Varieties of Polar Question Bias: Lessons from Vietnamese

This paper describes the use conditions of different polar question constructions in Vietnamese and their consequences for the description and analysis of polar question bias. We argue that the behavior of questions with the final particle à highlights the utility and relevance of the theoretical notion of projected bias for describing polar question bias, distinct from and in addition to original bias based on the speaker’s prior beliefs and contextual bias based on evidence available in the context. We also argue that some but not all bias requirements may be described as due to pragmatic competition between different question forms.