59 + Someone called him. − Someone didn’t call him. yn+ Did someone call him? yn− Didn’t someone call him? wh/co Who called him? Here, who merely substitutes for the indefinite pronoun someone, which already serves as the subject throughout the four other structures. So since someone already appears at the front, no fronting rule can apply. Activity 3.1 THINKING IT THROUGH A. Fill in the blanks with the absent structures. Be sure to retain the same tense throughout each set. There are usually several ways to fill in the wh/co blank since—as we already know—there are eight wh-words and therefore almost as many wh/co questions that they can function in. 1. + We know them. − . yn+ ? yn− ? wh/co ? 2. + . − . yn+ ? yn− Don’t they pay their bills? wh/co ? 3. + . − I don’t understand that. yn+ ? yn− ? wh/co ? Wh-Words as Subjects vs. Wh-Words as Objects 055-078.Teschner.03.indd 59055-078.Teschner.03.indd 59 4/2/07 6:09:29 PM4/2/07 6:09:29 PM Chapter 3 60 4. + . − . yn+ Did I speak to you? yn− ? wh/co ? 5. + . − . yn+ ? yn− ? wh/co When do you arrive? 6. + . − She isn’t practicing enough. yn+ ? yn− ? wh/co ? 7. + He has been sick. − . yn+ ? y− ? wh/co ? 8. + . − . yn+ ? yn− Wouldn’t he know when to go? wh/co ? 055-078.Teschner.03.indd 60055-078.Teschner.03.indd 60 4/2/07 6:09:30 PM4/2/07 6:09:30 PM 61 9. + . − I won’t tell you his name. yn+ ? yn− ? wh/co ? 10. + . − . yn+ ? yn− ? wh/co Whom had he been talking to? 11. + . − . yn+ Has it turned out nicely? yn− ? wh/co ? WRITING IT OUT B. Complete each of the following phrases in a sentence you make up. 1. What did he 2. They didn’t 3. Why do you 4. Have they been 5. When weren’t we 6. I am trying Wh-Words as Subjects vs. Wh-Words as Objects 055-078.Teschner.03.indd 61055-078.Teschner.03.indd 61 4/2/07 6:09:30 PM4/2/07 6:09:30 PM Chapter 3 62 7. Did she ever 8. I just don’t 9. Couldn’t she 10. Had the butler 11. Won’t you 12. What could he have 13. Does the watch dog 14. Didn’t the thief C. Provide one example of each of these products or processes. 1. do-insertion 2. the wh-fronting rule 3. auxiliary inversion 4. be as a nonmodal auxiliary 5. do as an LV 6. a wh-word as object 7. a wh-word as subject 8. a wh/co question 055-078.Teschner.03.indd 62055-078.Teschner.03.indd 62 4/2/07 6:09:31 PM4/2/07 6:09:31 PM 63 D. Write statements or questions that correspond to the following descriptions. 1. yn+ ; know as LV 2. wh/co; stay as LV; wh-word as subject 3. − ; own as LV 4. + ; write as LV 5. yn− ; kill as LV 6. wh/co; leave as LV; wh-word as object 7. wh/co; drop as LV; wh-word as subject 8. yn+ ; tell as LV Selection Questions A selection question combines two or more yn+ questions into a single inter- rogative entity. The coordinating conjunction or typically serves as the tie-in element. Thus: [11] yn+ : Do you want to fly to New York? [12] yn+ : Do you want to drive to Miami? [13] combined: Do you want to fly to New York or drive to Miami? Question (13), which combines questions (11) and (12), can no longer be answered yes or no the way its two component parts could. Instead, one must select one of the choices offered. Here are several possible answers: [14] I want to fly to New York. [15] Fly. [16] New York. [17] The former. [18] Whatever. (etc.) Declarative Questions A declarative question is a yes/no question (either + or −) that lacks auxiliary inversion, lacks do-insertion, etc.; therefore, declarative questions manifest the Declarative Questions 055-078.Teschner.03.indd 63055-078.Teschner.03.indd 63 4/2/07 6:09:31 PM4/2/07 6:09:31 PM Chapter 3 64 same word order as declarative structures (the + sentence). Compare the follow- ing examples: [19] +: You want a sandwich. [20] yn+: Do you want a sandwich? [do-insertion and aux inversion] [21] declarative question: You want a sandwich? [said with rising intonation] A declarative question’s function somewhat resembles that of an echo question’s function (see just below) in that declaratives express shock or surprise or ask for simple verification. In colloquial and informal English, declarative questions are frequent, as are yn+ and yn− questions that lack the auxiliary verb: [22] Do you want to go now? → You want to go now? → Wanna go now? [23] Don’t you have any money? → You have any money? → Got any money? [24] Are you ready to leave? → You ready to leave? → Ready to leave? [25] Is he studying already? → He studying already? Echo Questions Echo questions are “recapitulatory” in that they repeat, directly or in paraphrase, all or part of what someone else has just said, either to confirm it or to express surprise or disbelief. An echo question typically employs rising intonation. Examples: [26] Yesterday I bought a BMW.