Echo questions in German and Japanese

Abstract

Although t he echo question is restricted in its use in the sense t hat it has to repeat pari of the preceding utterance, it can at the same time contain certain constituents which are not likely to be found in the other types of questions. This latter point, however, has sofar attracted little attention of the researches, who are generally interested in defining a common logicosemantic structure for all the types of question. The present paper proposes to examine such problems äs the relationship between the echo question and direct and indirect speech and the characteristic properties of the echo question äs contrasted with the yes-no question, the -question and the whquestion. In the concluding section, afunctional classification is offered on the basis of the relationship between the echo question and its answer.