How can questions be informative before they are answered?
(2012) In Episteme 9(2). p.189-204- Abstract
- We examine a special case of inquiry games inspired by Hintikka's interrogative model of inquiry, and give an account of the informational import of asking questions. We focus on yes-no questions, which always carry information about the questioner's strategy, but never about the state of Nature, and show how strategic information reduces uncertainty through inferences about other players' goals and strategies. This uncertainty cannot always be captured by information structures of classical game theory. We conclude on the connection with Gricean pragmatics and contextual constraints on interpretation.
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/2756654
- author
- Genot, Emmanuel LU and Jacot, Justine LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2012
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- in
- Episteme
- volume
- 9
- issue
- 2
- pages
- 189 - 204
- publisher
- Edinburgh University Press
- external identifiers
-
- wos:000310511600008
- scopus:85010685955
- ISSN
- 1750-0117
- DOI
- 10.1017/epi.2012.8
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 0c18f712-485b-4f32-8c8f-7e6e39e036f8 (old id 2756654)
- alternative location
- http://lu.academia.edu/JacotJustine/Papers/505024/How_Can_Questions_Be_Informative_Before_They_Are_Answered_Strategic_Information_In_Interrogative_Games
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-01 10:23:21
- date last changed
- 2022-01-25 22:46:46
@article{0c18f712-485b-4f32-8c8f-7e6e39e036f8, abstract = {{We examine a special case of inquiry games inspired by Hintikka's interrogative model of inquiry, and give an account of the informational import of asking questions. We focus on yes-no questions, which always carry information about the questioner's strategy, but never about the state of Nature, and show how strategic information reduces uncertainty through inferences about other players' goals and strategies. This uncertainty cannot always be captured by information structures of classical game theory. We conclude on the connection with Gricean pragmatics and contextual constraints on interpretation.}}, author = {{Genot, Emmanuel and Jacot, Justine}}, issn = {{1750-0117}}, language = {{eng}}, number = {{2}}, pages = {{189--204}}, publisher = {{Edinburgh University Press}}, series = {{Episteme}}, title = {{How can questions be informative before they are answered?}}, url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/epi.2012.8}}, doi = {{10.1017/epi.2012.8}}, volume = {{9}}, year = {{2012}}, }