Question about answers

[Jan Anward]

Dear Nick,

God fortsättning (= Good continuation, the customary Swedish greeting  
at this time of the year)!

There is a paper by Emily Pope, Question-answering systems, in Papers  
from the Chicago Linguistic Society #9, 1973,  which contains some  
relevant material. Some of the same material may also appear in her  
1976 book Questions and answers in English.

In 1934, the Swedish linguist Natanael Beckman argued (in his book  
'Västeuropeisk syntax'; yes, in Swedish) that repetition is the  
traditional mode of answering questions, 'yes' and 'no' being Western  
European innovations.

Best,

Jan