ABSTRACT

This article examines three practices in responses to polar questions in French: prefacing a polar response token (e.g., oui [“yes”] or non [“no”]) with the particle ah (e.g., ah oui), prefacing with the particle ben (e.g., ben oui), and producing more than one token (e.g., oui=oui). The analysis suggests that such responses serve to take issue with the question; specifically, respondents display the answer to be obvious or redundant, challenge the questioner’s unknowing stance, or disalign with the further action implications of the question while still providing a polar answer. Comparisons are made with other practices for exerting agency in responses and with resources described for other languages. The resources available in French help participants differentiate in which way the respondent takes issue with the question, notwithstanding significant local particularization by reference to the specific question and its context. Data are in French, with English translation.

摘要

本文研究了用法语回答极性问题的三种实践：用粒子ah（例如ah oui）作为极性响应标记（例如oui [“是”]或非[“ no”]）的前缀，用粒子作为前缀ben（例如ben oui），并产生多个令牌（例如oui = oui）。分析表明，这种回答对问题产生了质疑；具体来说，受访者会显示答案是显而易见的或多余的，挑战提问者的不知所措的立场，或者与问题的进一步行动含义相抵触，同时仍然提供极性答案。与其他在响应中发挥代理作用的实践以及针对其他语言描述的资源进行了比较。尽管参考具体问题及其上下文进行了大量本地说明，但法语中可用的资源可帮助参与者以不同的方式区分受访者对问题的看法。数据为法文，并提供英文翻译。