10
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Accepted
Why is the question mark like this in Hebrew language?
This is likely to be an unsatisfying answer, but…
Historical accident. That's just the way it is.
Hebrew imported various punctuation marks from various other languages of Europe fairly early, and ...
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5
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Why isn't this sentence in a passive form?
There's a common feature in English known as the "ergative construction", "middle construction", or "labile construction", though it's not quite the same as an actual ergative case (as found in Basque)...
- 68.3k
5
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Accepted
What is the most commonly accepted synonym or synonymous phrase in linguistics for "wh-question"?
“Content question” is common. I’ve seen that used in typologically oriented grammars of languages from all over the world.
I’ve also seen non-polarity question, though I like that option less.
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4
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Accepted
Is subject auxiliary inversion (do-support) unique to English?
SAI is not the same as do-support, which your question is really about (if I read it correctly). Other than English, do-support is also attested in Monnese and perhaps a few other languages, but it ...
- 56
3
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Accepted
Does grammar allow two questions in one sentence?
Since you're asking on Linguistics SE, I assume you're asking a linguistic question, and not e.g. a writing style question. So such constructions are reasonably common in English, to the point that ...
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2
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Accepted
Is there a word for a question which is meant to sow doubt?
In Conversation Analysis I have read of the concept of 'challenges' being used to refer to the case you are describing.
This is a paper that uses the term, maybe it is helpful:
Koshik, Irene. "Wh-...
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2
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"Is there ...?" vs "Does ... have ...?" Yes/No questions
I don't see the relevance of questions. There are declarative counterparts to all of your examples that are questions.
The oddity of your example "Does Restaurant X have many people?" is duplicated ...
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2
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Accepted
"Is there ...?" vs "Does ... have ...?" Yes/No questions
I think it's a mistake to try to understand these structures based on paraphrase relations in questions, and you'll make more headway in whatever you're ultimately after if you look at the declarative ...
- 83.3k
2
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Is either of these meanings of the word "sentence" more conventional?
I think we can confidently conclude that there are two or even more conflicting definitions of "sentence". Analogously, there are multiple definitions of "markedness". However, your first quote:
...
- 83.3k
2
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Why isn't this sentence in a passive form?
The word "sells" here in the English language of today has a different meaning from "is sold", and Draconis' answer does not apply here (even if it may have historically ...
- 183
2
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What is the most commonly accepted synonym or synonymous phrase in linguistics for "wh-question"?
In the Cambridge Grammar of the English Language (which I think is considered the authoritative grammar to date) they’re called “open interrogatives” (yes-no questions are called “closed ...
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2
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What is the most commonly accepted synonym or synonymous phrase in linguistics for "wh-question"?
Insofar as "yes-no" question has been replaced with "polar question", the alternative of "non-polar" question seems most reasonable.
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1
vote
What do you call a question to convey curiosity, without expecting a direct answer
Thinking out loud, aloud!?)
There no term for yours definition, because 'rhetorical question' fit it at all.
But it must be something like 'no-seek-information question' if you want, or something ...
- 446
1
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Word stress and sentence stress questions
English stress is analyzed extensively in The sound pattern of English, and a number of rules are required to generate the patterns which they observe (a system of numeric stress degrees). “Stress” is ...
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1
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Word stress and sentence stress questions
As far as I am aware, English has phonemic stress on at least three levels: word stress, compound stress, and sentence stress. In all three cases, the stress manifests as a differentiated syllable or ...
- 827
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What is the linguistical terminology for (and if) letters of a given alphabet have(ing) their inherent meaning?
As user6726 mentions, acrophony (and the related rebus principle) appear commonly when developing writing systems in the first place. If the word for "mouth" is pronounced /ka/, then people ...
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1
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Is either of these meanings of the word "sentence" more conventional?
How to find out what category an expression is in? How to decide? When to worry about it? Who to ask? When to accept a proposed answer?
Since expressions of the same category can be coordinated, ...
- 12.5k
1
vote
Accepted
Why is it that the wh-word as a subject in the spec position cannot raise over an auxiliary verb like 'did'?
First of all, it is not the case that "who" cannot raise over "did" in T (or more precisely - over the tense affix), because it does so when moving from Spec-VP to Spec-TP anyway (under the VP-...
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