Wh-question

Wh-question is another term for content question. In a language with overt wh-movement, a question introduced by a wh-phrase: what have they bought? Otherwise, a question containing a wh-element. Distinguished from yes-no question.

Term properties

Altrnative spellings are WH-question and wh-question (with only the first element italicized).

Comments

The term is basically only appropriate for English, but not for other languages that do not have question words beginning with wh-.

Origin

The term appears to have been common only since the 1960s. It is based on the equally new term wh-word (or wh-pronoun).

Other languages

German W-Frage

Links

Utrecht Lexicon of Linguistics

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