A study on the structural and semantic features of tag questions with reference to vietnamese equivalents based on the bilingual play “ an ideal husband’

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY M.A Thesis A STUDY ON THE STRUCTURAL AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF TAG QUESTIONS WITH REFERENCE TO VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS BASED ON

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

M.A Thesis

A STUDY ON THE STRUCTURAL AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF TAG QUESTIONS WITH REFERENCE TO

VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS BASED ON THE

BILINGUAL PLAY “AN IEAL HUSBAND”

(ĐẶC ĐIỂM CẤU TRÚC VÀ NGỮ NGHĨA CỦA CÂU HỎI CÓ ĐUÔI TRONG TIẾNG ANH VÀ NHỮNG TƯƠNG ĐƯƠNG TRONG TIẾNG VIỆT DỰA TRÊN TÁC PHẨM

SONG NGỮ „MỘT NGƯỜI CHỒNG LÝ TƯỞNG‟)

ĐÀO THỊ VÂN NGA

Field: English Language Code: 8220201

Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr.Phan Văn Quế

Hanoi, 2018

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

I, the undersigned, herby certify my authority of the study project report entitle ―A study on the structural and semantic features of Tag – question with reference to Vietnamese equivalents based on the bilingual play ― an ideal husband‖ submitted

in partial fufillment of the requirements for the degree of Master in English Language Except where the reference is indicated, no other person‘s work has been used without due acknowlwdgement in the text of the thesis

Hanoi, 2018 Student’s Signature

Đào Thị Vân Nga

Approved by SUPERVISOR

( Signature and full name)

Date:

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am grateful to my family for their support, understanding, and love Without your sacrifices throughout these arduous years at Hanoi Open University, I would not have had the courage to accomplish this study Thank you so much

The efforts, guidance, and support of my supervisor were immensely helpful and encouraging And Assoc Prof Dr Phan Văn Quế was tireless, brave, and thorough to help me I acknowledge the work and the lectures of lecturers at Hanoi Open University Through your constructive criticisms, excellent methodological reviews, and insistence on the rubric, these distinguished university members influenced the quality of this graduation thesis positively

My appreciation goes to reviewers/inspectors for their excellent works on editing and ensuring that this work met the standard of Hanoi Open University

ABSTRACT

The features of tag questions have been one of the big concerns for learners

of linguistics as well as the researchers especially translators who are interested in masterpieces such as ― An ideal husband‖ by Oscar Wilder it can be seen that many studies have been conducted in English and Vietnamese questions in general,

ad tag question in particular Questions are analyzed in those studies mostly in term

of semantic and pragmatic features These works have brought about an overview of tag question in English Generally, they presented linguistic features of tag questions- their structure and functions However, the number of comparative studies which investigate the similarities and differences in terms of tag questions between English and Vietnamese are limited As a result, the current study is carried out with the aim to compare and contrast tag question in English and Vietnamese

equivalent expression in a translated version of a very famous novel “An ideal

husband” by Oscar Wilder When finished, this research can serve as a contribution

to bilingual studies especially ones related to language comparison or translation, thus leading to learners‘ proper comprehension and usage of tag questions

TABLE OF CONTENT

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale of the study

Without a shadow of a doubt, communication is at the heart of our everyday lives The purpose of verbal communication is to establish and maintain our relationship with other people, to express our feeling, attitudes and judgments, and to understand what other people think Conversations also enable us to take role on asking and answering questions to achieve the communicational goals

Tag questions - one of the most important English sentence patterns of speech- plays such a crucial role in English speakers‘ communications It mainly consists of declarative sentence plus tag question The declarative sentence is used to put forward

a view of speaker, whilst the tag question indicates the necessity to identify the previously mentioned statement Learning and understanding tag question enable learners understand more about this special structure, thus enhancing language users‘ ability to translate tag questions into Vietnamese and vice versa

Although tag questions represent multi-functionality and a diversity of meaning, throughout the almost ten-year process of working as an English teacher, I myself realize that the majority of students do not obtain the relatively full understanding of the use and usefulness of this question type In addition, they also are not able to translate and use it properly, which results in inaccurate translation in certain situations Moreover, the comparative analysis of tag questions between English and Vietnamese is approximately limited All those above-mentioned reasons have created the motivation for me to carry out the current thesis on Tag questions in English and equivalents in Vietnamese I hope that this research can serve as a contribution to bilingual studies especially ones related to language comparison or translation, thus leading to learners‘ proper comprehension and usage of tag questions

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1.2 Aims and objectives of the study

The study is conducted to understand about the structural and semantic features of English tag questions, thus compare and contrast tag questions in English and Vietnamese equivalent expressions in a translated version of a very famous novel ―An ideal husband‖ by Oscar Wilder The findings of the study, to some extent, help the teachers and the learners have better ways to teach and learn English literature through understanding about English tag questions and the way to translate them into

Vietnamese

In order to achieve the aims, the study is expected to reach the following objectives:

 Proving an exhaustive description of English tag questions and Vietnamese equivalents in terms of structures and meanings

 Identifying the similarities and differences between tag questions in English and Vietnamese equivalent expressions in the Vietnamese translation version of The ideal husband by Oscar Wilder

