THE ILLOCUTIONARY STRUCTURE OF THE RUSSIAN QUESTIONS: MEANING AND EXPRESSION

A question includes two components: the interrogative proper component (it is what is asked in a question) and the interrogative improper component (it is about what something is asked). Segmental and suprasegmental means of expression of the corresponding meanings are analized. A classifi cation of interrogative sentences has been put forward. There are interrogative sentences in which the means of separating one component from the other are absent. The members of another set of the interrogative sentences have, on the contrary, a specifi c prosodic break between the two components. The members of the third set of the interrogative sentences are defi ned as the result of eliminating the interrogative proper component. The elliptical interrogative sentences going back to the questions with a break explain why the system of the Russian interrogative sentences without the segmental means of interrogativity carries the unusual for the Russian questions falling prosody.