A Grammar of Spoken English Discourse - The Intonation of Increments

66 A Grammar of Spoken English Discourse

Tench (1996: 39) states that tag questions with checking tags have falling
intonation when the speaker is fairly certain of the answer. If the checking
tag is rising the speaker is less certain of the answer. Quirk, Greenbaum,
Leech and Svartvik (1985: 811) argue that in tag questions it is important
to separate two factors: an assumption expressed by the statement and an
expectation expressed by the tag. They provide the following example:

(23) Statement Tag Assumption Expectation

(a) He likes his \job /doesn’t he Positive Neutral

(b) He doesn’t like his \job /does he Negative Neutral

(c) He likes his \job \ doesn’t he Positive Positive

(d) He doesn’t like his \job \ does he Negative Negative

The rising tags in (a) and (b) ask if the preceding statement is correct, i.e.
they are non-conducive. The falling tag in sentences (c) and (d) invite the
hearer’s verifi cation, i.e. they are conducive. However, Tench (1996: 38) states
that when the tag in copy tags has its own tone unit it must be rising e.g.

(24) He likes his \ job /does he

Quirk and Greenbaum (1973: 195) and Hudson (1975: 25), who classify
copy tag questions as conducive, agree that the tag rises. Thus, the literature
on checking tags supports the views of Brown et al. but the literature on
copy tags does not.
The short review of the literature presented above shows that there is no
agreement about the illocutionary force of questions accompanied with
either falling or rising tone. Couper-Kuhlen’s observation (1986: 172) that
it appears unlikely that any direct links will be established between intona-
tion and illocutionary force, both for questions and for other types of
speech acts, appears well founded. To conclude, this section has shown the
power and the usefulness of theories which describe speech, whether rule
governed or not, as purposeful action; Brazil’s premise that speech is pur-
poseful is well-founded. It has, however, also shown that no fi rm evidence
exists demonstrating a link between intonation and illocutionary force.

3.4 Speech is Interactive

It is a truism that when people converse they interact. Brazil (1995: 29),
however, defi nes the term interaction in a more restricted manner as