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In linguistics, a yes–no question, also known as a binary question, a polar question, or a general question, [1] is a question whose expected answer is one of two choices, one that provides an affirmative answer to the question versus one that provides a negative answer to the question.
Carl Sagan, in his work The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark said: "There are naïve questions, tedious questions, ill-phrased questions, questions put after inadequate self-criticism. But every question is a cry to understand the world. There is no such thing as a dumb question". [1]
An interrogative word or question word is a function word used to ask a question, such as what, which, when, where, who, whom, whose, why, whether and how. They are sometimes called wh-words , because in English most of them start with wh- (compare Five Ws ).
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A loaded question is a form of complex question that contains a controversial assumption (e.g., a presumption of guilt). [1] Such questions may be used as a rhetorical tool: the question attempts to limit direct replies to be those that serve the questioner's agenda. [2] The traditional example is the question "Have you stopped beating your wife?"
English tag questions, when they have the grammatical form of a question, are atypically complex, because they vary according to at least three factors: the choice of auxiliary, the negation and the intonation pattern. This is unique among the Germanic languages, but the Celtic languages operate in a very similar way.
Buttering-up is a type of a double-barreled question. [citation needed] It happens when one of the questions is a question that the questioned person will want to answer "yes" to, and another that the questioner hopes will be answered with the same "yes". For example, "Would you be a nice guy and lend me five bucks?"
The most common use of subject–auxiliary inversion in English is in question formation. It appears in yes–no questions: a. Sam has read the paper. – Statement b. Has Sam read the paper? – Question. and also in questions introduced by other interrogative words (wh-questions): a. Sam is reading the paper. – Statement b. What is Sam reading?