1st proofs UNCORRECTED PROOFS © JOHN BENJAMINS PUBLISHING COMPANY chapter 12 Communication or memory mismatch? Towards a cognitive typology of questions* Wolfgang Schulze University of Munich Questions are traditionally interpreted as a universal strategy in human language that invites the addressee to share his/her knowledge with the speaker. Hence, ques- tions are seen as a basic property of human communication. However, from a cogni- tive point of view, it may be asked whether questions (together with their construc- tional representations) relect a speciic state of cognition, conceptualized in terms of interrogativity. Referring to the framework of Radical Experientialism (Cognitive Typology in linguistic terms), I will propose a model of interrogativity that concen- trates on the meaning of questions as such. It will be argued that interrogativity is the immediate relex of a memory mismatch that may occur when processing outer world stimuli. Its most prototypical (and embodied) expression is that of pitch varia- tion, frequently accompanied by secondary mismatch echoes that can be grammati- calized as question morphemes, particles, tags and so on. he communicative value of questions is viewed as a secondary cognitive hypothesis on mismatch mapping strategies in an interindividual setting. Keywords: Cognitive Typology, communication, interrogativity, meaning construc- tion of questions, memory mismatch, questions, Radical Experientialism, semantic vagueness 1. Introduction 1.1 On questions A seemingly valid language universal is relected within the hypothesis that every language knows strategies to encode what is usually called a question. hese strat- egies can be either formal (that is represented by articulated substance) or struc- tural/constructional (that is encoded with the help of structural variation). In add- * I want to thank the participants of a lecture on Interrogativity (University of Munich, Win- ter Term 2003–4) for their valuable contributions when discussing issues of Cognitive Typology with respect to interrogativity. I am also indebted to the anonymous reviewers of the present chapter, who helped me a lot to render the text more readable. Finally, I want to whole-heartedly thank Kerstin Kazzazi who undertook the arduous job of correcting my English. Wolfgang Schulze 2007.Communication or Memory Mismatch? Towards a cognitive typology of questions. In: Radden, Günter, Klaus- Michael Köpcke, Thomas Berg and Peter Siemund (eds.) Aspects of Meaning Construction, 247–264. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: Benjamins. / Uncorrected proofs.