be constructed in partly different ways (languages are surprisingly different!). Perhaps there will be a blog post about that one day.<\/p>\n

Until then, here are a few things not<\/u> to do:<\/p>\n

– Hire a skywriter to ask your beloved, \u2018You will marry me?\u2019
\n– Ask a job applicant, \u2018You\u2019ve had a criminal conviction, haven\u2019t you?\u2019
\n– Greet your landlord with, \u2018Can I pay the rent late or not?\u2019<\/p>\n

-by Lisa Matthewson<\/em><\/p>\n

Kiwi photo by Judi Lapsley Miller – Own work, CC BY 4.0, https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/w\/index.php?curid=71597120<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Have you ever played that game 20 questions? You have to discover what someone is thinking of, and you\u2019re only allowed to ask them questions that can be answered with \u2018yes\u2019 or \u2018no\u2019. So, you can\u2019t ask \u2018Where do they … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80846,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/qlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/qlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/qlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/qlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/80846"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/qlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=413"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/qlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":420,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/qlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413\/revisions\/420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/qlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/qlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/qlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}