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Glite Dictionary
interrogative mood

interrogative mood

6.5
A way to make a sentence that asks a question, like 'Are you coming?'
  • noun
  • /ˌɪntəˈrɑːɡətɪv muːd/
  • Specialized
translation icon : modo interrogativo
  • When she asked, 'Are you coming to the party?' she was using the interrogative mood to seek information.

Examples

  • Wilson and Sperber take as illocutionary indicators the imperative and interrogative mood (and presumably the declarative mood as well, although they do not include it), along with the English question particle 'eh' and the dissociative particle 'huh.'

    Academic text (2006)

  • The teacher explained that the interrogative mood is essential for forming questions in a sentence.

  • In English, the interrogative mood is often formed by rearranging the subject and verb when asking a question.

Surface Forms

interrogative mood singular
interrogative moods plural

Morphology

interrogative + mood

The meaning is directly compositional: 'interrogative' means "used to form questions" and 'mood' is a grammatical category, so together they clearly denote the grammatical category used for asking questions. This is a standard, cross-linguistically common grammatical label and therefore readily understandable to learners who know the constituent words.

Etymology

Interrogative mood comes from Latin: interrogative from a verb meaning 'to ask' and mood meaning a 'way of speaking'. So it means the form we use when we want to 'ask' questions, for example by starting with helper verbs or using a rising voice.