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1          3aDB   INDEX-f-short ALWAYS INDEX-adr-long-co SIGN INTERPRETER >
2                      GIVE-c-f INDEX-adr-long-co UNDERSTAND NOT STOP-fr WHAT ((head fl-up))
3          3bDB   WHAT WHAT USUALLY SAY INDEX-c WHAT W-H-A-T YES >
4                      REPEAT YES REPEAT INDEX-c USUALLY INDEX-c W-H-A-T =
5          3aDB   = AGREE ((head down)) INDEX-adr SAY-TO-f-r
6          3bDB   W-H-A-T
7          3aDB   BUT DEAF-BLIND MANY SILENT NOD-LONG-rep LET-GO >
8                      NOD-LONG-LONG-rep
9          3bDB   INDEX-c SOMETIMES SIGN SAY-TO WHAT SAY >
                        COME-TO-ME TONIGHT WRONG ((shake head)) INDEX-c >
                        MEAN NOT SAY-TO REPEAT SUCCEED UNDERSTAND >
                        SOMETIMES WRONG SOMETIMES

            3aDB   Do you usually inform the interpreter when you don’t understand?
            3bDB   What, I usually say, what.
            3aDB   It’s good you say so.
            3bDB   I say ‘what’.
            3aDB   But many deaf-blind people nod silently even though they don’t under-stand the content.
            3bDB   Sometimes I sign ‘what are you saying’. Once the answer was: ‘See you tonight’. ‘Wrong’,
                        I said because I didn’t mean that. After repeating it, it got through. Sometimes there can be
                        a misunderstanding.

The first few lines are a communicative speech act, a question. In line 3-4, there is a response, which is relevant to the previous line. It contains a wh-word. This deals with a reported question, with 3bDB describing what she usually does to ask for a repetition in a situation with an interpreter. In line 5, 3aDB utters a follow-up. 3bDB then continues with the subject by repeating the spelling V-A-D (‘W-H-A-T’). 3aDB describes the typical passive receiver’s role of deaf-blind people in line 7-8. 3bDB continues with the subject by telling about a misunderstanding in a previous conversation with another conversational partner.

How can deaf-blind people determine what are questions without access to non-manual signals like raised or knitted eyebrows? And how can they distinguish between questions that are addressed to them directly and reported questions like in the example above? A manually conveyed wh-word does not always mean that the utterance is a question directed to the conversational partner.