What questions say about you!

I think we have all heard the statement "There is no dumb question!" This is true, but as we said in the military under our breath, "Yeah but there sure are a lot of dumb people." On the other hand I don't think we ponder much about what a question is asking at it's core, or rather what the questioner is asking at their core. Reading Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance pushed me to think about questions, not only to think about "the most important questions", but also to see what substantive information I can gain from a question.

When someone asks a question beginning with "Who..." it is a question of identity and person hood. Who are you? Who am I? Who is this? We seek to identify a person sometimes for our own safety but also so we can remember and classify them. We never ask "Who is this tree?". Who is a functional recognition of person hood.

Questions asking "What..." are questions of action. When your mother asked you "What are you doing?" as a little child you could very well know fear if you were misbehaving. The "What..." question can also be a question of identification of something non-human. What is this?

Asking "When..." is a question of time. When is a question of precise happening, but can also be vague. When did this happen? can be accurately answered with...long ago!

For those of you following the five W's and an H rule will not be disappointed as "Where.." questions have to do with location. These also can be as specific or as vague as the answerer may want to make them.

"Why..." questions deal with motive. Why did you commit that crime? The question "Why am I here?" presupposes as part of the answer some larger motive in existence.

Questions of causation are dealt with by "How..." type questions. "How did this happen?" is a typical one, as is "How was your trip?". In the latter question it is imprecise but accepted as someone's concern with your well being.

If you have made it this far you may be wondering why I am going through this as the points I am making seem blatantly obvious. They are very obvious, but I think most people miss them because of this. A question tells the person being asked not only where you are deficient, but also something about you. If you are a person who continually asks "Why..." questions then you are concerned about others motives. If you ask "How..." type questions you are a practical person who is concerned with the basics of things. I don't care why! How did this happen? There are whole television shows devoted to "How..." questions. Brainiac, and Myth Busters. The other thing that is fun about questions is that sometimes they are rhetorical! A parent rarely walked into a room that is a disaster and asked, "What happened here?!" without knowing! This also tells you that the person asking the question assumes on your knowledge or that the question is so obvious as to not need explanation. Questions can be a search or many other things but they always reveal something. Pretty neat huh?

Challenge: Beef up your question inventory! Try asking questions that you are not used to asking, or answer every question with a question. It is harder than you think! (Unless you are British because they use the interrogative voice way more than the average American. They consider it more polite.)