أَزَيْدٌ قَامَ أَمْ عَمْرٌو؟
Was it Zayd who stood, or ʿAmr?
The occurrence of standing is taken as given; the speaker wants to identify its agent. The two sides of am present alternative candidates for the action.
Hal, by contrast, seeks a judgment about the relation itself. One must decide what is being asked rather than treating every sentence with alternatives as an ordinary yes/no question.
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Interrogation with Hal: Assent, Fronting and Temporal Meaning
أَزَيْدٌ قَامَ أَمْ عَمْرٌو؟
Was it Zayd who stood, or ʿAmr?
The occurrence of standing is taken as given; the speaker wants to identify its agent. The two sides of am present alternative candidates for the action.
Hal, by contrast, seeks a judgment about the relation itself. One must decide what is being asked rather than treating every sentence with alternatives as an ordinary yes/no question.