TAG QUESTIONS IN ENGLISH: LINGUISTIC FEATURES AND POSSIBLE PEDAGOGICAL IMPLICATIONS

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report entitled TAG QUESTIONS IN ENGLISH: LINGUISTIC FEATURES AND POSSIBLE PEDAGOGICAL IMP

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

******************

BÙI THỊ NGỌC TUYỀN

TAG QUESTIONS IN ENGLISH:

LINGUISTIC FEATURES AND POSSIBLE PEDAGOGICAL IMPLICATIONS

Câu hỏi tách biệt trong tiếng Anh:

Đặc điểm ngôn ngữ học và các ứng dụng sư phạm khả hữu

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Linguistics Code: 60 22 02 01

HANOI- 2014

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

******************

BÙI THỊ NGỌC TUYỀN

TAG QUESTIONS IN ENGLISH:

LINGUISTIC FEATURES AND POSSIBLE PEDAGOGICAL IMPLICATIONS

Câu hỏi tách biệt trong tiếng Anh:

Đặc điểm ngôn ngữ học và các ứng dụng sư phạm khả hữu

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Linguistics Code: 60 22 02 01

Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr Võ Đại Quang

HANOI- 2014

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report entitled TAG QUESTIONS IN ENGLISH: LINGUISTIC FEATURES AND POSSIBLE PEDAGOGICAL IMPLICATIONS

( Câu hỏi tách biệt trong Tiếng Anh: Đặc điểm ngôn ngữ học và các ứng dụng sư

Last but not least, special words of thanks are sent to my beloved family for their encouragement and their sacrifice they have devoted to the fulfilment of this academic work

ABSTRACT

Tag question is a special type of questions in English, which is frequently used by native speakers in daily conversations However, students at Tran Phu High School, Quang Ninh Province usually make mistakes in using this grammatical structure so they cannot communicate successfully This thesis is an attempt to help students master the nature of tag questions and become more confident in using them In this thesis, the following points have been raised: the most relevant factors involving a tag question such as notions of tag questions, polarity, operators, intonation Syntactic and semantic features of tag questions are also clearly presented Besides, a study on students‟ mistakes in using tag questions is provided

The data were collected among 90 eleventh grade students at Tran Phu high school

by means of questionnaires The findings highlighted students‟ categories of mistakes including structural mistakes and intonation-related mistakes Through the findings, the author has also tried to find out the causes of the mistakes and suggests some possible solutions in order to help students avoid committing these types of mistakes

1.1 Review of previous works related to the theme of this research 4 1.2 Review of theoretical background 5

1.2.1.1 Definition of questions 5 1.2.1.2 Classification of English questions 6 1.2.1.3 Definitions of English tag questions 7

1.2.2.1 Operators for Negation 8 1.2.2.2 Operators for Interrogation 9 1.2.2.3 Operators for Emphasis 9

1.2.3.2 Polarity in tag questions 11

1.2.3.2.1 Opposite Polarity Tag Questions 11 1.2.3.2.2 Same Polarity Tag Questions 13

1.2.4 Intonation 14

1.2.4.1 Definition of intonation 14 1.2.4.2 Types of English intonation 15

1.2.4.2.1 The falling tune ( The Glide- down) 15 1.2.4.2.2 The first rising tune ( The Glide-up) 16 1.2.4.2.3 The second rising tune ( The Take –off) 17 1.2.4.2.4 The falling- rising tune (The Dive) 17 1.2.4.3 Functions of intonation 18

1.2.4.3.1 Attitudinal function 18 1.2.4.3.2 Accentual function 18 1.2.4.3.3 Grammatical function 19 1.2.4.3.4 Discourse function 19

3.1 The linguistic features of tag questions 24

3.1.1 Syntactic features of tag questions 24 3.1.2 Semantic features of tag questions 25

3.1.3.1 Tags with imperatives 27 3.1.3.2 Tags with exclamative sentences 27

3.3 The causes of students‟ mistakes in using tag questions 34

3.3.1 Teaching methods and learning materials 34 3.3.2 Students‟ poor competence and performance 34

3.5 Pedagogical implications in teaching tag questions 36

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the study

Tag question in English is a special type of questions which frequently appear in daily conversations by native speakers Tag questions have a complex structure and diversity of meaning During the time of teaching English at Tran Phu High School,

