Question sequences in English TED Talks
-
Michele Cardo
and
Agnès Celle
Abstract
Questions are used across discourse settings for a variety of purposes. The meaning and use of questions has been extensively studied in discourse types which feature multiple conversation participants. However, much research remains to be conducted on the function of questions in discourse settings which feature one main speaker, such as TED Talks. The current study is an attempt to fill that gap. We examine a corpus of 18 English TED Talks to understand how sequential questions fit into the larger discursive context of presentational speech. We argue that question sequences are used by TED speakers primarily to evoke salience and simulate interaction between the speaker and addressee. The salient use of question sequences reflects a level of monologue which is inherent in TED Talks due to the single-speaker presentational format. Concurrently, the interactive potential created by question sequences indicates that TED Talks contain some level of dialogue. Therefore, the analysis of salient and interactive question sequences calls into question the discourse classification of TED Talks along monologic–dialogic lines. Rather than prescribe a strict monologic classification of TED Talks, we argue that TED Talks should be considered to be in a discourse category which incorporates elements of dialogue in monologue.
Funding source: IDEX UP
Award Identifier / Grant number: 2021-I-053
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank Loïc Liégeois for his invaluable support and collaboration on this project, as well as all of the researchers working on the TransQuest project at Université Paris Cité. We would also like to acknowledge the funding provided by IDEX UP 2021-I-053, TransQuest, PI Agnès Celle.
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