—You bought a BMW? [27] I want some slivovitz.—You want some what? [28] The two-bedroom bungalow in Beverly Hills costs $3,000,000.—It costs how much? Echo questions can also function as questions about questions in which the lis- tener speculates on or makes fun of a question someone else just asked. Often these questions about questions are so obvious as to be amusing: [29] Is Bill Gates a billionaire?—Is Bill Gates a billionaire? Is the pope Catholic? The main functional difference between declarative questions and echo ques- tions is that echoes must literally echo something that someone else has just fin- ished saying; declaratives, on the other hand, can begin a conversation between two people and do not have to respond to something already stated or asked. Tag Questions A tag question always appears (following a comma when written) as the sole interrogative element in an otherwise noninterrogative sentence. A tag ques- tion’s purpose is to get the listener to confirm or deny what the speaker has just stated in the (noninterrogative) “assumption” part of the sentence. There are four types of combinations involving assumptions and tag questions. Two combinations contain—in the assumption—positive statement verbs and thus have positive assumptions, but the other two combinations contain—again in 055-078.Teschner.03.indd 64055-078.Teschner.03.indd 64 4/2/07 6:09:32 PM4/2/07 6:09:32 PM 65 the assumption—negative statement verbs and thus have negative assump- tions. If the tag itself is spoken with a rising intonation, the speaker is actu- ally in doubt as to how the tag will be answered. But if the tag is spoken with a falling intonation, the speaker fully expects that the tag will elicit a confirma- tive response in which the respondent will agree with the speaker’s assumption. In the tree (fig. 3c) and in the two subsequent tables (figs. 3d and 3e), we will outline the four types of tag questions in schematic form, then exemplify and explicate each. Invariant Tags An invariant tag is one whose verb form—negative or affirmative—is not depen- dent on the positivity that its antecedent noninterrogative statement manifests. Mostly, however, invariant tags—especially the most colloquial ones—do with- out verb forms altogether. Examples: [30] You’re going to get angry again, right? [31] This time they’ve really gone off the deep end, huh? [32] So she’s getting ready to go now, eh? Elliptical Responses An elliptical response is a response to a yes/no question in which only part of that question is repeated in the response. Here are some examples (which give the omitted [ellipticized] words in brackets): [33] Was he sick yesterday?—Yes, he was [sick yesterday]. [34] Had he been seeing a doctor regularly?—Yes, he had [been seeing a doctor regularly]. The typical elliptical response repeats only the first verb form of the question, changing the verb’s form if necessary but not its tense. Elliptical Responses Figure 3c Tag Questions: The Tree expectation: in-doubt tag question positive confirmativein-doubt confirmative negativeassumption: a. Positive assumption, in-doubt expectation b. Positive assumption, confirmative expectation c. Negative assumption, in-doubt expectation d. Negative assumption, confirmative expectation Figure 3d Tag Questions: The Outline 055-078.Teschner.03.indd 65055-078.Teschner.03.indd 65 4/2/07 6:09:33 PM4/2/07 6:09:33 PM Chapter 3 66 Activity 3.2 THINKING IT THROUGH A. Identify each of the underlined elements as (i) selection questions, (ii) declarative ques- tions, (iii) echo questions, (iv) tag questions (in which case be sure to comment on the intona- tional possibilities), (v) invariant tags, or (vi) regular yn+, yn– or wh/co questions. Example of how to proceed: X. He gained fifty pounds last year, didn’t he? The underlined words constitute a tag ques- tion, whose intonation could be either rising or falling. a. positive assumption, in-doubt expectation He likes his boss, doesn’t he? [rising intonation] (Here the speaker is in doubt so the tag assumes nothing; the subject may