스페인어 메아리 질문에 대한 고찰: 형식과 기능에 따른 분류

Abstract

This study attempts to examine the existing definitions of echo questions in the literature to typify them by form and function, in particular in terms of Pragmatic perspectives. To begin with, we have distinguished so-called ‘nonstandard questions’ from standard ones following Ilie(1994, 2015) and have differentiated the former among themselves to identify the topic of the current paper, that is, echo questions. In particular Spanish echo questions, as in other languages, have several formal indicators such as the complementizers ‘Que’ and ‘si’ at the beginning of the sentence, the circumflex intonation with a higher starting pitch and the presence of in-situ interrogative words to fulfill one of the two distinctive discourse functions: i) to confirm what has just been said by the interlocutor and then add the speaker’s own reaction such as surprise, ridicule, sarcasm, criticism afterwards and ii) to ask the interlocutor to repeat his or her utterance since the speaker has missed all or part of it. Lastly, we have dealt with the issue of to what extent echo questions can resemble its original utterance. The current work serves to lay the theoretical groundwork for a follow-up empirical study regarding echo questions in Spanish.