Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-tn8tq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-06T03:15:35.221Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

23 - Special structures II: Interrogatives and implication relations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 May 2010

Get access

Summary

Elementary questions about interrogatives

There has been some penetrating work on the logic of interrogatives, but it is not the aim of this study to review those findings. It is well known that there are interestingly different kinds of questions that count as interrogatives, and it has also been suggested that an account of questions can profitably be seen as part of the study of a more general notion. That is, if, roughly speaking, the logic of questions (erotetic logic) is seen as the study of wanted answers, then the somewhat more general setting would consider the notion of a relevant answer. And still other, more general settings for the logic of questions have been suggested. Perhaps the most complex issue that has to be faced is the typology of questions, since each study seems to use a different classification. No doubt this reflects, in part, the variety of theoretical devices that are brought to bear on the subject.

In this chapter we want to show how the use of a special implication relation among certain kinds of questions can be used to answer some elementary problems about questions. We shall not introduce a special typology to sort out different kinds of questions from each other. The problems that we shall consider lie at a rather elementary level and do not seem to need a more subtle classification for their discussion. A more detailed classification will eventually be necessary, because it is only with the aid of more refined structures that anything interesting can be proved and that anything accurate can be said about whether specific sentences in English are examples of one type of interrogative rather than another.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1992

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×