TAG QUESTIONS IN ENGLISH SPOKEN DISCOURSE: CORPUS-BASED LINGUISTIC AND PRAGMATIC ANALYSIS
Based on an integrative methodology that combines quantitative and qualitative methods of linguistic research, the authors consider grammatical forms, syntactic types and pragmatic functions of the tag question in British spoken discourse. The research material included samples of dialogues with t...
| Main Authors: | , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Volgograd State University
2021-12-01
|
| Series: | Vestnik Volgogradskogo Gosudarstvennogo Universiteta. Seriâ 2. Âzykoznanie |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://l.jvolsu.com/index.php/en/archive-en/722-science-journal-of-volsu-linguistics-2021-vol-20-no-5/intercultural-communication-and-comparative-studies-of-languages/2301-kochetova-l-a-ilyinova-e-yu-klepikova-t-a-tag-questions-in-english-spoken-discourse-corpus-based-linguistic-and-pragmatic-analysis |
| Summary: | Based on an integrative methodology that combines quantitative and qualitative methods of
linguistic research, the authors consider grammatical forms, syntactic types and pragmatic functions of the tag
question in British spoken discourse. The research material included samples of dialogues with tag questions
taken from British contemporary fiction and the Spoken BNC2014. Drawing on the theory of linguistic
metarepresentation and using corpus analysis tools the authors presented the model under study in structural-
syntactic and functional-pragmatic perspectives and obtained reliable data on discourse realization of tag question
models, specified their standard and common usage polarity status, distinguished bi- and monopolarity variations.
An analysis of the tag question types that are distinguished as the combinations of the predicative and auxiliary
parts shows that the most frequent type of tag question is the one formed with an affirmative predicative part
and a negative tag. The corpus-based approach allowed obtaining quantitative data on frequencies of tag
questions in British spoken discourse, retrieving the repertoire of tag questions with their grammatical
representation. It is shown that in the corpus under study the most frequent form of the tag question is the form
isn’t it?. The least frequent forms of tag questions are the ones formed with the have verb, as well as the modal
verbs will, may, can, which supports the thesis that tag questions are losing ground in British spoken discourse.
Discourse-pragmatic analysis of utterance contexts with tag questions highlighted its discourse value in the
British tradition of conversation, as they perform the following communicative functions: informational; etiquette;
interpersonal-relation-corrective (focus-positive or focus-negative). |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 1998-9911 2409-1979 |