1.3 Research methods

The present study involves a descriptive, comparative and contrastive analysis of English tag questions and Vietnamese equivalent expressions English is the instrumental language employed in the thesis to identify the similarities and differences between tag questions between these two languages

The study has been conducted using the following procedures:

 Data collection

A number of materials on mood, modality, and tag questions in English are investigated in order to build up a theoretical framework for the present thesis

 Data analysis

Using this theoretical framework as a solid base, a generalization and systematizations

of the relationship between various forms and functions of English tag question is under investigation

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 Contrastive analysis

On the basis of author‘s personal experience and knowledge, Vietnamese equivalent expressions in the translation work are determined using English as the instrumental language Similarities and differences between tag questions in English and Vietnamese equivalent expressions are subsequently identified

1.4 Research questions

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

i What are the structural and semantic features of English tag questions

and their equivalents in Vietnamese?

ii What is the usage of tag questions in the bilingual play ‗An Ideal

Husband by Oscar Wilder?

1.5 Scope of the study

The main focus of the study is a contrastive analysis between English tag questions and their Vietnamese equivalent in the light of systemic functional grammar The study is conducted between the conceptual frameworks of interpersonal metafiction theory,

analyzing compositional features in Vietnamese version of An ideal husband by Oscar Wilder Oscar Wilder began to write An Ideal Husband in the summer of 1893, he

completed it later that winter At the time of when it was written, he was familiarized

to success, and in writing this play he wanted to guarantee himself to stay in the public

eye

An ideal husband is one of the most serious social comedies that Oscar Wilde

published; it contains bold political tinges, ironically and pessimistically looking at the current political background To make the most of comparison in terms of tag

questions between two languages, a version of Vietnamese translation ‗Một người

chồng lý tưởng’ by Hoang Nguyen published by World Publisher in 1998 was chosen

for this study because it has been the only one version which can be found in Vietnam

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1.6 Design of the study

The thesis is divided into 5 main chapters as follows:

Chapter 1 is the Introduction of the study It includes the rationale for choosing the

topic, the aims, scope, research questions and design of the study

Chapter 2 provides theoretical backgrounds for the study In this chapter, different

types of questions in English are stated In addition, the author mentions features of English tag questions in terms of syntactic and semantic features It also reveals an exploration of the relationship between the grammatical constructions, interactional functions and meanings of English tag questions In this chapter, different types of tag questions are analyzed with respect to their form, function and meaning

Chapter 3 Methodology includes the research design, the samples of the collected tag

questions, research procedure including data collection and data analysis, instrument for analysis and the reliability validity of the thesis

Chapter 4: Findings and discussion is devoted to the description of the Vietnamese

equivalent expressions in the translated version of An ideal husband by Oscar Wilder

to those expounded for English tag questions in previous part

Chapter 5 is the concluding remarks together with the suggestions for further study

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CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Previous studies

Scholars summing up research on question tags, such as McGregor (1995: 91)

or Nässlin (1984: 11) state that tags originally became subject of research mainly in connection with various grammatical theories, serving as evidence for or against different theories or concepts Later receiving interest from sociolinguistics, attention was devoted mainly to gender differences in usage of question tags (Dubois, Crouch 1975) Regarding more specific context in which the question tags are studied or encountered, as a phenomenon particular to English they are an issue in English language teaching, as well as in connection with regional variants of English and bi/multilingual environment where English coexists and blends with (an)other language(s) (Cheng, Warren 2001; Klintborg, Staffan 1996) The pragmatic aspects of question tags play a role in professional communication of various fields, such as law

or health care (Rigney 1999; Roter, Hall, and Aoki 2002)

At present, corpus-based research has been carried out, making use of both spoken and written corpora (Nässlin 1984; Tottie and Hoffmann 2006; Kimps 2007) Spoken corpora provide an opportunity to study intonation of question tags and intonation conditioned differences in their pragmatic functions (Nässlin 1984; Kimps 2007) Specialised corpora can be employed to study and compare usage of question tags in regional (e.g., Tottie and Hoffmann 2006)1 and social variants (e.g., Stenström 1997),2 particular time periods etc The corpus–based research is appreciated for being based on and reflecting actual language usage, thereby recognising a wider range of tag types and observing their contextual uses in conversation (McGregor 1995).3 It also enables scholars to map the collocates of particular types of question tags, such as particles (e.g., Kimps 2007)

Relevant previous studies to the current research are presented in this section The previous findings and discussions play as an evidence of descriptive research of

