Questions which are asked as yes/no questions sometimes require more than just ja ‘yes’-response. The following is an example of that. Kirsten (KIR) has told about a trip she has taken with a friend (Tine), to a place where Tine’s ex-husband and mother-in-law are from. At the start of the excerpt Kirsten has just mentioned the name of the place they visited.

Lines 1-3 reveal that the speaker’s friend’s ex-husband is buried in the place they visited. Line 4 shows that the recipient Gunnar (GUN) didn’t know he was dead. He then asks the question er han død→ ‘is he dead’ which immediately calls for confirmation. It may seem odd to ask for confirmation that a person is dead, when you’ve just learned they are buried. However, Gunnar’s question shows that the information about the man’s death stands in contrast to what Gunnar thought he knew. In a context where an asker shows that a piece of information contrasts with their previous knowledge, a yes/no question will be treated as a request for confirmation plus an expansion relating to the missing information. This is what Kirsten does in lines 5-7 where she initially confirms and then proceeds to addressing the reason why Gunnar might not have known about the husband’s death.  

Yes/no questions can also request more than merely confirmation in situations where the question indicates that one could – and should – elaborate on something. Here is an example of this, also from the conversation between Kirsten and Gunnar.