Echo Question Definition and Examples

An echo question is a type  of  direct question that repeats part or all of something which someone else has just asked and is one form of  echo  utterance. Echo questions are also referred to as parrot questions or repeat, please questions.  The reason people generally echo or parrot a question theyve been asked is that they have not fully understood or heard what was said—or they simply cant believe anyone would ask such a question. Using a rising or fall-rising intonation for an echo question allows us to clarify what we think we heard. Examples and Observations Telemachus: Were waiting for Odysseus to come home.Antinuous: Youre waiting for who to do what?From The Comeback by Albert Ramsdell Gurney Mary: What do you want?George Bailey: What do I want? Why, Im just here to get warm, thats all!From Its a Wonderful Life Holden: I used to play checkers with her all the time.Stradlater: You used to play what with her all the time?Holden: Checkers.From The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, 1951 Intonation With Echo Questions We use echo questions either because we did not fully hear or understand what was said, or because its content is too surprising to be believed.A: It cost $5,000.B: How much did it cost?A: His sons an osteopath.B: His sons a what?Echo questions are usually spoken with a rising intonation  and with a strong emphasis on the wh-word (what, who, how, and so on).From A Glossary of Grammar Terms by Geoffrey Leech, Edinburgh University Press, 2006 Movement Operations With Echo Questions Consider the following dialogue:A: He had said someone would do something.B: He had said who would do what? Speaker B largely echoes what Speaker A says, except for replacing someone by who and something by what. For obvious reasons, the type of question produced by speaker B is called an echo question. However, speaker B could alternatively have replied with a non-echo question like, Who had he said would do what? If we compare the echo question, He had said who would do what?  with the corresponding non-echo question Who had, he said would do what? we find that the latter involves two movement operations which are not found previously.  One is an auxiliary inversion operation by which the past-tense auxiliary had is moved in front of its subject he. The other is a wh-movement operation by which the wh-word who is moved to the front of the overall sentence, and positioned in front of had.From English Syntax: An Introduction by Geoffrey Leech, Cambridge University Press, 2004 Questioning a Question A speaker may question a question by repeating it with a rising intonation. Note that we use normal question structures with inverted word order, not indirect question structures, in this case. Where are you going? Where am I going? Home.What does he want? What does he want? Money as usual.Are you tired? Am I tired? Of course not.Do squirrels eat insects? Do squirrels eat insects? Im not sure. From Practical English Usage by Michael Swan, Oxford University Press, 1995