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English tag questions in terms of its form and meaning Le Dong (1996) carried out a study on Tag question on the view of semantic and pragmatic and provided some theoretical background about questions and their common characteristics based on different aspects, in which Tag question is mentioned The study carried out by Nguyen Quang (1998) based on the negative sentence in English In his study, the author briefly described different types of tag questions as well as gave useful suggestions to translator Nguyen Dang Suu (1998) conducted a study of English question in contrast with Vietnamese ones In detail, the author figured out the features of questions in both English and Vietnamese to have a clear understanding about ways to form a questions and their equivalent meaning in the two languages Then, the author studied and compared the pragmatic-semantic structure Questions in some books are used as illustrated examples and as a source to display the mistakes in question translation in English Vo Dai Quang (2004) conducted a study to compare and contrast Tag questions on the fields of semantics in English and Vietnamese In the study, author used English as a source and target language in order to find out the semantic features

of English questions

This chapter has shown that question tags are a topic for translation studies as they are a language-specific phenomenon In conclusion, it can be seen that many studies have been conducted in English and Vietnamese questions in general, ad tag question in particular Questions are analyzed in those studies mostly in term of semantic and pragmatic features These works have brought about an overview of tag question in English Generally, they presented linguistic features of tag questions- their structure and functions

However, the number of comparative studies which investigate the similarities and differences in terms of tag questions between English and Vietnamese are limited

As a result, the current study is carried out with the aim to compare and contrast tag

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questions in English and Vietnamese equivalent expressions in a translated version of a

very famous novel “An ideal husband” by Oscar Wilder

2.2 Overview of questions in English

A question is a linguistic expression used to make a request for information, or the request made using such an expression The information requested should be provided in the form of an answer Questions have developed a range of uses that go beyond the simple eliciting of information from another party.Rhetorical questions, for example, are used to make a point, and are not expected to be answered Many languages have special grammatical forms for questions (for example, in the English sentence "Are you happy?", the inversion of the subject you and the verb are shows it

to be a question rather than a statement) However questions can also be asked without using these interrogative grammatical structures – for example one may use an imperative, as in "Tell me your name".There are many kinds of questions

2.2.1 Yes-No Questions

According to Richard Nordquist, PH.D in English at Armstrong Atlantic State University, a Yes-No question is ―an interrogative construction that expects an answer of "yes" or "no."‖ (Cited in About.com Grammar and Composition) Basing on characteristics of the question or the answer, with the idea that a question is

―the unknown‖, Yes - No question is defined to contain ―opposite choices‖ in which the affirmative and negative sides are distinguished (H.T.P, 1980)

Yes / No questions are those questions that expect ‗yes‘ or ‗no‘ as answer These

questions do not take the question words when, what, where etc

Yes / No questions are used to check information or ask for confirmation

 ‗Are you coming with us?‘ ‗Yes.‘

 ‗Has he returned the car?‘ ‗No, he hasn‘t.‘

 ‗Do you live in Chicago?‘ ‗No, I don‘t.‘

 ‗Does she speak English?‘ ‗Yes, she does.‘

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 ‗Did you meet John yesterday?‘ ‗No, I didn‘t.‘

Note the use of auxiliary verbs in the above examples

When we answer Yes / No questions we do not normally repeat the complete the

question Instead, we use an appropriate auxiliary verb This auxiliary is usually present in the question

 ‗Does Mike live with you?‘ ‗Yes, he does.‘

 ‗Did Maya tell you she wasn‘t coming?‘ ‗No, she didn‘t.‘

In negative answers we use the auxiliary verb and not Usually a contracted form is

used

 ‗Have you ever visited Argentina?‘ ‗Yes, I have.‘

 ‗Will you help me?‘ ‗No, I won‘t.‘ (won‘t = will not)

Here is an overview of Yes / No questions in different tenses

2.2.2 Tag questions

Question tags are the short questions that we put on the end of sentences – particularly

in spoken English There are lots of different question tags but the rules are not

difficult to learn

Positive/negative

If the main part of the sentence is positive, the question tag is negative …

and if the main part of the sentence is negative, the question tag is positive

With auxiliary verbs

The question tag uses the same verb as the main part of the sentence If this is an

auxiliary verb (‗have‘, ‗be‘) then the question tag is made with the auxiliary verb

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Without auxiliary verbs

If the main part of the sentence doesn‘t have an auxiliary verb, the question tag uses an

appropriate form of ‗do‘

With modal verbs

If there is a modal verb in the main part of the sentence the question tag uses the same modal verb

With „I am‟

Be careful with question tags with sentences that start ‗I am‘ The question tag for ‗I am‘ is ‗aren’t I?‘

Intonation

Question tags can either be ‗real‘ questions where you want to know the answer or simply asking for agreement when we already know the answer

If the question tag is a real question we use rising intonation Our tone of voice rises

If we already know the answer we use falling intonation Our tone of voice falls

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The beginning of an alternative question can be auxiliary or modal verb For example,

take the proposal to form questions: He sent a beautiful postcard to his mother two

days ago It is very warm outside at this time of the year That is what could be the alternative to the first question saying:

 Did he send a postcard or a letter two days ago? — He sent a postcard or a letter two days ago?

 Did he send a postcard to his mother yesterday or two days ago? — He sent his mother a postcard yesterday or two days ago?

 Did he send the postcard to his mother or his sister? — He sent a postcard to his mother or sister?

But the alternative questions to a proposal:

 Is it cold or warm outside? — On the street heat or cold?

 Is it warm inside or ouside? — Heat on the street or at home?

 Is it often warm outside or only at this time of the year? — The street is often heat or only at this time of year?