I have had a hard time correcting students‟ errors and mistakes Most of these common errors and mistakes center round linguistic features of this question type Moreover, I find that most of the students get confused when answering a tag

question They can answer the question, for instance, “Do you live near here?”

without any difficulties Nevertheless, it is not easy for them to answer such

questions as “You live near here, don‟t you?” or “ You don‟t live near here, do

you?” Also, in many situations during English lessons, I receive the same answer

for one tag question which is said with different patterns of tunes (rising or falling) Obviously, my students are unaware of the role of intonation in functions of tag questions

These students‟ errors and mistakes in using tag questions have, therefore, urged

me to choose this topic as the theme for my M.A thesis in English language I hope

that this research -Tag questions in English: linguistic features and possible

pedagogical implications- can serve as a contribution to teaching and learning

English Suggestions and pedagogical implications of this study can be utilized to aid teachers and students in the process of instruction as well as learning a second language

2 Aims of the study

This thesis is an attempt to help learners of English in general and students at Tran Phu high school in particular gain an insight into tag questions in English, and on this basis, improvement can be made in using English tag questions

3 Objectives of the study

The objectives of the study are to :

i examine the linguistic features of tag questions in English in detail

ii expose some common mistakes made by the 11th grade students at Tran Phu High School

iii present some possible solutions to the problems encountered by teachers and students in teaching and learning tag questions

4 Research questions

The objectives of the study can be elaborated into these research questions:

i What are the linguistic features of English tag questions?

ii What categories of mistakes do the students at Tran Phu high school often make in using tag questions?

iii What should be done to help improve the students' skill in using and understanding English tag questions?

5 Scope of the study

The study is focused on English tag questions in terms of structural and semantic features Another focus of the thesis is categorization of the errors and mistakes committed by students at Tran Phu high school, Quang Ninh Province

6 Significance of the study

Theoretically, this thesis is an attempt to bring about a systematic account of major linguistic features of tag questions in English, which might, to the possible extent depending specified purposes, serve as theoretical basis for applications into other researches for practical purposes

Practically, to some certain extent, this thesis results would help English teachers tackle problems related to errors and mistakes likely to be committed by Vietnamese learners of English when using tag questions

7 Design of the study

This study is divided into three main parts:

- Part 1 is the Introduction of the study It includes the rationale for choosing

the topic, the aims, the objectives, the scope, the methods and design of the study

- Part 2 is the Development which contains three chapters, in which Chapter 1

provides readers with some theoretical background on English questions and tag questions in general, the operators and their functions in English question in brief, the polarity, the intonation and the basic tune shapes of intonation Chapter

2 is mainly focused on the categorization of mistakes made by Vietnamese students in using English tag questions Chapter 3 provides some presentation of the findings supported with possible discussions

- Part 3 - the Conclusion offers an recapitulation of the main issues raised and

conclusions for all of the given objectives

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Review of previous works related to the theme of this research

English tag questions have long been the subject of the study of many researchers and linguists in the world and in Vietnam as well Each of them investigates some aspects of this type of questions Their studies on English tag questions have provided a great help for Vietnamese learners of English These studies share a point that is the features and the usages of one certain or different types of tag questions Some researchers take into account the differences in frequency of using this type of questions between men and women, or between American and Bristish people However, the result of these studies is not relevant to Vietnamese context and cannot be applied in teaching and learning in our country

In Vietnam, the study carried out by Nguyen Quang (1998) based on the negative sentence in English and Vietnamese In his study the author briefly described different types of tag questions and made a comparison with Vietnamese ones Another study about tag questions was conducted by Pham Thu Ha (2006), which took interested in the features of tag questions and the equivalent expressions

in Vietnamese The author analyzed the similarities and differences between English tag questions and the equivalent expressions in Vietnamese Moreover, suggestions given are so useful to translators In her research, which is about Yes-

No questions, Bui Thi Dao (2007) provided syntactic, semantic and pragmatic features of tag questions as a small part in the whole MA thesis And Dao Thi Tam (2007) paid her attention to various patterns of intonation used in English tag questions and their equivalents in Vietnamese

These works have brought about an overview of tag questions in English Generally, they presented linguistic features of tag questions – their structure and their functions However, these works left some gaps that need being paid much

attention to Special cases of tag questions which are commonly used by English speaking people were not taken into consideration Also, „what are students‟ errors and mistakes in using tag questions‟ and „what should be done to improve students‟ skills in using this type of questions‟ have not been mentioned in any previous works These gaps that need dealing with, therefore, will be presented in this field

of study I would like to devote all my interest in the linguistic features of tag

questions in English (both canonical and invariant type) Then I would like to

investigate the kinds of mistakes in using tag questions the students at Tran Phu

