Isn't my question a real question? A Pragmatic Approach to Polar Questions
Marcello Vavassori

Abstract:
This paper proposes a homogeneous pragmatic approach to the
interpretation of Polar Question also known as
yn-question. Maintaining a classical semantic interpretation of a
question as the set of its possible answers the attention will focus
on the pragmatic impact of these kinds of linguistic objects. In
particular a general condition of use for Polar Question will be
proposed in order to give an account of the appropriateness of
different types of questions with the same semantic representation.
By means of this notion some facts about the relation between
questions, contexts of use and speakers' beliefs will be pointed out.