92 Advances in spoken discourse analysis
Type 1 Positive assumption + neutral expectation
Type 2 Negative assumption + neutral expectation
Type 3 Positive assumption + positive expectation
Type 4 Negative assumption + negative expectation
(Quirk et at. 1985:811)Quirk et al.’s analysis of tag questions is problematic. According to their
analysis of the expected answers, there are three and not four different
expected answers to tag questions. Both Types 1 and 2 expect either ‘yes’
or ‘no’. But again it should be noted that this is a classification in terms
of form; in terms of communicative choice, there are only two types
because the ‘yes’ answer in Type 3 and the ‘no’ answer in Type 4 both
realize the same communicative choice of agreeing with the speaker’s
assumption.
Further, one can question whether a tag question can have neutral
expectation. The very construction of a tag question suggests that the
speaker has certain assumptions and is biased towards a certain answer.
As Hudson (1975) points out, tags are always conducive; they cannot be
neutral (p. 24). For a tag question with a rising tone, the discourse context
or the context of environment has led the speaker to cast doubt on his
assumption and he invites the addressee to confirm it (see also Brazil
1984a:43).
In other words, a tag with a rising tone (i.e. Types 1 and 2) is biased
towards an expected answer rather than neutral. It invites the addressee to
confirm the speaker’s assumption. This can be supported by the fact that a
confirmation will be spoken in mid key, indicating that the answer fulfils
the expectation, whereas a denial is likely to be spoken in high key, indicating
that the answer is contrary to the expectation (see also Brazil et al. 1980).
For example:
1 (C:4:14)^2
S: //p i THINK you did that THISyear //r+ DIDn’t you //
G: //p oh YEAH //
G’s response is spoken in mid key. If the answer was ‘no’, it would have
been spoken in high key. For example,
2 (BCET:A:20)
B: //p it’s not TOO late to apPLY now //r+ IS it //
C: //p YEAH //p i THINK so //r+ they’re ALL full up //
C’s response, ‘yeah’, which disconfirms the speaker’s assumption, is spoken
in high key, indicating that it is contrary to B’s expectation. As for a tag
spoken with falling tone, the speaker has no doubt about his assumption and
the addressee is invited to agree with him. For example,