If the alternative question contains not one auxiliary verb, but several, the first we put before the subject, and the rest just after it

 He has been studying for several years — He is studying for several years Has he been studying or working for several years? — He is a student or working a few years?

Alternative question in English can also begin with a question word Then this question

is directly from the special issue, followed by the two homogeneous parts of the sentence, which are connected by a union or For example:

 When were you interrupted: at the beginning or in the middle of your speech?

 When you are interrupted in the beginning or middle of a speech?

If the alternative question relates to the subject, the second subject is always preceded

by an auxiliary or modal verb For example: Did you tell her the truth, or did he?

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How to answer this kind of question in English? Definitely yes / no answer, both in

general matter, it will not turn Answers must be complete and logical conclusion For example:

 Will he try to take part in this or next competitions?

 He will try to take part in these competitions or the next?

Of all the types of questions in English alternative it is one of the easiest Therefore, the study of an alternative question in English will not take much of your time

2.2.4 Wh-questions

According to Elson and Pickett (1988), A Wh-question is a question that contains an interrogative pro-form to request There are basic forms of this kind of question : Where, when, while, what, who, how Beside that, these interrogative questions will be extended into different forms in order to ask for the information

A wh-question is used for seeking content information relating to persons, things, facts, time, place, reason, manner, etc Wh-questions differ depending on the kind of content information sought Content information associated with persons, things, and facts is generally sought with one set of wh-words, and content information associated with time, place, reason, and manner is sought with another set of wh-words

Persons, things, facts: who, what, whose, which

Time, place, reason, and manner: when, where, why, how

Questioning Subject and Object Positions

With respect to sentence structure, content information associated with persons, things, and facts occurs in various subject and object positions within a sentence Consider the question below and its possible answer

Q: Who manages your company‘s payroll system

A: A local payroll firm manages our company‘s payroll system

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This question with who refers to the content information in the highlighted subject position of the answer In this case, the subject is the noun phrase, a local payroll

firm

In the next set, what refers to the content information in the highlighted object (or

"complement") position in the answer after the verb said In this case, the object is an

entire clause, that a good accounting system is vital to a company‟s success

Q: What did the accountant say?

A: The accountant said that a good accounting system is vital to a company‟s

success

In the next set, which marketing plan refers to the highlighted object of preposition

position after the preposition about in the answer In this case, the object of the

preposition is a complex noun phrase, the marketing plan that was recently

implemented

Q: Which marketing plan were you talking about?

A: They were talking about the marketing plan that was recently implemented

These examples illustrate that the information associated with persons, things, and facts

is generally represented in sentence structure by noun phrases and clauses in various subject and object positions In linguistic theory, these are known as "argument positions."

Questioning Other Sentence Positions

With respect to sentence structure, content information associated with time, place, reason, and manner does NOT occur in subject and object positions within a sentence Consider the question below and its possible answer

Q: When does your company begin its fiscal year?

A: My company begins its fiscal year on July 1

This question with when refers to the content information in the highlighted portion of the answer The phrase on July 1pertains to time and is not a subject or an object

A: The accountant debited the account because the customer‟s check bounced

In linguistic theory, these positions associated with time, place, reason, and manner are known as "adjunct positions."

There is a fundamental difference between argument and adjunct positions Argument positions (subjects, objects) are required in a sentence structure; adjunct positions are optional This difference can be seen if the targeted arguments and adjuncts are removed from the answers to the above questions

2.3 Features of English tag questions

The tag question in the English language is a grammatical structure which can be added to the clause in conversation or in written representations of speech The tag question is mainly added to a declarative sentence (see 1 a-c), but it can also be added

to imperative sentences (see l.d) In die case of adding a tag question to an imperative sentence, however, the formation rule may not follow the canonical convention 1) a The weather is hot today, isn‘t it? b Mary will come tomorrow, won‘t she? c The little boy doesn‘t like sleeping early, does he? d Switch on the lights, could you? Tag questions are important linguistic devices in the English language which require

―considerable conversational skills‖ to be used and interpreted accurately (Holmes,

1982, p 61) They are syntactically, prosodically and semantically complicated (Bennett, 1989; Holmes, 1982; Bublitz, 1979; Armagost, 1972) Tag questions vary in form and they serve different functions; in addition, intonation has a major role in classifying them as tag questions (Bublitz, 1979) The level of acceptability of an utterance as a tag question also varies among native speakers The host sentence is used

to express the speaker‘s view, while die tag question indicates that this view needs to

