QUESTIONS

2.1. Direct / Indirect Questions

Like Romanian, English makes use of two main types of questions:

- direct questions (Did Susan give Tom the parcel?)
- indirect questions (He asked if Susan had given Tom the parcel)

We shall leave the problem of indirect questions aside, for a subsequent section. This
section will only deal with the opposition between direct and indirect questions, focusing on
direct questions mainly.
If we try to analyze the examples above, it appears that direct questions are
characterized by:

a) the placing of an auxiliary in front of the subject:

(1) Will Jane meet the president today?
(O să facă Jane cunoştinţă cu preşedintele azi?)

b) the initial positioning of an interrogative or wh – element

(2) Who will Jane meet?
(Cu cine o să se întâlnească Jane?)
(3) What is she talking about?
(Ce spune acolo?)

c) rising ‘question’ intonation

It can be said that the interrogative force of direct questions is provided by two of the
characteristics we mentioned: the fact that the subject changes places with the auxiliary, by
means of Subject Auxiliary Inversion, and the specific rising intonation a speaker attaches to
the sentence he utters.
Unlike direct questions, indirect ones do not make use of Subject Auxiliary Inversion,
and their intonation is not rising (and this is obvious even graphically, since we do not use a
question mark with indirect questions). In the case of indirect questions, the interrogative
force we were speaking about has been taken over by the main verb that introduces the
indirect question. Compare:

(4) Where are you going?

(Unde te duci?)
to
(5) He asked her where she was going.
(A întrebat-o unde se duce)

The fact that the meaning of indirect questions is tightly linked to the main verb that
introduces them is reinforced in English by the necessity that the tense within the indirect
question should correspond to the tense in the main clause (that is, the rules of the sequence of
the tenses need to be observed: in example (5), the Past Tense in the main clause matches the
Past Continuous in the subordinate). It would be therefore incorrect to say something like:

(6) He asked her *where she is going.

because, in this case, the sequence of the tenses is violated.

Likewise, it would be wrong to say (in standard English):

(7) He asked her *where was she going.

Since the question is not direct any more, Subject Auxiliary Inversion is not required, and

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the sentence would be deemed grammatically wrong.

2.2. Quirk’s Classification of Direct Questions

A first possible classification of questions is related to whether these questions are long or
short. Short questions tend to lose some of their content, being typical of spoken language.
Compare for instance:

(8) What do you want?

(Ce vrei?)
to
(9) What?
(Ce?)
or
(10) Where are you going?
(Unde te duci?)
to
(11) Where to?
(Încotro?)

Another criterion of classification is, as Quirk shows, the type of answer the
respective question requires. In this case, one can speak of three classes of questions: those
questions that need a yes/no answer, those that need an elaborate answer and those that need
an alternative answer. Let us provide examples and a short presentation of each of the
aforementioned types of direct questions.

2.2.1. Yes / No Questions

As their name suggests, yes/ no questions are those particular questions that receive a
yes/ no answer.
Here are a couple of examples:

(12) Have you read Great Expectations?

(Ai citit Marile Speranţe?)
(13) Did you go to the party?
(Te-ai dus la petrecere?)

Since questions qualify as non-assertive contexts, one would expect them to make use
of Negative Polarity Items:
(14) Did anyone call last night?
(M-a căutat cineva aseară?)
(15) Has the boat left yet?
(A plecat deja vasul?)

Those yes / no questions that prefer to use Affirmative Polarity Items, instead of
Negative Polarity ones, are said to be positively – oriented, that is the answers to these
questions are supposed to be positive:

(16) Did someone call last night?

(M-a căutat cineva aseară?)
Yes, they did.
(Da).
(17) Has the boat left already?
(A plecat deja vasul?)
Yes, it has.
(Da).

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 A sub-type of yes/ no questions is represented by the so-called declarative questions,
which are so named because they are not characterized by Subject Auxiliary Inversion. The
declarative question is a type of question which is identical in form to a statement, except for
the final rising question intonation:

(18) You realize what the RISKS are?

(Îţi dai seama de riscuri?)
(19) He didn’t finish the RACE?
(N-a terminat cursa?)

Another sub-type of yes / no questions is supplied by negative questions:

(20) Didn’t you know she was my Mum?

(Nu ştiai că e mama mea?)
(21) Can’t you be more patient?
(Nu poţi să ai şi tu mai multă răbdare?)
(22) Won’t you tell me who you went out with?
(Nu-mi spui şi mie cu cine te-ai întâlnit?)

2.2.2 Wh – questions
Wh- questions are formed with the aid of one of the following simple interrogative
words:
who/ whom/ whose, what, which,
when, where, how, why
The wh-phrase appears in sentence-initial position and Subject Auxiliary Inversion
takes place:

(23) a. On what did you base your prediction? (formal)

b. What did you base your prediction on? (informal)
(Pe ce îţi bazezi pronosticul?)

Note that there is a group of informal intensificatory wh – words (who ever, what
ever, why ever, etc) that convey to the question an emphatic meaning:

(24) What ever did you do that for?

(De ce oi fi făcut tu asta?)
(25) Why ever didn’t he tell me?
(De ce oare nu mi-o fi spus?)

There are, of course, other forms of intensification available:

(26) Who on earth did this?

(Cine o fi făcut una ca asta?)
(27) Who the hell does he think he is? (impolite)
(Cine naiba se crede?)
(28) Why in heaven’s name did you say that? (impolite)
(Pentru numele lui Dumnezeu, de ce ai spus aşa ceva?)

