Definition
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A tag question is a constituent that is added after a statement in order to request confirmation or disconfirmation of the statement from the addressee. Often it expresses the bias of the speaker toward one answer.
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Examples
(English, German, French)
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The English isn’t he?, as in the following sentence:
He’s a pleasant fellow, isn’t he?
- The German nicht wahr? ‘not true?’
- The French n’est ce pas? ‘is it not?’
Sources 5
- Sadock and Zwicky 1985, 182–183
- Crystal 1985, 304
- Hartmann and Stork 1972, 233
- Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech, and Svartvik 1985, 811
- Mish 1991, 1201