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be acknowledged Most languages have tag questions that serve different purposes However, canonical tag questions in the English language are complex and have a form that is unique to the English language (Bublitz, 1979; Algeo, 1988; Culicover, 1992) The form of canonical tag questions requires the implementation of various syntactic and pragmatic rules In spoken English these rules are implemented automatically and unconsciously by native speakers of English Because of the complexity of English canonical tag questions, second language learners, on the other hand, tend to avoid using these tag questions when they speak English They find it difficult to apply the syntactic rules of tag questions and keep the flow of their speech at the same time Non-native speakers of English use them incorrectly, avoid using them, or replace the canonical form with stereotyped words, which are also called invariant tag questions, such as right and okay Canonical tag questions are unique to the English language and using them appropriately requires a high level of conversational skills Bublitz (1979) argues that the English tag question is ―a typical and characteristic feature of the English language differing from added questions in a number of related languages‖ (p 5) Various studies have been conducted on the difficulties that speakers of other languages have in using English canonical tag questions when learning English as a second language (Beaidsmore, 1979; Cheng, K,, 1995; Cheng, W & Warren, 2001) The results of these studies show that ESL learners use tag questions far less frequently than native speakers Most languages have stereotyped tag words that go almost with every sentence French, for example, uses n ‘est-ce pas, German favours nicht wakr, Spanish uses no es verdad, and Italian non e ‘ vero The Arabic language is similar to these languages in that it has one form of a fixed or stereotyped tag question, which is a form of constant or unchanging tag question that goes with almost every sentence in the Arabic language ―alaysa kathaleka‖ Based on my observations as an adult ESL instructor, Arabic-speaking ESL learners have difficulties in forming and using English canonical tag questions appropriately because of the syntactic and pragmatic

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requirements of canonical tag questions Mastering and using tag questions requires a high level of proficiency in the English language and high level of proficiency doesn‘t only mean proficiency in English syntax and English grammar Approaching tag questions in an ESL class from a syntactic point of view is not enough and will not help ESL students use them properly Therefore, there should be an alternative approach to teach tag questions to adult ESL learners This approach should include, besides syntax, a pragmatic theory that explains the real use of tag questions in social contexts (Bublitz, 1979)

Question or interrogative tags may not be independent clauses as questions proper, but they do require a response, and present a highly interactive language forms (Downing

& Locke, 2006:187) Tag questions have varied formal expressions in different languages, ranging from one-word forms to phrasal structure or grammatical construction, from rising (expressive of doubt and uncertainty) to falling intonation (expressing a confirmation request) They can also be diversified according to various

degrees of formality, from colloquial, informal to formal

2.3.1 Structural features of English tag questions

2.3.1.1 Tag questions with declarative stems

Declarative tags are the most common and the best studied (McGregor 1995: 96) type(s) of question tags There is a substantial meaning difference between constant and reverse polarity declarative tags, consisting in the character of commitment of the speaker to the proposition uttered in the host clause Whereas in reverse polarity tags the speaker presents his own opinion, something he knows or (tends to) believe(s) (Dušková 2003: 319; Cattell 1973: 61; Nässlin 1984: 24), (not necessarily strongly) holds and advances (McGregor 1995: 96), asserts or denies (Kimps 2007: 274), in constant polarity tags the speaker presents what has been characterised as not his own but rather someone else‘s opinion or a tentative utterance (Kimps 2007: 274) based on interpretation of certain indication (McGregor 1995: 98; Kimps 2007: 274)

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In this type of question, the subject in the tag corresponds to the subject in the stem The tag has an opposite value from the stem: if the stem is positive, then the tag is negative; if the stem is negative, the tag is positive

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

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

The stems in a and b 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 form ( aren‘t, haven‘t) The stem in c has a model (can) , which also appears in the tag but in its negative form of the copular be (isn‘t), while the

corresponding positive form is appears in the tag

If the stem in a tag questions does not contain an auxiliary verb, a model, or copular be then do appears in the tag

Four types of opposite polarity tag questions occur, depending upon whether the stem

is positive or negative and whether on the tag is falling or rising These four types are:

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

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2.3.1.2 Tag questions with imperative stems

It is also possible to use a tag to form an emphatic imperative statement that conveys urgency, as in the following example:

Hurry up, will you?

This same structure can serve as a polite request or a suggestion

Get me a glass of water, would you? Polite request

Turn out the light, will you? Polite request

Let‘s talk about that later, shall we? Suggestion

All of these above examples 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 Typically, a verb like know, remember, see, understand appears in the tag

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

Notice that in b.c.d, the tags themselves seem to be shortened forms of the tag

questions You remember that, don’t you? You know that, don’t you? You see that, don’t you? Respectively Similarly, in d, 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

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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

2.3.1.3 Tag questions with exclamative stems

Tag questions are sometimes used as exclamations Here the tag seem almost unnecessary, but is added in hopes of eliciting agreement from the person addresses

 Oh! That‘s a fantastic car, isn‘t it

A British English equivalent of the American exclamatory tag in the above example is

isn’t it

A fairly recent variation on the tag question as exclamation in American English is the

or what tag placed after a yes/no question Sentence with or what tag do not ask for

information, but instead demand agreement from the person to whom they are

addressed Thus the speaker who utter a believes that of course this is a great idea Here the pitch jump on what with little or no fall

 Is this a great idea, or what?

 Do you love it, or what!

