QuestionsElliott, Dale E. (1965). “Interrogation in Chinese and English.” Project on Linguistic Analysis 11:56-117. From: http://eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/0000019b/80/33/3f/d6.pdf

Li, Charles N. & Thompson, Sandra A. (1981). Mandarin Chinese - A Functional Reference Grammar. Los Angeles: University of California Press.

Swan, Michael (2005). Practical English Usage, Third Edition. Oxford University Press

I. The 4 major types of questions in Chinese (see the English section for

others)1. Question words: 谁，什么，怎么（样），为什么，多，多少，几

2. Disjunctive questions are when a choice of two options forms a question: 你去还是他来

3. Tag questions as composed of statement followed by an A-not-A form: 对不对，是不是，行不行，好不好。

4. Particle question: 你好吗

1.1 Question words

• “谁 who”, “什么 what”，怎么“（样） how, why” “，为什么 for

what=why?” “，多 how” “，多少 how much, how many” “，几 how many”, 哪

“儿 哪里 where”, “哪 （一个） which one”, “哪些 which ones”, “干嘛 what for” “what are you doing”.

1.2 Question words

• In general, question words occur in the same position in the sentence as do nonquestion words that have the same grammatical function.–谁请张三吃饭？Who invited Zhangsan to eat?–你请谁吃饭？ *You invited who to eat? Who

did you invite to eat?–你们做什么？ *You do what? What are you

doing?

1.3 Question words

–怎么说。 *How to say? How do you say…? How can I say…? What do I say?

–你怎么写小说。 *You how (or why) write novel? How (or why) do you write novels?

–他多高？ *He how tall? How tall is he?–你有多少钱？ *You have how much money?

How much money do you have?–你买了几个鸡子？ *You bought how many

chickens? How many chickens did you buy?

1.4 Question words serving as subjects or directs objects

(declarative)• 我不知道谁投了我的手表。 I don't know

who stole my watch.

• 你看他在写什么。 *You see he is writing what. Look at what he is writing.

• 你来不来，没有关系。 *You come or not, there is no relevance. It doesn't matter whether or not you come.

2. Disjunctive questions• These are either or questions and there are two

types:1. First, questions with declarative constituents

connected by 还是。你卖报纸还是开计程车？*You sell papers or drive taxi? Do you sell papers or drive a taxi?

2. Second, an A not A question:• 他在家不在家？她在不在家？他在家不在？ *He/she at

home or not. Is he/she at home, or not? Is he/she at home?• 你喜欢她的衬衫不喜欢？ *You like her blouse (shirt), or

not like? Do you like her blouse (shirt) or not? Do you like her blouse (shirt)?

• 你认不认识他？ *Do you recognize him? Do you know him?

3. Tag questions

• Tag questions are functionally different from the other types of Mandarin questions in that they serve to seek confirmation of the statement that occurs before the tag.

• 你们是九点钟开门的，对不对– You (plural) is 9 o’clock open, right or not.– You open at 9 o’clock, right?

• 她在耕田，是不是？– She’s plowing the field, right?

4. Particle questions

• 他又喝酒又抽烟吗 ? He both drinks (wine) and smokes, right? Does he both drink and smoke?

• 你好吗 ? 我很好 ,你呢 ? How are you? I’m very good, how (what) about you? I’m very good, and you?

• 你喝水吧。 *You drink water, okay? Why don't you drink some water?

II. English Questions: Basic rules

• Auxiliary verb before subject:– Have you read my letter yet? (Assumes that you

will read it soon.)*You have read my letter?– When is Inez coming? *Inez when is coming?

• When there is no auxiliary verb, we use do, did or does to form a question.– Do you like ice cream? *You like ice cream?– What does that mean? *That means what?

English basic rules 2

• “Do” is not used with auxiliary verbs or with be.

– Can you tell me the time? *Do you (can) tell me the time?

• Only the auxiliary verb is placed before the subject, not the whole verb.

– Is your mother coming tomorrow? *Tomorrow your mother is coming?

