Indirect question

An indirect question (or more linguistically, embedded interrogative or interrogative content clause) is a subclause that looks like a question.

In Toaq, this is a content clause starting with mâ (if/whether), or containing a question word like hı (which?) or rı (this or that?).

Bủ dủa jí mâ ảo chỏ súq ní lủa da.
I don't know if you'd like this story.

Dủashao jí tîsha nháo rào hı da.
I wonder when they'll arrive.

Overview

• Rogative predicates are predicates like wonder/ask/be curious about, that only make sense with interrogative complements (I wonder which boat is his, not *I wonder that the SS Toaq is his boat).
• Responsive predicates are predicates like know/remember/forget/be certain/conjecture, that appear to accept both declarative complements (I know the SS Toaq is his boat) and interrogative complements (I know which boat is his).
  • Within this category, veridical predicates are predicates like know/remember/forget, which when used with an interrogative complement, entail that they hold of the declarative complement that correctly answers the question (given I know which boat is his and his boat is the SS Toaq, we can conclude I know the SS Toaq is his).
  • And non-veridical predicates are predicates like be certain/agree/conjecture, which when used with an interrogative complement, do not entail that they hold of the "correct answer".
• The theory that top-level questions (Which boat is yours?) are reduceable to an imperative statement with an indirect question (Bring it about that I know which boat is yours!) is known as the imperative-epistemic theory of wh-questions, and seems to be pretty widely accepted.
• The issue that questions that happen to have the same answer shouldn't be considered equivalent (e.g. I know which boat is his vs. I know who owns the SS Toaq), is known as the problem of convergent knowledge.

See also

A summary from a philosophical perspective, of which the above overview is a further summary:

• Embedded (or indirect) questions in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

Some papers about semantics:

• "The semantics of question-embedding predicates", Wataru Uegaki (2019)
• "A Uniform Semantics for Embedded Interrogatives: An answer, not necessarily the answer", Benjamin Spector & Paul Égré (2015)