 Was that the best performance ever, or what

2.3.2 Semantic features of English tag questions

2.3.2.1 Tag questions with declarative statements

2.3.2.1.1 Reverse polarity tag questions with a final rising tone

According to Anderson (2001:119), a rising tone on the tag constrains the utterance towards a weak epistemic reading in the sense that the speaker is uncertain as to the truth of the proposition and presents it as possibly true The tag of this type behaves like the epistemic adverbial ‗possibly‘ Moreover, the speaker assumes the proposition

to be a belief shared by both the speaker and the addressee but more salient in the addressee‘s contextual background The addressee is, therefore, likely to be able to verify the proposition

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Downing and Locke (1995:204) also share the view with Anderson that a rising tone indicates doubt, and expeccts the hearer to clarify whether the statement is true or not The tag with rising intonation combines with either a positive or a negative assumption, expressed in the statement, to give the following meanings:

Positive assumption ( in the statement) + doubt ( in the tag)

You’ve got a car, \ haven’t you?/

Meaning: I think you have a car Am I right?

Negative assumption ( in the statement) + doubt ( in the tag)

You haven’t got a car, \have you?/

Meaning: I don’t think you have a car Am I right?

Reverse polarity tags with rising intonation perform nearly the same yes-no questioning function (Wennerstrom 2001:163, Alexander 1992:258) For example, the question ―You understand,\ don‘t you?/‖ is equivalent to a genuine yes-no question

―Do you understand?‖ In the former, the speaker presents a positive assumption in the statement and a neutral expectation in the tag In other words, the speaker really does not know the answer to the question S/he thinks or expects that the addressee understands what is being talked about, but then has doubts and invites verification from the addressee The former and the latter are alike in that the speakers of these two utterances are prepared for an answer that accepts or one that rejects the proposition at issue

A: You understand, \ don’t you?/

Yes I do B: Well, as a matter of fact, I don’t A’: Do you understand?

Yes, I do

B’: No, I don’t

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As Murphy (1995:102) observes, speakers often use ‗negative statement + positive tag‘ pattern with fall rise tone to ask for things or information, or to ask somebody to do something:

- You haven’t got a pen, \ have you?/

- Yes, here you are

Thomson and Martine (1992:247) state that the pattern ―you couln‘t ,\ could you?/‖ can be used to express a not very hopeful request The speaker doesn‘t really expect a favourable answer:

You couldn’t do me a favour, \ could you?/

2.3.2.1.2 Reverse polarity tag questions with a final falling tone

When a reverse polarity tag question is said with falling intonation on both clauses, it indicates the statement – like intent whereby the speaker is certain as to the truth of the proposition The tag of this type behaves like the epistemic adverbial probably In addition, the speaker assumes the proposition to be a belief shared by both the speaker and the addressee The speaker therefore wishes the addressee to confirm the proposition or to agree with the statement ( Downing and Locke 1995:204, Andersen 2001:119)

Reverse polarity tag with a rising tone combines with either a positive or a negative assumption, expressed in the statement, to give the following meanings:

Positive assumption (in the statement) + certainly (in the tag)

You know why, \ don’t you?/

Meaning: I think you know why: please confirm that this is the case

Negative assumption ( in the statement) + certainly ( in the tag)

You know why, \ do you?/

Meaning: I believe that you don‘t know why; please confirm that this is case Reverse polarity tag questions with final falling intonation often perform the following functions:

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A coercive device:

Reverse polarity tag questions with final falling intonation are typically used in courtroom examination (cross-examination) to control the responses of witnesses ( Wennertrom 2001:161) In this case, tag questioms are relatively coercive in their response – eliciting illocutionary force In other words, they are used to force feedback from an uncooperative addressee:

1 You wanted to take advantage of that, \ didn’t you?/

2 You didn’t really see a gun in the defendant’s hand, \ did you?/

In these examples, the effect of the tags is to turn the statements into questions whose answers are inherently suggested The tag in (1) has the effect of indicating that the extended answer to the question should be ― No, I didn‘t really see a gun in the defendant‘s hand‖

Generally speaking, falling intonation on tags not only emphasizes the illocutionary force of more insistently seeking confirmation of the question‘s assertion but also produces the perlocutionary effect of communicating the perspective of the attorney to the jury to persuade them of the ―truth‖ of that assertion (Wennerstrom 2001:163)

A facilitative device:

Reverse polarity tag questions with final falling intonation may function as facilitative

or positive politeness devices, providing an addressee with an easy entrée into a conversation (Andersen 2001:101) For this purpose, tag questions can be understood

as a tool to promote solidarity between the parties by invoking common group membership

For example, Margaret is holding a small party to introduce a new neighbour, Frank, to other people in the street She introduces Frank to an old friend, Andrew

Margaret: Andrew, this is our new neighbour, Frank Andrew has just changed jobs, \ haven’t you?/

―employment‖ and get into the conversation with Frank

An antagonistic device:

Reverse polarity tag questions are also used in response to stupid questions:

- Why didn’t you answer the phone

- I was in the bath, \ wasn’t I?/

The above tag questions are called antagonistic tag questions They carry a sense of esentment and suggest that the speakers think the questions are stupid even if they aren‘t Antagonistic tag questions are not meant to be answered because their answer are obvious retrieved from http://forum.wordreference.com)

A softening device:

Reverse polarity tag questions with final falling intonation may be used to soften a criticism or a negative comment (Lakoff cited in Holmes 2001:289)

That was a bit of a daft thing to do, \ wasn’t it?/

2.3.2.2 Tag questions with imperative statements

When used as directives, imperatives on their own do not encode any choice for the reciipients They treat the performance of the action as straightforward and unproblemantic A tag therefore has some effect on the interpersonal meaning or illocutionary force of an imperative clause

