Responses to Questions in Mandarin Chinese

This paper presents the result of a preliminary examination on responses to ma questions and A-not-A questions in Mandarin Chinese. We recognize five types: predicate response, shi response, dui response, you response and hui response. Only the first three can function as felicitous positive responses to positive ma questions, instead of A-not-A questions. This difference is attributed to the confirmation-seeking vs. information-seeking distinction of question types. Only predicate- and hui responses can serve as felicitous negative responses to positive ma questions, rather than A-not-A questions. This discrepancy is ascribed to the negative connotation carried by bu shi/bu dui. As for negative ma questions, agreement with a negative proposition under inquiry can be expressed by shi- and dui responses, since they state confirmation of the negative proposition. However, disagreeing with a negative proposition under question can hardly be done, except by predicate responses, because double-negatives are psycho-linguistically more expensive and therefore strongly dispreferred.