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In linguistics, an A-not-A question is a polar question that offers two opposite possibilities for the answer. This disjunctive question is predominantly found in Sinitic and some Altaic languages that offers a choice between an affirmative predicate and its negative counterpart. They are functionally regarded as a type of "yes/no" question, since they are very similar to a large extent. "A-not-A" questions are often interpreted as having a 'neutral' presupposition or is used in a neutral context.〔Law, Ann (2001) A-not-A questions in Cantonese. UCLWPL 13, 295-318.〕 This means that the person asking the A-not-A question does not assume the truth value of the proposition expressed by the question. The “A-not-A” question structure is commonly found in Chinese. The overarching principle is that of contrasting the positive and negative form of a premise side by side. A characteristic property of this structure is the restriction to not use YES/NO answers, and requiring an echo response instead. Therefore to properly answer the query, the recipient must select the positive or negative version and use it in the formation of their response. ==A-not-A questions in English== An example of an A-not-A question in English is in (1.a) "Are you happy or sad?". The response to this question must be an echo answer, stating either "I am happy," or the correct alternative, "I am sad". In other words, this sentence is a leading question, where the speaker has an expectation as to what the answer will be. In contrast, (1.b) "Are you happy or not?" is a neutral question where the answer to this can be yes or no in response to the first and more explicitly stated alternative.〔Matthew S. Dryer. 2013. Position of Polar Question Particles. In: Dryer, Matthew S. & Haspelmath, Martin (eds.) The World Atlas of Language Structures Online. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.〕 (1.a) Q: ''Are you happy or sad?'' A: ''I am happy''. ''I am sad''. (1.b) Q: ''Are you happy or not (happy)?'' A: ''Yes.'' ''No.'' A-not-A questions are not usually used in English, but the following example shows how A-not-A questions are answered. (2) Q: ''Did John eat beans or not?'' A: ''(Yes,) John ate beans.'' ''(No,) John didn't eat beans.'' '' *Yes.'' '' *No.'' As seen in this example, simply answering "Yes" or "No" does not suffice as a response to the question. This question must be answered in the "A" or "not A" form. If this question was asked in the A-not-A pattern, its direct form would be "Did John eat or not eat the beans?" 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「A-not-A question」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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