- published: 23 Oct 2015
- views: 2491603
A question may be either a linguistic expression used to make a request for information, or else the request itself made by such an expression. This information may be provided with an answer.
Questions are normally put forward or asked using interrogative sentences. However they can also be formed by imperative sentences, which normally express commands: "Tell me what two plus two is"; conversely, some expressions, such as "Would you pass the salt?", have the grammatical form of questions but actually function as requests for action, not for answers, making them allofunctional. (A phrase such as this could, theoretically, also be viewed not merely as a request but as an observation of the other person's desire to comply with the request given.)
Questions have a number of uses. 'Raising a question' may guide the questioner along an avenue of research (see Socratic method). A rhetorical question is asked to make a point, and does not expect an answer (often the answer is implied or obvious). Pre-suppositional questions, such as "Have you stopped beating your wife?" may be used as a joke or to embarrass an audience, because any answer a person could give would imply more information than he was willing to affirm. Questions can also be titles of works of art and literature (e.g. Leo Tolstoy's short story How Much Land Does a Man Need? and the movie What About Bob?), or a scholarly monograph (e.g. Who Asked the First Question?). McKenzie lists 17 types of questions in his "Questioning Toolkit" and suggests that thinkers must orchestrate and combine these types in his article "Punchy Question Combinations". Examples of his question types include the irreverent question, the apparently irrelevant question, the hypothetical question and the unanswerable question. Questions can be infelicitous as well, based on incorrect and illogical premises (e.g. "Why do cats have green wings?").
And did they teach you love?
Yes, they did but poor and hidden.
And did they teach you death?
Yes, they did but just a part of it.
What does that mean, a part of it?
It means that they taught us how to kill
They taught it and they practised it
They never told us how to die
Death's place in life and how to face it,
See how sad they end their lives...
And if I ask these questions
What would you say if the answer's given the same time?
And if you know these questions
Why can't you see that it's more than just a state of mind?
And did they teach to hate?
Yes, they taught it and they stirred it
On the so-called enemy
Not on the own misery.
What did they do with their own lives?
They only did what you'd expect
After the lessons they had had,
They've never seen the other way
The might freedom in their minds
They will never reach their size.
And if I ask these questions
What would you say if the answer's given the same time?
And if you know these questions
Why can't you see that it's more than just a state of mind?
In a way we're data banks
Informations collectors
And all worse that we contend
Is a false program inside
We just need to get it right
Check it out what you have learned.
And you will learn to love
You will even learn to die
And you will learn ‘bout hate
In a way that is meant.