On one hand, it invites the hearer‘s consent to the performance of the act and this is a persuasive softener (Quirk et al 1985:813) Moreover, a question tag encodes the option of refusal It softens the command by leaving it up to the hearer to decide what to do

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A tag question with an imperative itself is considered to be an important tool for the realization of politeness because it has a balance between clarity and non- coerciveness It has the qualification of clarity in the sense that the first part of the tag question, the imoerative clause, helps the speaker achieve a primary goal, in the most explicit and the shortest way possible In addition it is non-coercive because the second part, the tag, is a hedging tool to avoid hurting the hearer‘s desired social image and feelings; the tag gives the addressee the possibility to deny performing the requested act

On the other hand, it has also been observed that an imperative tag can be used to increase the force of directives (Quirk et al 1985:813)

The differences between imperative tag questions are affected by the modal verbs used

in the tags After positive imperatives, ―won‘t you‖ is often used to invite people to do things (especially in British English) (Swan 1995:446)

Take a seat, won’t you?

We sometimes add ―won‘t you?‖ when we want people to follow our advice

And do take care, won’t you? (affection)

The tag ―will you‖ or ―won‘t you‖ can be used after a positive imperative to make an order:

Open the door, won’t you?/ least insistent Open the door, will you?/ polite, anticipates willingness Open the door, will you?/ most insistent, forceful

In uttering ‗will‘, the speaker is questioning the addressee‘s willingness to perform the act The modal ‗will‘ encodes an intermediate degree of likelihood That is

to say, ‗will‘ indicates that the state of affairs is likely to occur, or the event is probable (BlumKulka, cited in Marquez 2000:192-193; Richard 2003:192)

When using the tag ‗can you‘, the speaker sounds friendly towards the addressee The modal ‗can‘ not only entails a concern about hearer‘s ability to perform

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the action but also shows that the speaker is commited to the possibility of the state of affairs ‗Can‘ shows a weak claim about the occurence of the state of affairs and that the event is possible (BlumKulka, cited in marquez 2000:192-193):

Help me, can you?/

‗Could you‘ creates an impression of less imposition and hence greater politeness

‗Could you‘ is used by a speaker who is less socially familiar with the addressee:

Give me a hand, could you?

The tag ―can‘t you‖ can also be used after positive imperative clause to make a forceful

or insistent demand but ―can‘t you‖ is less polite and more impatient than ―will you‖ (Huddleston 1995:376):

Shut up, can’t you?\

The tag ―would you‖ can be used perfectly correctly after positive imperative clause to give orders, but they are not polite way of requesting people to do things (Swan 1995:507)

Help me, would you?/

The structure ―imperative clause, would you‖ can also be uttered by a parent when a child has done or appears to be intent on doing something s/he has been eplicity instructed not to do This utterance is considered as an expression of anger or frustration or frustration or as a warning or threat (McGregor 1995:104) Moreover, by this utterance, the speaker expresses certain power upon the hearer:

Eat all the chocolates, would you?

Tag questions have different functions and meanings and these functions and meanings depend on many factors They do not only signal acknowledgment or uncertainty and using them appropriately depends on many factors such as relative status, social role, social context and the degree of intimacy between interlocutors

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2.4 Summary

Questions that ask whether or not some statement is true are called yes–no

questions (or polar questions, or general questions), since they can in principle be

answered by a "yes" or "no" (or similar words or expressions in other languages) Examples include "Do you take sugar?", "Should they be believed?" and "Am I the loneliest person in the world?"

A type of question that is similar in form to a yes–no question, but is not intended to be

answered with a "yes" or "no", is the alternative question (or choice question) This

presents two or more alternative answers, as in "Do you want fish or lamb?", or "Are you supporting England, Ireland or Wales?" The expected response is one of the alternatives, or some other indication such as "both" or "neither" (questionnaire forms sometimes contain an option "none of the above" or similar for such questions) Because of their similarity in form to yes–no questions, they may sometimes be answered "yes" or "no", possibly humorously or as a result of misunderstanding

The other main type of question (other than yes–no questions) is those called

wh-questions (or non-polar wh-questions, or special wh-questions) These useinterrogative

words (wh-words) such as when, which, who, how, etc to specify the information that

is desired (In some languages the formation of such questions may involve

wh-movement – see the section below for grammatical description.) The name derives

from the fact that most of the English interrogative words (with the exception of how) begin with the letters wh These are the types of question sometimes referred to in

journalism and other investigative contexts as the Five Ws

Tag questions are a grammatical structure in which a declarative statement or an imperative is turned into a question by adding an interrogative fragment (the "tag"),

such as right in "You remembered the eggs, right?", or isn't it in "It's cold today, isn't

it?" Tag questions may or may not be answerable with a yes or no

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As well as direct questions (such as Where are my keys?), there also exist indirect questions (also called interrogative content clauses), such as where my keys are These

are used as subordinate clauses in sentences such as "I wonder where my keys are" and

