Probability and Valence: Two Preferences in the Design of Polar Questions and Their Management

ABSTRACT This study expands and refines the argument presented by Heritage and Raymond by demonstrating that the orientation to probability in question design can intersect with a second orientation toward the positive or negative desirability—or valence—of the state of affairs inquired into. In most cases, the orientations to probability and to positively valenced information can be satisfied simultaneously: In a context where negatively valenced information is generally avoided, positively polarized questions invite “good news,” and negatively polarized questions are directed to “bad news” scenarios. These congruent orientations are routinely satisfied in polar question design and in a range of interactional environments. However, as has been illustrated with various other concurrently relevant preferences in interaction, these orientations can also conflict with one another, thereby revealing a hierarchization between them. Specifically, we show that when considerations of recipient design require questions about states of affairs that are both likely and also negatively valenced, orientations to positive outcomes will be attenuated or abandoned in favor of a “realistic” stance toward the likelihood of the negative state of affairs. It is therefore concluded that probability is a more fundamental aspect of the recipient design of polar questions than is information valence. Data are drawn from corpora of British and American English conversations.