#60 Tag questions aren't really questions, are they?
/Pitch boundaries are the clue to knowing what someone is really asking when they ask a tag question.
Transcript
Hi everyone, and welcome back to Seattle Learning Academy's American English Pronunciation Podcast. My name is Mandy, and this is our 60th episode.
For the first time in over a year, I missed publishing a podcast last week, and I apologize for that. I had a lot of work to do to get my new book, Rhythm and Intonation of American English finished, including all the final audio recording. It is now complete, and if you pre-ordered an ebook, you should have already received your email for the download link. If you ordered a physical copy, you'll probably be seeing it in the mail this week if you live in the United States, and probably next week if you live outside the United States. If you want to order your copy of the book, you can do it at Pronuncian.com. If you want to start learning immediately, order the ebook, and you can download it within seconds of placing you order. Remember, you do not need to live in the United States to order either the physical book or ebook. Both choices come with over a hundred audio files to help you understand the content.
That's enough promotion; let's get on to today's topic of tag questions. Tag questions are those weird questions that someone creates when they make a statement, and then add a two or three word question onto it. Here are a few examples:
Van Gogh was a French painter, wasn't he?
Henry and Holly didn't get married yet, did they?
You didn't see him at the party, did you?
Grammatically, one part of the sentence contains a negative and the other doesn't. For example, the question
Van Gogh was a French painter, wasn't he?
uses the affirmative, he was a French painter, in the first part of the sentence, and the question part, wasn't he, uses a negative (wasn't).
In the example
Henry and Holly didn't get married yet, did they?
the first part of the sentence uses a negative, didn't get married, and the question part uses the affirmative, did they.
Tag questions are punctuated with a question mark, but sometimes they aren't actually meant as questions. Sometimes the speaker is confirming something. While context can help you know if someone is asking a question or making a confirmation, the speaker will also use a different pitch boundary. I started talking about pitch boundaries in Episode 58, and again in Episode 59. Pitch boundaries occur at the end of intonation units. Many sentences only have one intonation unit, so the pitch boundary happens at the end of the sentence.
If I truly don't know if Van Gogh was a French painter, I would use a rising pitch boundary. Listen closely.
Van Gogh was a French painter, wasn't he?
If I wanted to confirm that Van Gogh was a French painter, I would use a falling pitch boundary.
Van Gogh was a French painter, wasn't he?
So why do we use tag questions and their odd sentence structure? Well, it can be a way to lead people toward a specific answer, or suggest what you think the answer should be. A good friend of mine graduated from law school yesterday, and this got me thinking about Anne Wennerstroms' excellent book about English discourse called The Music of Everyday Speech.
In that book Ms. Wennerstrom specifically highlights why an attorney uses tag questions when questioning a witness during a trial. Wennerstrom so perfectly states, "... the effect of the tag is to turn the statement into a question whose answer is inherently suggested." If an attorney asks a question like
You didn't see him at the party, did you?
It is technically a question. The falling pitch boundary tells the jury that the attorney asking the question already presumes to know the answer. Doing this can direct, or manipulate, all of the listeners of the conversation, including a jury, not just the people who are speaking.
Americans use tag questions all the time, not just in a courtroom. Many times they are truly meant as a question. I'll use a rising pitch boundary on the next example.
Henry and Holly didn't get married yet, did they?
With the statement portion of the question, Henry and Holly didn't get married yet, I tell the listener that I knew at some point that they were planning on getting married, and the rising pitch boundary lets the listener know that I really don't know if that event has happened yet or not.
Okay, are you ready to practice? I'm going to say all three of the example sentences I used earlier, first with a rising pitch boundary, then with a falling pitch boundary. I'll leave time for you to repeat after me. Ready?
(rising) Van Gogh was a French painter, wasn't he?
(falling) Van Gogh was a French painter, wasn't he?(rising) You didn't see him at the party, did you?
(falling) You didn't see him at the party, did you?(rising) Henry and Holly didn't get married yet, did they?
(falling) Henry and Holly didn't get married yet, did they?
How'd you do? The goal is to be able to do it, and be able to understand what someone else means when they do it.
Of course, this information is available, with more audio examples, in my book, Rhythm and Intonation of American English, which you can purchase from Pronuncian.com. You can also get to podcast transcripts, free lessons, and the forums from Pronuncian. If you haven't been there yet, go check it out!
That's all for today. Thanks for listening everyone.
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