There are certain cases where there are two wh – phrases present in the question:

(29) Susan has hidden something somewhere.

 What has she hidden where?
(Ce a ascuns şi unde l-a pus?)
 Where has she hidden what?
(Unde şi ce a ascuns?)

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2.2.3. Alternative questions
Alternative questions are those questions that receive an alternative answer:

(30) A: Would you like to smoke a cigarette or a pipe?

B: A cigarette.
(A: Fumezi o ţigară sau o pipă?
B: O ţigară.)

Any positive yes/no question can be converted into an alternative one by adding the phrase or
not, or a matching negative clause:

(31) Yes / no question: Are you coming?

Vii?
(32) Alternative question: Are you coming or not?
(Vii sau nu?)
Are you coming or aren’t you?
(Vii sau nu vii?)

2.3. Minor Types of Questions

There are two minor types of questions we would like to mention in the following
subsections: tag questions and echo questions.

2.3.1. Tag Questions

Tag questions, or disjunctive questions are mostly typical of spoken English. They
can be attached to:

 an imperative

(33) Open the door, will you?

Deschide uşa, da?
(34) Let’s go there, shall we?
(Hai să mergem acolo, da?)

but the most frequent kind of tag questions are the ones attached to:

 declarative sentences

(35) She went to Prague, didn’t she?

(S-a dus la Praga, nu-i aşa?)

We shall deal with the latter type in more detail. Depending on whether they match
the polarity of the main sentence or not, tag questions can be:

 constant polarity tags

Constant polarity tags have the same polarity as the host sentence (i.e. if the host – or
main – sentence is affirmative, the tag is affirmative too; if the host sentence is negative,
the tag is negative too). The suggestion is that in this case, the speaker using the tag
disagrees with what the main sentence states. In this way, constant polarity tags can be a
means of expressing irony, sarcasm; this is why constant polarity tags have also been
called “reactive tags”, or “comment tags”, since they reveal the speaker’s reaction to the
situation he comments upon:

(36) John: And Sue hasn’t graduated yet.

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 ( Şi Sue nu şi-a dat încă licenţa)
Harry: She hasn’t graduated yet, hasn’t she?
(Aha, deci nu şi-a dat licenţa, hm?)

(37) A: Where’s the rest of the money?

(Unde e restul de bani?)
B: I’m afraid it’s all spent.
(Din păcate, au fost cheltuiţi.)
A: Oh, it’s all spent, is it?
(Deci, au fost cheltuiţi, hm?)

 reversed polarity tags

Reversed polarity tags are those tags that are negative when the host sentence is
affirmative and vice versa.
Depending on whether the intonation of the respective tag is rising, or falling, reversed
polarity tags can be split in their turn into two categories:

 with a rising intonation, the speaker is not sure about what he says and he
expects an answer:
(38) They’re moving, aren’t they?
(Se mută, nu?)

 with a falling intonation, the speaker is sure about what he says and doesn’t
really expect an answer:

(39) He caused the accident, didn’t he?

(El e cel care a cauzat accidentul, nu?)

2.3.2. Echo Questions

Quirk discusses two categories of echo questions:

2.3.2.1. Recapitulatory echo questions - questions which repeat part or all of the message, as
a way of having its content confirmed
In their turn, recapitulatory echo questions can be further split into:

a) general echo questions – characterized by the fact that they have the same order as
declarative questions (see 2.2.1.) but a rising intonation (instead of a falling one, as
is the case with declarative questions):

(40) A: I didn’t like that meat.

(Nu mi-a plăcut friptura aia.)
B: You didn’t like it?
( Nu ţi-a plăcut?)
(41) A: My husband speaks Chinese.
(Soţul meu ştie chineză.)
B: Chinese?
(Chineză?)

b) special echo questions – the wh- word can be placed in sentence initial position or
not. If the wh- phrase is fronted, Subject Auxiliary Inversion takes place,
accompanied by rising intonation:

(42) A:I saw Bill yesterday.

(Ieri l-am văzut pe Bill.)

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 B: You saw WHOM yesterday?
(Pe cine ai văzut ieri?!)
(43) A: Switch that light off.
(Închide lumina aia.)
B: Switch WHAT off?
(Ce să închid?!)
(44) A: We went to Amsterdam.
(Ne-am dus la Amsterdam.)
B: WHERE did you go?
(Unde ai fost?!)
(45) A: He is an astronaut.
(E astronaut)
B: WHAT is he?
(Ce e?!)

Such sentences often express surprise, consternation, disbelief, misunderstanding:

(46) A: My husband eats bugs.

(Soţul meu mănâncă insecte.)
B: He eats WHAT?
(Ce mănâncă_?!)

2.3.2.2. Explicatory Echo Questions – ask for the clarification, rather than the repetition, of
something just said. The difference between recapitulatory and explicatory echo questions lies
in the type of intonation they possess: as we have seen, with recapitulatory echo questions,
intonation is rising, whereas with explicatory echo questions, intonation is falling:

(47) A: Take a look at this.

(Uită-te la asta.)
B: Take a look at WHAT?
(La ce să mă uit?)
(48) A: Oh, dear, I’ve lost the letter.
(Vai, am pierdut scrisoarea.)
B: WHICH letter have you lost? (i.e. which letter do you mean, rather than did
you say, you have lost?)
(Ce scrisoare ai pierdut?)