"Ask him where my keys are." Indirect questions do not necessarily follow the same rules of grammar as direct questions For example, in English and some other languages, indirect questions are formed without inversion of subject and verb (compare the word order in "where are they?" and "(I wonder) where they are") Indirect questions may also be subject to the changes of tenseand other changes that apply generally to indirect speech

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CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

The previous chapter has established the framework of the theoretical background of the research This chapter focuses on introducing the methodology of the thesis; in other words, the methods of collecting data for analysis, method of analyzing data

3.1 Research governing orientations

3.1.1 Research settings

The study is conducted in the educational environment with the purpose of helping learners master English tag questions In order to achieve the aims and objectives of the study, the process of doing has come through three major steps:

1- Writing the proposal

2- Selecting materials from different sources related to the study

3- Analyzing and discussing the results from the data collected were implemented

3.1.2 Research approaches

This study uses a combination of both descriptive and analytic methods The methods are used to describe and analyze the selected data in order to find out the prominent syntactic and semantic features of English tag questions Then, the equivalents of English tag questions in the translated version of the novel ―An ideal husband‖ will be taken out and analyzed in the form of declarative, interrogative and exclamative stems

3.2 Research methods

This research is in the domain of qualitative research The type of this research is

‗descriptive qualitative research‘ Van Maanen says qualitative research is interested in everyday activity as defined, enacted, and made problematic by persons going about their normal routines

Descriptive is serving to describe or analogy something and it deals with the meaning

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of thing and view of meaning is associated In addition, Creswell affirms that, qualitative research is defined as an inquiry process of understanding a social or human problem, based on building a complex, holistic picture, formed with words, reporting detailed views of informants, and conducted in a natural setting Qualitative research is descriptive in that the researcher is interested in the process, meaning, and understanding gained through words or pictures Often the descriptive data contains quotations said by saying informants to illustrate and substantiate the presenting things

3.2.1 Data collection techniques

Descriptive studies may use a range of diverse and flexible methods in data collection and analysis Detailed description of the data collection methods used will help readers understand exactly how the study achieves the measurements that are relevant to your approach and measurement criteria

In terms of describing quantitative data analysis methods, all statistical procedures associated with the production of quantitative results need to be stated Similarly, all analysis protocols for qualitative data should be clarified

212 questions of all types were found in the novel However The author mainly focused on 51 tag questions which are all extracted from the translated version of ―An ideal husband‖ by Oscar Wilder

3.2.2 Data analysis techniques

After being collected, data were a analyzed in combination of synthesis and generalization which helps to discover the syntactic and semantic characteristics of tag question in English Data analysis is a process whereby researchers systematically search and arrange data in order to increase their understanding of the data and to enable them to present what they learned to others Since the study is about English tag questions, the author analyzed how English tag questions are translated in a

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Vietnamese version of a classical novel The author used four steps suggested by Ary, namely organizing the data, summarizing the data, interpreting the data and reporting

i Organizing the data

The first step in analyzing qualitative data involved organizing the data In this step, the author read the selected book and organized them in an orderly manner Then the author coded all the data collected

ii Summarizing the data

The next step is to summarize Here, the author began to see what is in the data The author examined all the entries with the same codes and then classified the data that belong to group of declarative stems, imperative stems or exclamative stems

iii Interpreting the data

In interpretation, the author goes beyond the descriptive data to extract meaning and insight of the data The data will be analyzed in combination of comparison, synthesis and generalization which will help to discover how tag questions are translated in the version of another language

Key findings from the descriptive studies should provide answers to the research question

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CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

4.1 Tag questions and second language learners

Although tag questions appear to be simple and easy to teach, it seems that they do not easily become a part of the ESL students‘ productive language (Beardsmore, 1970) After more than 330 hours of intensive instruction of English language, Beardsmore (1970) noticed that the students, who were mainly of French, Dutch, and Vietnamese origins, could barely use confirmation tag questions correctly although they could manipulate the construction of tag questions adequately when they were asked to do

so Thus, students know about die structure of tag questions and their level of English

is advanced, however, tag questions failed to become part of their conversational English Beardsmore (1970) tried to explain the reason behind this problem She argues that the reason that ESL students avoid using tag questions is their complexity Other languages have a kind of stereotyped phrases to express confirmation and attitudes: French ―n ‘est-ce pas‖, German ―nicht wahr‖, Italian ―‘non e ‘ vero‖, Dutch

―nicht wahr‖, Spanish ―no es verdad‖ These stereotyped phrases make it difficult for speakers of other languages to master and adequately use the highly complex tag questions in English The polarity of tag questions, negation and number, gender and tense agreement, as well as falling and rising intonation to express attitude make them highly complicated for ESL students to learn and use appropriately Beardsmore (1970) found that, taking into consideration that the main function of tag questions is asking for confirmation, students tended to use less complex structures to ask for confirmation, such as Yes/No questions However, the problem of expressing the speaker‘s attitude cannot be conveyed through using such questions, therefore, students used other expressions in addition to the Yes/No questions, such as ―think‖ and

―suppose‖ Thus, students adopted these two strategies instead of tag questions to ask for confirmation Although these two strategies may seem more complicated than one