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<DIV>Last April, there was an extended discussion on LINGTYP about the
kinds of answers to yes-no questions that different languages use.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>It would be interesting to see how the types of answers relate to the types
of tags in tag questions. There appears to be some correlation. Thus, in
English, a simple "yes" or "no" is not a "full answer" to a yes-no question, nor
do they serve as tags - at least not in the standard varieties. Ex:</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Have you eaten dinner?</DIV>
<DIV>No, I haven't.</DIV>
<DIV>?No.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>You have eaten dinner, haven't you?</DIV>
<DIV>?You have eaten dinner, no?</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>In Hungarian on the other hand, simple 'yes' or 'no' serves as an
answer; 'no' can also be a tag but 'yes' cannot.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Edith </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Edith A. Moravcsik<BR>Professor of Linguistics<BR>Department of
Foreign<BR> Languages and Linguistics<BR>University of
Wisconsin-<BR> Milwaukee<BR>Milwaukee, WI
53201-0413</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>E-mail: <A href="mailto:edith@uwm.edu">edith@uwm.edu</A><BR>Tel: (414)
229-6794<BR>Fax: (414) 229-2741</DIV></BODY></HTML>