{
  "id": "questions.linguistic",
  "term": "questions",
  "sense": "linguistic",
  "pos": "noun",
  "status": "review",
  "level": 9,
  "arena": "emergencelexicon",
  "domain": "language",
  "style": null,
  "definition": "a request for information that is a difference between a current state of knowledge and a different state",
  "folk_gloss": null,
  "emergence": {
    "components": [
      "request.social",
      "difference.relation",
      "information.knowledge",
      "current.fluid",
      "knowledge.cognitive",
      "state.condition"
    ],
    "interaction": "When a request for information produces a difference between what is known and another possible state, a question emerges.",
    "novel_properties": [
      "inquisitive intent",
      "knowledge gap",
      "interrogative structure"
    ]
  },
  "examples": [
    {
      "text": "The Hubble Space Telescope transmitted anomalous data in 1990, prompting engineers to diagnose a 2.2-micron spherical aberration in its primary mirror.",
      "domain": "engineering"
    },
    {
      "text": "In 2015, Brazilian authorities investigating Petrobras uncovered systemic overbilling through a series of financial audits and whistleblower testimonies.",
      "domain": "institutions"
    },
    {
      "text": "A 2023 Python script failed to parse JSON, leading developers to query why Unicode characters caused a 400-millisecond delay in API responses.",
      "domain": "computing"
    }
  ],
  "relations": [
    {
      "id": "request.social",
      "note": "is-a",
      "type": "is-a"
    },
    {
      "id": "information.knowledge",
      "note": "abstracts",
      "type": "abstracts"
    }
  ],
  "used_by": [
    "answer.solution"
  ],
  "forms": [
    "question",
    "questioned",
    "questioning",
    "questions"
  ],
  "closed": true,
  "provenance": {
    "author": "openrouter:openai/gpt-oss-120b",
    "date": "2026-07-29",
    "confidence": 0.6,
    "reconciled": {
      "by": "openrouter:qwen/qwen3-235b-a22b-2507",
      "date": "2026-07-31",
      "changed": "definition",
      "note": "Added omitted constitutive concepts (current.fluid, knowledge.cognitive, state.condition) to components to align with the definition. No change to definition wording was needed as it accurately reflec"
    }
  },
  "canonical": "https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-questions.linguistic"
}