What does “Well”
mean? Or, more specifically, what does ‘Well’
mean when it’s used as the first word in response to so-called ‘Wh-questions
’ (which, what, who, whom, whose, where, whence, whither, when, why, whynot, wherefore, whatever etc. etc.)? Professor Gene H. Lerner
and Professor Emanuel A. Schegloff
offer an explanation in the April 2009 issue of the journal Research on Language&Social Interaction.
“We show that these well-prefaces operate as general alerts that indicate nonstraightforwardness in responding …”