The Politics of Questioning Aspects of UK and Ghanaian parliamentary question types

Abstract

In spite of the many authoritative classifications of questions, the
examination of questions in different institutional contexts continues to
generate new and interesting insights into the nature of questions.
Research shows that question forms and functions substantially differ in
institutional contexts such as courtroom, classroom, medical and
political/parliamentary contexts. Using data from the UK Prime
Minister’s Questions and Ghanaian Minister’s Questions, this paper
explores UK and Ghanaian parliamentary questions. Based on the
contextual properties of parliamentary questions, the paper categorises
questions into independent/direct yes/no interrogatives,
independent/direct wh-interrogatives, independent/direct alternate
interrogatives, dependent/indirect wh-interrogatives and multiple
interrogatives. The Ghanaian data contain two additional question forms,
namely, dependent/indirect yes/no interrogatives and dependent/indirect
alternate interrogatives. The paper further indicates that the major
difference between UK and Ghanaian parliamentary questions is indirect
yes/no interrogatives with mental process verbs. Again, using what I call
tellex (tell, explain) yes/no questions, I submit that indirectness is a key
feature of parliamentary questions, as it reflects the adversarial and
ideological nature of parliamentary discourse. I show that the tellex
questions are used as strategies and tactics for political point-scoring.