High School often make Basing on the findings, the author can suggest some

possible pedagogical implications in order to help the students to overcome these

difficulties and use them correctly in terms of both grammar and phonology

1.2 Review of theoretical background

According to the Longman Dictionary of English language a question is a

"command or an interrogative expression used to elicit information or a respond, or

to test knowledge" Lynch (1991) characterizes a question as an utterance with a particular illocutionary forces Quirk et al (1973 and 1985) define a question as a semantic class used to seek information on a specific subject

And another linguist, Givón (1990), observes that languages employ at least three, non-exclusive, devices to signal a question:

(i) intonation;

(ii), the addition of morphology or independent lexical items ("Q-markers");

(iii), a different word-order

Moreover, Quirk ( 1978) states that an utterance can be called a question if it fulfills one of the following criteria; the operator is placed in front of the subject, an interrogative or wh-element takes the initial position or intonation is raised at the end of the utterance

1.2.1.2 Classification of English questions

In daily conversations, lots of questions are used with different purposes However,

to utter them in a natural way, speakers must be good at their forms This part centers on the form of some main types of questions which are often used in daily conversation Quirk (1973) classifies questions into the following categories:

 Yes- No questions: Putting operators before subjects and giving the sentence

a rising tone at the end of the question

 Wh- questions: Using Wh-words such as What, Where, When, Why… with a falling intonation

 Alternative questions: Using the form of Yes- No questions with the addition

of the word “or”

Tag questions belongs to Yes-No questions for two reasons Firstly, the syntactic feature of a question tag is similar to that of a Yes-No question, which is, Finite precedes Subject Secondly, the response that the speaker would expect to a tag question is either “Yes” or “No” or the interlocutor can respond by means of an utterance whose implicature communicate “yes” or “no”

For example:

- There are forty two students in your class, aren‟t there?

- No, forty

Another example:

- You missed a lot, didn‟t you?

- Only the first lesson

( Implicature : No- rejection)

1.2.1.3 Definitions of tag questions

Tag question is defined in many different ways:

“Tag questions consist of a tag, which is a short question form, attached to a stem, which is a statement” (Ron Cowan, 2008: 66)

Quirk (1973:194 ) states that “A word, phrase, or clause added to a sentence in

order to give emphasis or to form a question is called a tag question”

For example:

"If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?"

(Albert Einstein)

In this question, the first clause “If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not

be called research” is the stem clause or the statement and the second clause

“would it” is called tag or question tag

Question tags consist of operator plus pronoun, with or without a negative particle The operation in the tag agrees with the tense, aspect, and modality of the auxiliary verb in the anchoring clause The polarity value of the preceding anchoring clause also affects that of the tag question: when the main clause is positive, the tag question is negative, and vice versa The pronoun in the tag also agrees with the person, number, and gender value of the main clause‟s subject (Huddleston 1984, Tottie and Hoffmann 2006)

For example:

The boat has left, hasn‟t it?

The boat left yesterday, didn‟t it?

He hasn‟t left, has he?

auxiliaries which occur initially in the finite verb phrase”( 1973: 65)

For example:

Will he ask any questions?

They have finished their work

Mary did not come to the party last night

We should have brought an umbrella along

Only one grammatical form can perform the function of operator in English The one grammatical form that can function as the operator is the verb

Kilby (1984) offers an insight into operators for negation, interrogation and emphasis

1.2.2.1 Operators for Negation

Negation is the grammatical operation whereby a proposition is replaced by one that states the opposite An affirmative form expresses the validity or truth of a basic assertion A negative form expresses the falsity of a basic assertion The first method of negation in the English language is verb phrase negation Verb phrases in

English can be negated by inserting the negative adverb not after the first auxiliary

verb of the verb phrase For verb phrases without an auxiliary verb, the

operator do also appears before the negative adverb not

For example:

1 (a) She has finished her homework

(b) She has not finished her work

2 (a)The child ate some cookies

(b) The child did not eat some cookies

Note that the do-operator expresses the tense of the verb phrase in negated

constructions

1.2.2.2 Operators for Interrogation

Interrogative constructions allow speakers to ask questions To form an interrogative sentence from a declarative sentence, invert the subject and the first auxiliary verb of the verb phrase functioning as a predicate For verb phrases

without an auxiliary verb, invert the operator do with the subject

For example:

1 (a) The gardener is watering the pumpkins

(b) Is the gardener watering the pumpkins?

