The answer to a contextless supplementary followup question is either a question or a statement.
An answer has to be a statement, but the statement you gave as an example is not an answer, it's just a response.
The whole "contextless" thing is really getting to the point though. What exactly is the question asking? What would an answer to a question like that look like?
I'll give an hint. Or maybe an anti-hint, as it were. This riddle was adapted from a much dumber joke riddle someone one asked me many years ago. The question was the same: "What is the answer to this question?" After a bit of thought I gave an answer -- the answer I'm hoping someone gives here -- and they said no, that's not it. They said that "what" was the answer to that question, treated the question as though it was a statement, telling you its answer, which... no. That annoyed me and reminded me of this xkcd / the "joke" it's about:
I think there is a much more actually-clever answer to that dumb riddle question, and the question/answer pair shed a bit of interesting light on a few philosophical issues about linguistic meaning and the act of inquiry.
I get it!! Doesnt that mean Sir2u was right? Punctuation marks do matter. Take the case of some guy or whatever. He declared "Pardon Impossible. To be sent to Siberia!" however the scribe wrote it as "Pardon, Impossible To be sent to Siberia!". As one example.
Reply to Outlander I think the thing that you get is the old joke riddle that was told to me, where the answer to the question was "what". This isn't that riddle. I don't like that riddle. This is a version with an answer that actually makes sense, and isn't just unclear communication pretending to be clever like that "words that end in -gry" joke.
Reply to Mww That is the older version. “What is the answer to this question?” “‘What’ is the answer to that question.” That’s not how language works though.
Ah. My guess was 'what' as a concept along the lines of who, when, where, and how.
So 'what' would not be the answer to that question rather what would be a question where 'what' is the answer.
So what I thought was the answer would be a referenced question though not asked as one therefore a statement. Which would be...
[hide]"What is the remaining commonly used interrogative word aside from who, where, when, and why?" Or as a pure a sentence. "A question asking one to identify a common interrogative word aside from who, when, where, and why." Or simply. "A question asking someone to name an interrogative word."[/hide]
Reply to Outlander If the question could reasonably be interpreted as asking for an interrogative word them sure, “what” would be a good answer, but I don’t see how it could be interpreted that way.
The list of interrogative words and their answers I gave as a hint was meant to suggest “What? This (or that).” And thus a self-referential demonstrative (“this (sentence)”) in answer to self-referential interrogative (“this question”).
Reply to Outlander It doesn’t have to be that exact sentence (I actually had in mind a slightly different one), but it’s the “this” that sells it, yeah. The idea is that the original question is an empty infinite loop of self-reference in the form of a question. So the answer to that is an empty infinite loop of self reference in the form of an answer.
Basically, the answer to “...?” is just “....”.
“This is the answer to that question.” was my exact version, but things like “This is the answer.” or “This is.” or even just “This.” all have basically the same meaning in context and so are acceptable.
Comments (39)
A dumb riddle with no philosophical implications.
Anything. You didn't say it had to be correct.
What if there was only one answer ever given to it at any point in time. It would be a question without an answer wouldn't it?
The answer to a contextless supplementary followup question is either a question or a statement. Any of the following.
What question? Or what are you talking about?
I don't know (what question you mean). Or I don't know what you're talking about.
The person does not know what you're talking about, hence any of the following would be correct or true.
An answer has to be a statement, but the statement you gave as an example is not an answer, it's just a response.
The whole "contextless" thing is really getting to the point though. What exactly is the question asking? What would an answer to a question like that look like?
I'll give an hint. Or maybe an anti-hint, as it were. This riddle was adapted from a much dumber joke riddle someone one asked me many years ago. The question was the same: "What is the answer to this question?" After a bit of thought I gave an answer -- the answer I'm hoping someone gives here -- and they said no, that's not it. They said that "what" was the answer to that question, treated the question as though it was a statement, telling you its answer, which... no. That annoyed me and reminded me of this xkcd / the "joke" it's about:
I think there is a much more actually-clever answer to that dumb riddle question, and the question/answer pair shed a bit of interesting light on a few philosophical issues about linguistic meaning and the act of inquiry.
Definitely a good one.
'Nother hint pls.
Does the topic title relate to the answer?
As for hints, hmm...
[hide="This hint was apparently too good, so hidden"]Whom? You, or them.
When? Now, or then.
Where? Here, or there.[/hide]
Crap I think I got it. Will check back on this thread tomorrow. As inactive as the 'lounge' is.
Curious there are no threads posted here in the entirety of PF that cannot be seen either in 'All Discussions' or 'The Lounge' are there?
You may want to delete that hint btw. It was pretty good.
The answer to this question is "The answer to this question."
What.
Odd, isn’t it? The answer is given in the query, but stating the answer extinguishes the query.
What’s the older version?
So....”What” is the answer to that question.....satisfies the query?
I’m ok with that; I just left out the rest of the declarative.
“What is the answer to X?”
“Y is the answer.”
X = “What is the answer to X?”
Y = “Y is the answer.”
So X = “What is the answer to “What is the answer to “What is the answer to [...]?”?”?”
And Y = “““[...] is the answer.” is the answer.” is the answer.”
Please explain you reasoning.
The only answer possible to this question is X itself.
Quoting Pfhorrest
How did you get X from Y?
X can only be equal to X and Y can only be equal to Y.
So again, explain your reasoning.
Ah. My guess was 'what' as a concept along the lines of who, when, where, and how.
So 'what' would not be the answer to that question rather what would be a question where 'what' is the answer.
So what I thought was the answer would be a referenced question though not asked as one therefore a statement. Which would be...
[hide]"What is the remaining commonly used interrogative word aside from who, where, when, and why?" Or as a pure a sentence. "A question asking one to identify a common interrogative word aside from who, when, where, and why." Or simply. "A question asking someone to name an interrogative word."[/hide]
Would this not also be correct? :D
SophistiCat put me on the right track...
The list of interrogative words and their answers I gave as a hint was meant to suggest “What? This (or that).” And thus a self-referential demonstrative (“this (sentence)”) in answer to self-referential interrogative (“this question”).
So it was answered and that answer was "this is the answer to the question."?
If you'd like, or are bored or something, word by word. Why is that exact sentence the correct answer?
I'd have said it's just saying any answer is the right answer simply because it is being answered.
Apparently 'this' is the key word here?
Basically, the answer to “...?” is just “....”.
“This is the answer to that question.” was my exact version, but things like “This is the answer.” or “This is.” or even just “This.” all have basically the same meaning in context and so are acceptable.
Maybe if I had written "the answer to this question is yes" it would have been correct.
But the mind boggles at such profound levels of thinking.
Nope. Guess you still don’t get it.