A functional description of questions 107Elicit:agree
The third subcategory is those which invite the addressee to agree with the
speaker’s assumption that the expressed proposition is self-evidently true. It
initiates what Brazil (1984a:36) refers to as a ‘world-matching’ exchange,
or in Labov and Fanshel’s terms an exchange about an ‘AB-event’ (1977:80).
It is most commonly realized by tag interrogatives and negative polar
interrogatives, both spoken with a falling tone. The following arrowed utterances
are instances of Elicit:agree.
49 (BCET:A:34)
→ B: //r i supPOSE he’s a bit SENile now //p ISn’t he //
C: He looks it.
50 (C:4:53)
(G and S are talking about a kind of bread made by the Hopi.)
S: It’s just, oh, the taste is, it’s the most delicious thing that I’ve ever
had, light blue, translucent.
→ G: // doesn’t that SOUND like a NICE name for bread //
//p HOpi BLUE bread //
S: ((laughs))
G: It’s like something you get from a health foodstore,
Hopi blue bread ((laughs))
In the arrowed utterances, the speaker assumes that the expressed proposition
is self-evidently true. All he is doing is inviting the addressee to agree with
him, hence establishing the existing common ground between himself and
the addressee. The nature of this kind of Elicitation is best seen in exchanges
like the following.
51 (On a sunny day)
A: Lovely day, isn’t it?
B: Yes, beautiful.
As I have pointed out above, A’s proposition is self-evidently true. Hence A
is not asking B to confirm that his proposition is true, but rather to agree with
him that it self-evidently is (see Brazil 1984a:36). Elicit:agrees like the above
are often used to start a conversation, particularly between strangers. Other
examples are the use of Elicit:agrees like ‘Are you John Matthews?’ or ‘You
must be John Matthews’ to start a conversation in an encounter at a party or
at the beginning of an interview when names are already known. Since what
the addressee is invited to agree with is self-evidently true, the speaker is
bound to be successful in eliciting the expected response. This establishes the
common ground between the speaker and the addressee and serves to ‘promote
social mutuality’ and paves the way for further interaction (see Brazil 1984a:34).