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<font face="Arial Unicode MS">Dear Edith,<br>
Theo Vennemann once (2002) gave a lecture in Munich on the problem you
have mentioned. He discussed the typology of yes/no-answers especially
with respect to the distribution of patterns in Europa hypothesizing
that a Celtic substrat has motivated e.g. the English type of echo
answers that again would have caused the the echoing tag type. To
better account for the details from a typological perspective, it would
make sense to 'classify' the different tag types and see a) whether
their internal structure is matched in echo answers and b) whether a
certain type of tags necesserily calls for a specific answer type.
Personally, I would start from a template similar to the following
(surely not comprehensive):<br>
<br>
Question Answer <br>
Tag Without 1. yes/no<br>
2. echo<br>
2.1 Based on dummy verbs (light
verbs), eg. 'do, have' etc.<br>
2.2 Based on the echoing of the full
verb<br>
Tag Present<br>
1. yes/no<br>
2. only yes<br>
3. only not<br>
4. internal echo<br>
4.1 Based on dummy verbs (light verbs) e.g. 'do, have'
etc.<br>
4.2 Based on the echoing of the full verb<br>
<br>
The question internal tags should further be classified according to
the question wether it is negate a positive assumption / asserts a
negative assumption (> contradiction), or whether it matches the
polarity. In addition, it might be crucial to observe which
constituents are copied into a tag-like answer (as well into the tag
itself). In English, we clearly see an accusative startegy, copying S
and A into the answer (plus dummy verb), but 'fading out' O (nad IO
etc.). In ergative strategies, the oppostite may occasionally be true.<br>
<br>
Best wishes,<br>
Wolfgang<br>
<br>
</font><br>
Edith Moravcsik schrieb:<br>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid001201c6c6cb$42cdc480$c0135981@ad.uwm.edu">
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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>
</blockquote>
<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schulze
Institut fuer Allgemeine und Vergleichende Sprachwissenschaft
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet Muenchen
Geschwister-Scholl-Platz 1
D-80539 Muenchen
Tel.: ++49-(0)89-2180-2486 (Sekr.)
Tel.: ++49-(0)89-2180-5343 (Office)
Fax : ++49-(0)89-2180-5345
E-mail: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:W.Schulze@lrz.uni-muenchen.de">W.Schulze@lrz.uni-muenchen.de</a>
Web: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.ats.lmu.de./index.php">http://www.ats.lmu.de./index.php</a></pre>
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