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 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).

THE USE OF INDIRECTNESS AND TAG QUESTIONS BY POWERFUL AND FOWERLESS MEN AND WOMEN ON TRIALS: EVIDENCE FROM INDONESIA

This study was aimed at investigating the use of indirectness and question tags in some Indonesian trials. The data were chosen randomly from YouTube’s videos. The subjects were twenty people consisting of judges, witnesses, and defendants (the accused). To analyze the data, the conversations of the videos were firstly transcribed verbatim. Then, they were analyzed using the framework of Thomas (1995) and Holmes (1984). The data showed that indirect speech style and question tags were more attached to powerful women.

The Effects of Expertise, Status Power, and Language Use on Perception of Task Partner

An experiment manipulated the relative expertise and status power of dyad task partners, examining how expertise and status power affect language use and if linguistic cues that emerged during the interaction influence a partner's assessment of the speaker's competence. One hundred twenty-eight dyads worked together on a problem-solving task without knowing who had received better quality information beforehand. One hundred twenty-four interactions were transcribed and quantified using both language software and human coders. Members with superior expertise spoke more words and used more tag questions than those with less expertise. The data did not yield support for more politeness in low-status members’ language nor more confidence in high-expertise members’ language. Members who spoke more were perceived as more competent by partners. Members who used more hedges were perceived as more competent and polite. Results identified language features that can be used strategically to exert influence on others and manage impressions.

Features of ‘Nenglish’, an Emerging Variety of English

English has gained a high value in Nepalese societies. The craze of English Medium Instruction at schools, use of English in government and private offices and adoption of it by Nepalese speaker has shown that English has slowly become our property, our language. As a result we are on the way to develop ‘our English’ i.e. Nenglish or Nepanglish. This paper excavates and explains the features of Nepali English that is used commonly in Nepal. This article is mainly a desk research which also includes researcher’s observation of the English phenomena in the town. The findings show that Nepali English is on the way to being a special variety of English and has several features such as being influenced by ‘Hinglish’; utilizing American lexicon; adopting words from Sanskrit language; including special modification and coinage; Nepaliness in pronouncing and adding tag questions etc.

About the Use of Tag Questions in Andean Spanish

This paper aims to describe the use of tag questions in the variety of Andean Spanish spoken in Bolivia. In particular, it explores the tag questions that occur in the Corpus oral del español hablado por bilingües de aymara-español. The analysis consists of two levels. On the one hand, it describes the pragmatic functions of tag questions and identifies the correlation between their distribution and their pragmatic functions. On the other hand, it focuses on the impact that social factors (the speakers’ sex, age, and education) have on the frequency of the tags. Along these lines, it displays the lack of a general sociolinguistic trend in the use of tag questions, furthermore, it shows that the higher frequency of tags in a sociolinguistic group rather than in another is tag-dependent.

Female Disney Characters’ Linguistic Features in the 1990’s

The present study aims to investigate female Disney characters’ linguistic features in the 1990’s. It studies sexist ideologies manifested through these characters’ language. The sample consists of three Disney animated movies from the 1990’s: Mulan, Beauty and the Beast and Pocahontas. The frameworks adopted to study female Disney characters’ language are Lakoff’s (2004b) forms of women’s language and Fairclough’s (1995) three-dimensional approach to CDA. The findings revealed that the linguistic features that mostly characterized female Disney characters’ language were hypercorrect grammar, super polite forms and hedges. They reflect the sexist stereotypicality of women’s language being slang-free and polite. They also used large stock of words related to their specific interests, empty adjectives and intensive ‘so’, which imply having stereotypical lexicon. The least linguistic feature used was tag questions. However, when used, they implied anticipation of being corrected by others. Keywords: Critical Discourse Analysis, Disney, Gender, Women’s language.