Thursday, June 27, 2013

questions - When is "Does... have...?" correct versus "Is... having... ?"



I have to generate random questions Yes/No about hotels, restaurants, etc. for a Natural-Language Programming task. The focus is on questions about characteristics about such places that are rather dynamic (e.g., current length of queue, available parking spaces).



I'm trying to cover a wide range of formulations so that not all questions look too much alike (e.g. Is KFC nice? Are the rooms in Hilton Hotel large?). As a non-native English speaker, I stumble upon some problems to guarantee grammatically correct questions. Given the following two example questions:






  • Does [RESTAURANT-NAME] have a promotion?

  • Is [RESTAURANT-NAME] having a promotion?




I would say that both questions convey the same meaning, with the latter maybe emphasizing the current moment (implying that promotions are rather infrequent and dynamic). Is this correct?



My follow-up question is now: When I can use both forms interchangeably? For example, when I have






  • Does [RESTAURANT-NAME] have vegan dishes?

  • Is [RESTAURANT-NAME] having vegan dishes?




The second one "feels" wrong since the menu usually doesn't change much over time. Am I correct to say that the possibility to formulate a "Is/Are... having... ?" depends on the meaning/semantics of the question? In other words, I cannot always use both formulations and I cannot trivially decide in a program?


Answer



The word have has multiple definitions. Here are two:





have verb



1 Possess, own, or hold.
‘he had a new car and a boat’



4 Perform the action indicated by the noun specified (used especially in spoken English as an alternative to a more specific verb)
‘We will be having a meeting soon to examine our options, to see what is possible.’



- ODO





Your promotion example uses definition 4 (action) whereas your vegan dishes example uses definition 1 (possession).



You ask:




Am I correct to say that the possibility to formulate a "Is/Are... having... ?" depends on the meaning/semantics of the question? In other words, I cannot always use both formulations and I cannot trivially decide in a program?





Yes. When used in the sense of possession, the is having form sounds awkward.






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