or may not like his boss; we simply want to know.) b. positive assumption, confirmative expectation He likes his boss, doesn’t he? [falling intonation] (Here the speaker assumes that the subject likes his boss; thus the speaker’s tag is merely seeking to get the listener to confirm the speaker’s assumption.) c. negative assumption, in-doubt expectation He doesn’t like his boss, does he? [rising intonation] (The speaker is in doubt so the tag assumes nothing; the speaker may or may not like his boss; we simply want to know.) d. negative assumption, confirmative expectation He doesn’t like his boss, does he? [falling intonation] (The speaker assumes the subject does not like his boss; thus the speaker’s tag merely seeks to get the listener to confirm the speaker’s assumption.) Here is a very important fact: As far as the tag’s mechanics are concerned, a negative assumption always generates a positive tag, and vice versa: He likes . . . , doesn’t he? + , − He doesn’t like . . . , does he? − , + e. There is, however, a fifth though less frequent type of assumption/tag combination that involves a rising intonation tag that typically expresses sarcasm, in which both the assumption and the tag are positive: Oh so you’ve done your homework, have you? [We assume that he hasn’t!] Figure 3e Tag Questions: The Examples and the Explanations 055-078.Teschner.03.indd 66055-078.Teschner.03.indd 66 4/2/07 6:09:33 PM4/2/07 6:09:33 PM 67 Elliptical Responses 1. Would I lie to you? 2. She sells sea shells, doesn’t she? 3. Our muddahs was right, huh, Charlie? Ya gotta stick witcher own kind. 4. The hamster ate the cobra? 5. Just give me a break, man.—You, a break? 6. When exactly did the perpetrator perpetrate the crime, ma’am? 7. Doesn’t it feel good to be drawn and quartered? 8. Sure and ’tis a great day for the Irish, isn’t it? 9. Do you want peanut butter and jelly? 10. Do you want peanut butter or jelly? 11. You’re going to give a million dollars to charity? 12. When ya gotta go, ya gotta go, right? 13. Why’s he always making the same mistake? 14. Why he’s always making the same mistake? 15. They’re sick? 16. They don’t know what they’re doing, do they? 055-078.Teschner.03.indd 67055-078.Teschner.03.indd 67 4/2/07 6:09:34 PM4/2/07 6:09:34 PM Chapter 3 68 B. Give all possible tag questions for the following statements. Mark rising or falling intona- tion with arrows, then tell which of the five tag types your question belongs to—(a), (b), (c), (d), or (e) (sarcasm). 1. We all know what his story is, ? 2. Only some of my friends came to the wedding, ? 3. You just don’t understand the issue, ? 4. Now is the time for all good women to come to the aid of their party, ? 5. So you’ve wrecked the car again, ? 6. I get totally wasted at parties, ? 7. She feels nothing but utter contempt for the faculty, ? C. Give elliptical responses to the following questions. Example of how to proceed: X. Was the summer wind blowing strong? Yes, it was. 1. Have you been a good little girl? . 2. Will they have been working for forty-eight hours straight by then? . 3. But do you really think he’s worth $3 an hour? . 4. Won’t he tell me where to get off? . 5. Was she able to answer the question? . Emphasis and Emphatic Structures English achieves emphasis in a variety of ways. One way is by applying peak stress—the most salient degree of vocal emphasis—to the word you want to emphasize. Peak stress can involve any one of these three things, separately or in combination: (a) increased loudness, (b) higher or lower pitch, or (c) length- ening the syllable. Almost any word can be peak stressed to achieve emphasis. The purpose of emphasis is to shift or draw attention to the focus of the utter- ance. For example, in a sentence such as (35)— [35] Josie told me that you were sick. —peak stress on Josie conveys the information that it was Josie (and not someone else) who told me; peak stress on told says the information was conveyed verbally 055-078.Teschner.03.indd 68055-078.Teschner.03.indd 68 4/2/07 6:09:35 PM4/2/07 6:09:35 PM [...]