2 (a) She likes reading Shakespeare

(b) Does she like reading Shakespeare?

Note that the do-operator expresses the tense of the verb phrase in interrogative

constructions

1.2.2.3 Operators for Emphasis

The do-operator also expresses emphasis within verb phrases in the simple present and simple past To emphasize an action or state, insert the operator do before the

verb

For example:

1 (a) I love Doritos dipped in mashed potatoes

(b) I do love Doritos dipped in mashed potatoes!

2 (a) My daughter claims that she washed the dishes

(b) My daughter claims that she did wash the dishes

3 (a) He works at the company

(b) He does work at the company

Note that the do-operator expresses the tense of the verb phrase in emphatic

other utterances Essentially an affirmative (positive) form is used to express the validity or truth of a basic assertion, while a negative form expresses its falsity Examples are the sentences "Jane is here" and "Jane is not here"; the first is affirmative, while the second is negative

The grammatical category associated with affirmative and negative is

called polarity Polarity is defined the “choice between positive and negative”

either affirmative or negative polarity (its polarity may be either affirmative or negative)

+ Affirmative is generally the unmarked polarity

1 (a) Clarissa didn‟t sleep a wink that night

(b) Clarissa slept a wink that night

2 (a) She wouldn‟t so much as give him the time of day

(b) She would so much as give him the time of day

+ Negative is marked by a negating word or particle such as not, never, hardly…

and so on, which reverses the meaning of the predicate

1 (a) That guy Winthrop is some mathematician

(b) That guy Winthrop isn‟t some mathematician

2 (a) He can calculate an eigen vector in the blink of an eye

(b) He can't calculate an eigen vector in the blink of an eye

The process of converting affirmative to negative is called negation – the

grammatical rules for negation vary from language to language, and a given

language may have more than one way of producing negations

Affirmative and negative responses (especially, though not exclusively,

to questions) are often expressed using particles such as yes and no, where yes is the affirmative and no the negative particle

1.2.3.2 Polarity in tag questions:

Tag questions consist of a tag, which is a short question form, attached to a stem,

which is a statement According to Ron Cowan (2008: 66) there are two main types

of polarity in tag questions: opposite polarity and same polarity

1.2.3.2.1 Opposite Polarity Tag Questions

Opposite polarity tag questions are shown in (1) Notice that the subject in the tag corresponds to the subject in the stem The tag has the opposite value from the stem:

if the stem is positive, then the tag is negative, as in (1a), (1b), and (1c); if the stem

is negative, the tag is positive, as in (1d)

(1) a You are going You are going, aren‟t you?

b They have done it They have done it, haven‟t they?

c Betty can come Betty can come, can‟t she?

d He isn‟t a vegetarian He isn‟t a vegetarian, is he?

( Ron Cowan: 2008) The stems in (1a) and (1b) contain the auxiliary verbs are and have, respectively In the corresponding tag questions, these same auxiliary verbs are located in the tags but in their negative forms (aren‟t, haven‟t) The stem in (1c) has a modal (can), which also appears in the tag but in its negative form (can‟t) In (1d), the stem is a negative form of the copular be (isn‟t), while the corresponding positive form is appears in the tag If the stem in a tag question does not contain an auxiliary verb, a modal, or copular be, then do appears in the tag

Stem Tag Question

(2) He likes her He likes her, doesn‟t he?

Four types of opposite polarity tag questions occur, depending upon whether the stem is positive or negative and whether the intonation on the tag is falling or rising These four types are shown in (3)

(3) a He likes to do that, doesn‟t he? positive stem, negative tag

b He doesn‟t like to do that, does he? negative stem, positive tag

c He likes to do that, doesn‟t he? positive stem, negative tag

d He doesn‟t like to do that, does he? negative stem, positive tag

( Ron Cowan: 2008) Tag questions such as (3a) and (3b), in which the tag starts out in the high pitch range and rises at the end, signal that the asker is not completely sure of the answer and is seeking information In contrast, tag questions such as (3c) and (3d), in which the pitch on the tag starts high and then falls, assume that the person being asked will assess the situation the same way that the speaker would; that is, the asker expects the interlocutor to agree with the proposition in the stem These tag questions often carry the force of a statement, as in (4), and speakers use them in contexts such as (5), in which they have no reason to expect an answer that disagrees with the proposition in their negative forms (aren‟t, haven‟t) The stem in (1c) has a modal (can), which also appears in the tag but in its negative form (can‟t)

In (1d), the stem is a negative form of the copular be (isn‟t), while the corresponding positive form is appears in the tag

(4) Al: You know, I was sure that Manchester United was going to

beat Real Madrid last night

Fred (looking downcast): Well, they didn‟t, did they? I watched the whole game (5) Amy: : My caterpillar is waving its legs at you

Sally (looking at caterpillar) : Yes, it is, isn‟t it?

