A Taxonomy of Real-Life Questions and Answers in Dialogue

Example 1 Symmetry of form and function A: Why are you crying? B: Because I hurt myself. In this example, the question is of Wh-form and its function is Ask Feature. As the answer starts by ‘Because’, it is classified as of Wh-form and its function Give Feature. Therefore, the semantic requirement imposed by the question is fulfilled by the answer. Example 2 Asymmetry of form and function A: so- wh- where can you move to? B: Well...you know...I don’t even know where I’m living next year. In ex. 2, the question is of Wh-form and its function is Ask Feature. Yet, the answer is fuzzy and is classified as of Uncertain form and Give Uncertainty function. Therefore, the syntactic requirement is not fulfilled. Next, we define the notions of mismatch of form (resp. function): when there is an asymmetry of form (resp. function) between a question and its answer, a mismatch of form (resp. function) occurs if and only if the form (resp. function) of the given answer doesn’t fall under one of the forms (resp. functions) accepted by the question. The identification of compatible questions and answers goes through tables of compatibility. They map the forms and functions that can combine with each other (in both cases of symmetry and asymmetry). In Table 2, question forms are associated with a set of answer forms that do not trig