The pragmatics and prosody of variable tag questions in English: Uncovering function-to-form correlations

Abstract

This study focuses on variable tag questions (VTQs) in English, e.g. That was Sunday wasn't it?, Don't look back will you?. Our aim is to forge a unified framework to establish marked and unmarked function-to-form correlations integrating other relevant features. This analysis is innovative in approach and coverage. VTQs are classified according to four kinds of stance meaning: epistemic, deontic, attitudinal, and textual. To be able to plot function-to-prosody mappings, four prosodic parameters are included in the analysis (accent position, boundary tone, intonational contour, phrasing). Additional correlations are obtained regarding grammatical characteristics (mood pattern, polarity, position, verb of the tag), dialogic features (type of response, turn taking participation) and contextual information (type of (meta-)genre). Based on the quantitative systematic study of 383 VTQs, tests for statistical significance reveal a number of correlations and interactions. Some confirm or modify previous claims, but all constitute novel contributions to the constructional pragmatics of VTQs in English, most notably the proposal of a model of association of the observed variables.