Contrastive topics in pairing answers: A cross-linguistic production study
Stavros Skopeteas, Caroline Féry · 2007
1. A typological questionnaire on information structure In this paper we present the results of a cross-linguistic production study bearing on the answers to single and double wh-questions, called ‘single answers ’ and ‘pairing answers ’ in the following. This study is part of a large experimental set-up designed to create a cross-linguistic spoken data archive for the study of the realization of information structure. For this purpose, a Questionnaire on Information Structure (QUIS, Skopeteas et al. 2006) has been developed, which contains the following modules for the creation of a data set in an object language: (a) The first module of QUIS is a classic grammatical questionnaire in the sense of Comrie and Smith (1977). It contains questions about the ty-pological properties of the object language at all layers of grammar, with special emphasis on those properties that are relevant for the en-coding of information structure (prosody, morphology and syntax). (b) The main part of QUIS aims at the elicitation of spontaneous spoken