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Project

English variable tag questions: a systematic typology of their interpesonal meanings.

The aim of this project is to arrive at a systematic semantic typology of English tag questions (TQs) with variable tags. These include reversed/constant polarity and indicative/imperative TQs. The typology will be set up in terms of two distinct dimensions of interpersonal meaning: (i) rhetorical modification, i.e. the TQ's status in relation to mood and modality/evidentiality, and (ii) response-orientation, i.e. its conduciveness to a specific verbal/non-verbal response, or no response. On the basis of quantified analysis of spontaneous spoken dialogue data, the main subtypes of reversed/constant polarity and indicative/imperative TQs will be identified and characterized as preferred correlations between values of rhetorical modification and response-orientation. The analysis will systematically refer to the formal coding means of these interpersonal meanings: mood, modal and evidential markets, polarity of stem and tag, polarity-sensitive elements, discourse particles and intonation. Elucidation of the TQs' interpersonal meanings is expected to contribute to theory-formation about subjectivity, intersubjectivity, stance (epistemic and evidentiala), and interactional meanings.
Date:1 Jan 2011 →  31 Dec 2014
Keywords:Prosody, Polarity-orientation, English, Variable tag questions, Mood, Modality, Evidentiality
Disciplines:Linguistics