Noun Clause Phenomenon: Native English Speaker Ability?

[PROESL]

Well, first of all, in order to follow through, we have to know; what is our purpose?

If you punctuate it like that I can't see a problem. ('What is our goal.' is redundant.)

Punctuation helps. However, I'm observing and referring to spoken language.

I think the redundancy observation could go either way, but I agree that it may easily sound or be redundant.

[The purpose of the game is to have fun, but the goal is to win.] Not redundant? Maybe? One could draw a clear difference between the two if the context called for it.