Questions with negative tags and falling intonation can be formed from sentences with complement clauses if the main verb of the stem indicates that there is good evidence that the complement is true The complement clause in (6) is in brackets

(6) Kim: It appears [that we are going to win,] doesn‟t it?

Su Jung: Yes I can hardly believe it We were behind 2 to 1

Examples of verbs that the speaker uses to indicate the truth of the complements in

sentences such as (6) are: appear, believe, expect, guess, imagine, look like, see,

seem

1.2.3.2.2 Same Polarity Tag Questions

Both the stem and the tag are positive in same polarity tag questions One common type of same polarity tag question is shown in (7) It typically has a low pitch that jumps up on the tag It is often preceded by oh or so and indicates that the speaker has inferred or reached a conclusion that is expressed in the stem Same polarity tag questionsare often perceived as sarcastic statements

(7) So, that‟s your little game, is it? Well, you won‟t get away with it.

It is also possible to use a tag to form an emphatic imperative statement that conveys urgency, as in (8a) This same structure can serve as a polite request, as in (8b) and (8c), or a suggestion, as in (8d)

(8) a Hurry up, will you! emphatic imperative denoting urgency

b Get me a glass of water, would you? polite request

c Turn out the light, will you? polite request

d Let‟s talk about that later, shall we? suggestion

(Ron Cowan: 2008) All of the examples in (8) have the form of regular tag questions The first element

of each tag question, a modal, has a lower pitch that rises to the second element, the pronoun you or we

Same polarity tag questions may have a verb in the tag that is different from the verb in the stem, as in (9a), (9b), and (9c) Typically, a verb like know, remember,see, or understand appears in the tag

(9) a We were supposed to meet outside of the theater, remember? reminder

b You‟re supposed to be here at 8 o‟clock, you know? admonition/reminder

c You hold it like this, see? instruction/request for feedback

d You know what I‟m talking about, right? request for feedback

( Ron Cowan: 2008) Notice that in (9a), (9b), and (9c), the tags themselves seem to be shortened forms

ofthe tag questions You remember that, don‟t you? You know that, don‟t you? and

You see that, don‟t you? respectively Similarly, in (9d), in which the tag does not

have a verb, right can be considered a shortened form of That‟s right, isn‟t it? Depending upon the tone the speaker uses and the context in which it is uttered, this kind of same polarity tag question functions as an admonition, a reminder, an instruction, or a request for feedback to ensure that the listener understands the speaker

1.2.4 Intonation

1.2.4.1 Definition of intonation

Intonation is one of the most prominent components of English pronunciation as it appears in almost every utterance Thus, a lot of linguistics have been interested in exploring it English intonation is, therefore defined in different ways

According to Paul Tench (1996: 1), “intonation refers to the rise and fall of

the pitch of the voice in spoken language” This means that when you say

something, you cannot say it without some kind of intonation So intonation is

present in all utterances That is why he assumed that “intonation is the linguistic

use of pitch in utterances” and that “It is not what they said, but the way they said it” (1996:2) O‟Connor (1973:1) explained intonation in a clearer way, „When we talk about English intonation we mean the pitch patterns of spoken English, the speech tunes or melodies, the musical features of English” Clearly, intonation can

be realized by different factors which can convey different meanings Paul Tench also agreed on this idea when he pointed out that “intonation does in fact have both

a linguistic and paralinguistic dimension” (Paul Tench, 1996:2) The linguistic dimension here concerns the message itself: How many pieces of information there are; whether the speaker is telling you something or asking you, or whether the speaker is turning to a new topic or finishing off an old one Whereas, paralinguistic dimension concern the messenger rather than the message: the speaker‟s state of mind, their degree of politeness and their effort to associate or dissociate from you And more importantly, paralanguage involves not only pitch, but also volumn, tempo and voice quality So, to realize the intonation of an utterance, a lot of items

