Negative Bias in Polar Questions

Abstract

This paper investigates the discourse function of negative bias in questions. How and what such questions contribute to the logical form of discourse has not been the focus of previous work. We believe that such a discourse oriented approach, however, provides useful insight into the formal characteristics of bias. Adopting this perspective, we develop an analysis of biased questions as complex speech acts, i.e. illocutionary acts comprised of both an assertion and a question. This analysis, we feel, is useful in accounting for the behavior of biased questions in discourse and dialogue.