... whose/why/how) as well as to the nonreferential there (see chapter 7), especially in colloquial speech Here are some examples: [42 ] [43 ] [44 ] [45 ] [46 ] [47 ] [48 ] [49 ] What’s Ordell ever done for us? Why’s he told you so many lies? Who’d he given all his money to? Where’ve we seen her before? How’ve they learned English so fast? When’d you do that, boy? There’s been a lot of trouble there There’d been nobody... glossed as either the simple past Why did they fly the long way around? or as the conditional Why would they fly the long way around? Activity 3 .4 THINKING IT THROUGH A Produce contractions wherever possible Example of how to proceed: X Where did they put the stuff you were working on? → Where’d they put the stuff you were working on? 1 You cannot go outside because you will freeze 2 I would rather have... me emphasizes the fact that Josie told me and not someone else, etc Another way English achieves emphasis is through do-insertion, which as we already know involves adding the appropriate tense/number form of the nonmodal auxiliary verb do to the emphatic structure and then stressing that form, thereby emphasizing the action of the verb Here is an example: Unemphatic [a plain statement of fact]: [36]... to [very rare] NONMODAL AUXILIARIES’ CONTRACTIONS Many of the nonmodal auxiliaries also form contractions in a variety of verb tenses They do so by attaching their contracted forms to the end of nouns and pronouns whether personal, possessive, or indefinite Contracted auxiliaries also attach themselves to the end of wh-words and to here/there Of course not all auxiliaries enter into all possible contractions,... again that the nine modal verbs can/could/may/might/must/shall/should/will/would are auxiliaries Nonmodals be/do/have are also auxiliaries One of the topics we will discuss in this section is the formal and the functional differences between modal and nonmodal auxiliaries as well as between both of them together and the category known as lexical verbs (LVs) the vast majority of all the verbs in the language—that... are they not planning to take? 14 I am not the kind of guy who will tell a lie 15 She said that he has an enormous amount of money in the bank 16 Who does he think he is? 17 Were their children where they were supposed to be? 18 He is insisting that if he had the money he would WRITING IT OUT B Use each contraction in a sentence that you make up 1 Mary’d 2 I’ll 3 they’re 4 what’s 5 someone’d 6 the. .. found, (38)’s does is not a dummy verb There is yet another way that English can emphasize the action of the verb: by avoiding a contraction and then peak stressing one of the two noncontracted elements the verb form itself or the negative not Examples: Unemphatic [with contraction]: [39] Muriel can’t practice her cello tonight Emphatic [without contraction; the emphasized element appears in boldface... Supposition or inevitability The modals should and must express these two types of modality At least in part, both share the same perimodal substitution test: BE likely to/BE bound to Thus if the modal should can be substituted by the perimodals BE likely to/BE bound to, then should is a modal of supposition and not a modal of obligation Compare sentences ( 34) and (35): [ 34] [35] [modal of supposition] I really... This modality is limited to expressing—often as either a curse or as a blessing— something you want to happen The modal is always may and always appears at the beginning of the clause Solicitation of opinions (about an intended action) The should expressing solicitation of opinions always occurs in a question, whether direct or indirect; and the solicitation -of- opinions should can be substituted by... schwa—are highly frequent in colloquial speech, especially in northern/northeastern lects of American English and in both the if-clause and the result clause [see chapter 2], thus: [If] I’d’a seen him in time I’d’a warned him off [cf the more standard If I had seen him in time I would have warned him off; note that I’d’a seen him is a contraction of the pleonastic If I would have seen him, itself a stigmatized . There is yet another way that English can emphasize the action of the verb: by avoiding a contraction and then peak stressing one of the two noncontracted elements the verb form itself or the. all his money to? [45 ] Where’ve we seen her before? [46 ] How’ve they learned English so fast? [47 ] When’d you do that, boy? [48 ] There’s been a lot of trouble there. [49 ] There’d been nobody. Only some of my friends came to the wedding, ? 3. You just don’t understand the issue, ? 4. Now is the time for all good women to come to the aid of their party, ? 5. So you’ve wrecked the car