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I would like to know if there is a shift in nuance in questions such as these:
誰が参加したんですか。 vs. 誰が参加しましたか。
いつ着いたんですか。 vs. いつ着きましたか。
I wish to limit discussion to only non-yes/no questions (so questions asking Who? When? Where? Why? and so on). I have read a paper (PDF) which states that adding ～のか indicates that the asker's feelings of wanting to know the answer are stronger, and that it puts more of a burden of responding on the askee. Can anyone confirm or contradict this?
の/ん often indicate that the speaker is attempting to explain or account for some fact. This can connect the question to a previous statement made by the addressee.
For example:
A: (Wow, some of the people who participated in the tournament were really good!)
B: 誰が参加したんですか。
Here B would like to know which people inspired A to make that statement.
A: (I got to this party so early that the host looked at me funny.)
B: いつ着いたんですか。
B wants to know how early A was to the party, thus explaining why the host looked at her funny.
I can give four nuances here, from lightest to most severe.
（イ）あら、宮内さん。もうここにいましたか。いつ着きましたか。
(1) Light feeling of enquiry.
（ロ）あら、宮内さん。もういたんですか。いつ着いたんですか。
(2) Basically the same as (1), but with more intimacy.
（ハ）いつ着いたんですか。教えてくれればよかったのに。
Is a bit remorseful…
（ニ）いつ着きましたか。答えなさい。答え次第で、ただで行かせないこともありません。
A pressing, extorting nuance.
I'll try adding more if I ever find out!
What I was taught
I was taught that the んです form in statements (not questions) emphasized the preceding predicate as shared information. My interpretation of this is that when you're using んです to make a statement, you're acknowledging that the person you're talking to is in a group for which the information is appropriate.
This can be subtle. A particular example the teacher mentioned was an upper level student commenting to her that the new students were quite good this year. But since he used the んです construction, she felt slightly insulted. In this case, it wasn't shared information. As the teacher, it was her information.
In the case of yes/no questions, this variation implies that the statement is true, and you're just verifying it.
In the case of non-yes/no questions, the construction can be seen as emphasizing the "concreteness" of the question.
My rough translation: "It is [the case] that"
My personal interpretation, that has worked fairly well for me, is to interpret it as some variation on the phrase "it is that".
In statements, "it is the case that..." can carry roughly the same nuance, although that may just be my personal speech pattern in English.
In yes/no questions, "Is it the case that..." works fairly well as a reflection of both the heightened formality and increasing concreteness.
In non-binary questions, "is it that" often works, "itsu tsukimashita" (When did X arrive?) becomes (When is it that X arrived?). "Who joined?" -> "Who is it that joined?".
EDIT: Modified a few things and clarified that one of my statements was at best a guess.
のか is an abbreviation for のですか (んですか spoken)
It's a rather manly expression very colloquial.
I haven't read the paper, so I'll base my comment on what you got out of it:
-It doesn't put any burden on the askee other than the lack of respect it shows. (unless you talk to a friend in which case it's just a friendly expression)
I don't see myself asking a Japanese colleague (and even less someone I don't know well):
ひるめし食べたのか？
(more feminine version using simply の without か)
The use of ～のです instead of ます is not a question of more or less polite. I believe the の insists on the action or result expressed by the preceding verb. It feels natural and still polite in oral conversations
The ます form is simply formal, without any additional feeling to it.
