Pragmatic functions of lê ‘what’ in Longxi Qiang: Beyond questioning

Wuxi Zheng
South China Normal University

This study examines the pragmatic functions of Longxi Qiang interrogative pronoun lê (‘what’) in natural conversation. Based on approximately ten hours of transcribed data, we found that lê is used in question and non-question functions such as filler, reversed polarity question marker, attention attractor, negative stance marker, non-specific referent, general extender, and universal term. Most instances of lê in the data serve various interactional functions rather than seeking information. The non-question functions of lê are related to negative, rather than positive, meaning; for example, negative evaluation, stance, or providing little to no information of the referents under discussion.

Publication history

Date received: 31 January 2024

Date accepted: 13 December 2024

Published online: 8 August 2025

Table of contents

In natural conversation, interrogative words are not only used to seek new information but also to perform diverse interactional functions, such as offers, requests, challenges, complaints, rhetorical questions, confirmation-seeking, disaffiliative stance-taking, fillers, and placeholders (Schegloff 1984; Koshik 2003; Steensig and Drew 2008; Lee and Sohn 2022). The word “question” refers to the interactional function of asking, while “interrogative” refers to the lexico-syntactic form a question takes (Steensig and Drew 2008, 8). In this article, the ‘what’-word question is used to indicate an utterance that serves as the first pair part of a question-answer pair, designating its interactional function. “Question” addresses the activity of asking questions, and “interrogative” specifies the particular lexico-syntactic features of a question.

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