Toward a Description of Tag Questions in Discourse

Tag questions in English are generally introduced as a pair of a question and an answer in EFL textbooks. The information-seeking function of a tag question is stressed. Yet, Tottie and Hoffman （2009） report that the information-seeking use of tag questions comprises 41% in their data. Out of 65 examples I have gathered from the Archers （2018）, a BBC’s radio drama, a coherent or direct response to a tag question is made in 37 cases. Among the 37 examples, responses with a literal “yes” add up to 10 instances and responses with a literal “no” come to seven instances. The combined numbers of literal responses, 17 instances, constitute 46% in the “coherent responses”. The literal yes/no responses comprise only 26.2% in the total number of examples of tag questions collected from the Archers （2018）. The non-information-seeking function of tag questions needs more attention in linguistic description as well as in an EFL context