English basic rules 3

• After do, we use the infinitive (without to).– What does the boss want? *What does the

boss wants.

• When who, which, what or whose is the subject (or part of the subject) do is not normally used.

– Who phoned? (Who is the subject.)– Who did you phone? (Who is the object.)

English basic rules 4

• In an indirect question, we do not put an auxiliary before the subject, and we do not use a question mark.

– Tell me when you are leaving. *Tell me you when are leaving?

1. Declarative questions

• In spoken English, we do not always use interrogative word order where the questioner thinks he knows the answer to his question.

– You're working late tonight?– Are you working late tonight?

• Compare Chinese

2. Rhetorical questions• Questions with an obvious answer can be

used simply as a way of drawing attention to something.

– Do you know what time it is? (=you're late)– *Do you know what time is it?

– Where's my money? (=you haven't paid me yet)

– Have you lost your tongue? (Why don't you say something?) ni de zui yan la ma?

– Didn't I tell you it would rain? (I told you it would rain.)

– Chinese: *You've returned? (你回来了吗 )

– *Have you eaten? (ni chi fan le ma)

3. Echo questions• To question what has been said, a speaker

may simply repeat ('echo') what he/she has heard. A rising tone is common.

– I'm getting married. You're getting married?

• To question one part of the sentence, we can repeat the rest of the sentence and put a stressed question word in place of the part we are asking about.

– We're going to Hawaii this summer. You're going where?

– Compare Chinese.

4. Reply questions

• Short questions are often used in conversation to show that the listener is paying attention and interested. They are constructed with auxiliary verb + pronoun, like tag questions (below).

– It was a terrible party. Was it? *Is it?– We had a lovely holiday. Did you? *Is it?

5. Subordinate that-clauses

• A wh-question usually refers to the main clause which starts with the question word. However, questions can also refer to subordinate that-clauses after verbs like wish, think or say. That is usually dropped.

– Who do you wish (that) you'd married, then?– How long do you think (that) we should wait?

Subordinate that-clauses 2

• That must be dropped when the question word refers to the subject of the subordinate clause.

– Who do you think is outside? *Who do you think that is outside?

– What do you suppose will happen now? *What do you suppose that will happen now?

6. Tag questions

• Question tags are the small questions that often come at the ends of sentences in speech and sometimes in informal writing.

– You like jiaozi, don’t you?– The film wasn't very good, was it? No.– Dian yin bu zenma yang, shi ma? Shi– You're not the new secretary, are you?– It's not warm, is it?+– You couldn't lend me a pound, could you?– There weren't any problems, where there?

Tags 2

• Non-negative tags are used after sentences containing negative words like never, no, nobody, hardly, scarcely and little.

– You never say what you're thinking, do you? *...don't you?

– It's no good, is it? *It's no good, isn't it?– Nothing can happen, can it?

Generalizations• In both English and Chinese, question word questions are those in

which some grammatical constituent is questioned. However, the construction of the question word sentences may differ significantly.

• The general form of disjunctive questions is similar for both English and Chinese. However, when two different sentences are conjoined, the differences may be very small, or there may be no lexical similarities at all.

• Both Chinese and English have tag questions, and the semantic function of the tag is the same in both languages. However, there are grammatical differences in the processes for the actual realization of the tag in English and Chinese.

• Both Chinese and English have negative questions. A problem arises when agreeing with a negative question. In Chinese one uses an affirmative answer, while in English one uses a negative answer.

• Only Chinese has particle questions.• Both Chinese and English have declarative questions, rhetorical

questions, echo questions and reply questions. However, as with the other kinds of questions, the the syantax and lexis may differ significantly.

Pedagogical concerns

• Word order and inflection is always a problem when going from Chinese to English. Teachers need to constantly reinforce the differences with exercises and readings.

• Students have to learn the difference in logic when answering negative questions. A way to help correct this problem is to require the students to answer in a complete sentence.– You aren’t going tonight? No (*yes) I am not.

• Teachers need to be sure to ask question in complete sentences and avoid using Chinglish.