Conversational dynamics of Russian questions with 'razve'

Abstract

Russian questions with the particle 'razve' appear to convey negative bias in conflicting evidence scenarios, thus bearing superficial resemblance to English questions with 'really' (cf. Repp and Geist forth.). I argue that 'razve'-questions convey a novel type of bias and signal that the speaker is in a situation with belief revision potential, facing a conflict between a prior belief and a current abductive inference. Depending on context, such questions receive (i) an information-seeking interpretation or (ii) what I will call a ‘point-making’ interpretation. I propose a unified semantics for 'razve', while also showcasing the limitations of current approaches to question bias and making a case for sensitivity to abduction in a novel empirical domain.