Echo question

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The echo question (Greek ἠχώ (echo), ἠχή (eche) 'sound') is a special type of question that replies to a previous utterance in a speech context and asks for a confirmation or explanation of the previous utterance by reformulating the original sentence.

Echo questions are mainly used when the addressee of an utterance thinks they have not understood it correctly or completely, or when the utterance does not correspond to existing expectations or information. As the examples below show, echo questions can follow both question sentences with a decision question as well as statements of declarative sentences or command sentences ( imperative sentences ).

An echo question that follows a decision question as in example (1) is introduced with the conjunction (part of speech) or subjunction “ob”. As a question of reassurance, in an echo question like in example (2) the previous utterance can also be repeated with increasing intonation. An echo question that relates to an imperative sentence contains a paraphrase “should”.

The flow of speech or conversation is interrupted by echo questions and only continued after the echo sequence. With regard to the communicative intention, a distinction can be made between inquiry and inquiry in the echo question. While the inquiry serves to ensure understanding, the inquiry is used to problematize what has been said before if there are doubts as to its appropriateness or legitimacy. Depending on the context or context of the speech, the echo question is often used to signal disbelief, irony or displeasure.

Within the echo questions , in addition to basic echo decision sets, there are also echo-w questions , in which, as in example (4), a question word is used to ask for an explanation of a certain part or details of the previous utterance. The question word for focusing is emphasized in the intonation; it can be at the beginning, in the middle or at the end of the echo-w question. As in example (5), the focus can refer to more than one clause; the echo-w question can also contain a multiple query, as in example (6).

Examples

  1. Are you coming the day after tomorrow - Will I come the day after tomorrow?
  2. Hans called and invited us on Saturday. - Hans invited us on Saturday?
  3. Turn off the light! - Should I turn off the light?
  4. How long will he stay in Berlin?
  5. Peter made truffles. Peter got what?
  6. Who used the car and when?

swell

  • Marga Reis: echo-w-sentences and echo-w-questions. In: Marga Reis, Inger Rosengren (Ed.): Questions and questions. Saarbrücken 1990. Niemeyer, Tübingen 1991, ISBN 3-484-30257-7 , pp. 49-76 ( German Society for Linguistics. Papers on the occasion of the annual conference of the German Society for Linguistics 12 = Linguistic Works 257).
  • Helmut Glück (Ed.): Metzler Lexicon Language. 4th updated and revised edition. JB Metzler, Stuttgart et al. 2010, ISBN 978-3-476-02335-3 .
  • Christoph Schubert: echo question. In: Dictionaries for language and communication science (WSK) Online , by Verlag Walter de Gruyter [4] . (paid access)

Web links

Wiktionary: Echofrage  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations
  • Martina Rost-Roth: Questions - inquiries - echo questions . Forms and functions of interrogations in spoken German. In: Linguistics online . tape 13 , no. 1 , 2003, p. 325–378 , doi : 10.13092 / lo.13.882 ( bop.unibe.ch [accessed on April 13, 2020]).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See Christoph Schubert: Echofrage . In: Dictionaries for Linguistics and Communication Studies (WSK) Online , by Verlag Walter de Gruyter [1] . (paid access)
  2. ↑ See Christoph Schubert: Echofrage . In: Dictionaries on Linguistics and Communication Studies (WSK) Online , by Verlag Walter de Gruyter [2] . (paid access)
  3. ↑ See Christoph Schubert: Echo-w question. In: Dictionaries for Linguistics and Communication Studies (WSK) Online , by Verlag Walter de Gruyter [3] . (Fee-based access)