must be taken into consideration, especially the pitch variations which help

differentiate between words and called tone

1.2.4.2 Types of English intonation

According to O‟Connor (1980; 109), “the shape of a tune is decided partly

by the number of important words in the group and partly by the exact attitude you wish to express” „Important words‟ here means ones carrying most of the meaning

in a word group and these words are often accompanied with the changes of pitch which creates intonation Often an important word has a stressed syllable and a change of pitch connected to it In an utterance, any word may be important due to the speaker‟s intention of giving information, so one sentence can represent different meaning by various tunes If we do not catch the intonation in the communication, we cannot follow the cohesion of the message and surely, the communication will be failed

According to O‟Connor (1980), in English there are four basic tune shapes to show speaker‟s feelings and intentions

1.2.4.2.1 The falling tune ( The Glide- down)

The falling tune consists of a fall in the voice from a fairly high pitch to a very low one The fall is on the stressed syllable or from the stressed syllable to a following one

When working with the falling tune, it is very necessary to know that:

- On a single syllable the voice falls within the syllable

- On more than one syllable the voice either falls within the stressed syllable or it jumps down from that syllable to the next

- Unstressed syllable at the end are very low When there is more than one important word in the group, the last one has the fall but the others are treated differently

- The stressed syllable of the first important word is high and any unstressed syllables following it are on the same pitch

- The stressed syllables of the second important word is little lower and any unstressed syllables following it are on the same pitch

- The fall starts at the same pitch as the syllable just before it

In a group with more than three important words the stressed syllable of each one is lower than the one before; that is why this tune shape is also called Glide-down

If there are any unstressed syllables before the stressed syllable of the first important word, these are all said on a rather low pitch Also, any stressed syllable near the beginning which belongs to a word which is not important is said on this same rather low pitch

 

He *seems * very * nice

(O' Connor, 1980:113)

1.2.4.2.2 The first rising tune ( The Glide-up)

This tune shape is just like the falling tune except that it ends with a rise in the voice instead of a fall Both important and unimportant words before the rise are treated

exactly as in the falling tune

above the middle of the voice Apart from this the tune is the same as in the falling tune: the unstressed syllable at the beginning is low, and there is a step at the stressed syllable of each important word

Notice that the stressed syllable of the last important word is low and that the voice jumps to unstressed syllable And this type of tune shape often appear in English Yes-No questions and declarative ones

1.2.4.2.3 The second rising tune (The Take –off)

The second rising tune also ends with a rise in the voice, like the first rising, but any words and syllable before the rise are low

up, either takes place on one syllable or it is spread over several syllables Before the rise any stressed word is felt to be important, even though there is no change of pitch All the syllables before the rise, they must not be higher than this, or you will have a high rising instead of a low rising This tune can be used in a tag question when you do not want to force the other person to agree with you, but to give his opinion such as „ Go to the cinema with us, will you?‟

1.2.4.2.4 The falling- rising tune (The Dive)

In the shortest form the falling –rising tune consists of a fall from rather high to low and then a rise to about the middle of the voice

This fall-rise is connected with the stressed syllable of the last important word, like the fall and the rise of the other tunes But it is only completed on one syllable if that syllable is final in the group

The fall is on the stressed syllable of the last important word and the rise on the last syllable of all If there are stressed words following the fall, the rise at the end is

from the last of the stressed syllables

Words and syllables before the fall are said in the same way as for the falling and the high rising and note that the fall of the fall-rise is always from a fairly high note

1.2.4.3.1 Attitudinal function : Intonation is used to convey our feelings and

attitudes For instance, the same sentence can be said in different ways, to express happiness, gratitude, anger, boredom, etc Usually, intonation units with high heads sound more lively and interesting than those with low heads A few generalizations can be made here: the falling intonation is said to be more often associated with completeness and uncertainty or questioning; the falling-rising is said to be associated with feeling of hesitation, contrast, reservation or doubt

1.2.4.3.2 Accentual function : The location of the tonic syllable is of considerable

linguistic importance The most common position for this is on the last information word of the intonation unit For contrastive purposes, however, any word may bear the tonic syllable

1.2.4.3.3 Grammatical function: Some sentences may be ambiguous when

written, but this can be removed by the use of intonation An often cited example is the sentence “Those who sold quickly made a profit” This sentence can be said at least two different ways: