Interrogatives in cognitive activities and in speech of the semantic subject (evidence from Russian, French, English and German)

Chervony A. M., Pavlenko A. E.

The article deals with the role of the interrogative in the cognitive and speech activity as well as thinking of the semantic subject. The concept of semantic subject is given. The types of interrogative sentences are considered on the material of Russian and three foreign languages (English, German and French). Their functions are analyzed in dialogic speech from the point of view of logic and linguistics. The research focuses on interrogative sentences, which have as their goal the identification of a semantic subject. The article provides a semantic analysis of the pronoun «who» used in interrogative sentences of various types. Special attention in the article is devoted to the consideration of interrogatives used in the secondary function, namely: interrogative rhetorical sentences and interrogative sentences that generalize the semantic subject.

Keywords:semantic subject, interrogative, dialogic speech, question-answer complex, primary function, secondary function