5.4 Independent elliptical questions

One way of reacting to a statement made by another speaker is to use a short yes-no question, consisting just of an elliptical (= shortened) verb phrase. This resembles a tag question; but unlike a tag question it involves a change of speaker. The default tone for an independent elliptical question is a yes-no rise:

• - I’m thinking of taking a break.

- Are you?

• - He’s just seen Peter.

- Has he?

This is a kind of minimal response to keep the conversation going. It may indicate anything from boredom to surprise, depending on the pitch range used. It means much the same as:

- He’s just seen Peter.

- Really?

Independent elliptical questions of this type have the same polarity (positive or negative) as the clause just uttered by the other speaker:

• - It wasn’t very good.

-Wasn’t it?

• - They didn’t have any bread.

- Didn’t they?

Independent elliptical questions can also be said with an insistent fall. The tone meaning is one of slight surprise or skepticism, but accepting that the other speaker has expressed on opinion. This tone can sound hostile:

• - I really like it here.

- Do you? (I was afraid you wouldn’t.)

• - There’s nothing wrong with greed.

- Isn’t there? (I don’t agree with you.)

Much less common is a reverse-polarity negative elliptical yes-no question as a reaction to a positive statement by the other speaker. This is a kind of exclamatory fall:

• - We really thrashed them this time.

- Didn’t we just!

• - Her daughter’s awfully clever.

- Yes, isn’t she!

5.5 Checking

In while you are speaking you want to check whether you have said the right thing, or whether your hearer has understood what you said, you can use an interjection such as OK? or right?. These interjections are a kind of yes-no question, and are accordingly usually said with a yes-no rise:

• You can have it tomorrow, all right?

• I’ll pay you back, OK?

(compare: I’ll pay you back. Is that OK?)

In some varieties of English various other such interjections are used – though not in mainstream British standard English:

• I’ll do it tomorrow, yeah?

• You think you are clever, huh?

To ask another speaker to repeat something because you did not hear it properly, you can say What? or Sorry? or Pardon?, with a rise. We call this tone meaning a pardon-question rise.

• - Could you turn the music down?

- What?

• - Would you pass me the salt?

- Pardon?

• - I want to tell you something.

- You what?

• - We could ask Millington.

- Eh? What did you say?

With a pardon question you can query either the entire previous utterance, as in the examples just given, or just one element in it. In either case, the tone is the pardon-question rise:

• - I chose Thora.

- Who?

• - This is Mel.

- Nell?

• - Are we going to win?

- Are we going to win? Of course we are!

A typical conversational interchange might go as follows. Speaker A makes a statement, perhaps with an implicational fall-rise. Speaker B didn’t quite catch it, and utters an interjection with a pardon-question. Speaker A repeats what he said, this time with a definitive fall:

A: The cruise documents have come.

B: Huh?

A: (I said,) the cruise documents have come.

The following conversational interchange is similar. But here speaker A asks a yes-no question. B asks a pardon question. When A repeats his yes-no question, again he switches to an insistent fall tone:

A: Has Mrs Partington been in?

B: Sorry?

A: Has Mrs Partington been in?

To check whether you have understood the other speaker correctly, you can suggest an interpretation, to see if it is correct. This too requires a rise: it is a kind of yes-no question, and takes a yes-no rise.

• - We’ll need some vegetables.

- Carrots? (= D’you mean carrots?)

• - It’ll cost quite a lot.

- A thousand?

• - I was talking to my friend the other day.

- Mary? (= By ‘friend’, do you mean Mary?)

An echo question uses some or all of the same words as used by the previous speaker, but with a pardon-question rise. This may be a simple request for repetition or clarification, or it may also express surprise and amazement at what the other speaker has said:

• You’ll have to do it again.

• I’ll have to do it again?

• Do it again?

• Again?

There may be broad focus, querying the whole of the previous speaker’s utterance, or narrow focus on some particular element. In the latter case the nuclear may be placed on a different item then the one on which the previous speaker placed it, often with ellipsis of some of the words:

• - You’ll have to do it again.

- I’ll have to?

• - They’ve finished the job.

- Finished it?

• - She’s seeing him tomorrow.

- Seeing him?

It is also possible to query two or more words individually, placing a pardon-question rise nuclear on each:

• - I was talking to James Smith.

- James Smith?

• - You’ll need a digital camera.

- A digital camera?

A special type of echo question is a second-order question, which echoes the other speaker's question to query it, perhaps with narrowed focus:

• - Have you got your pen?

- Have I got my pen?

• - Where did it happen?

- Where? Or when?

A different kind of pardon question is a please-repeat wh question, which involves changing the focused element into a question word. The tone is always a rise. In the simplest form of please-repeat question there is no fronting of the question word:

• She took a tonga.

• She took a what?

• She did what?

• She what?

Alternatively the wh word may be fronted.If so ,it still bears the nucleus and has a rising tone:

• She took a tonga.

• What did you say she took?

• What did she take?

Any element of the first speaker's utterance may be queried in this way. The nucleus always goes on the question word:

• Martin's lost his cat.

• Who's lost his cat?

• Martin's done what?

• Martin's done what to his cat?

• Martin's lost his what?

Broad-focus pardon questions request a repetition of everything the other speaker has just said. Like repetition wh question, they have a pardon-question rise on the question word:

• She took a tonga.

• What was that again?

• What did you say?

• What?

• Sorry?

On the other hand, if the speaker asks not for a repetition but for a clarification, we have an ordinary wh question, which will most likely be said with a definitive fall:

• She took a tonga.

• What's a tonga?

The difference between the definitive fall on a wh question and the pardon-question rise using the same syntax is seen in this pair of examples:

(i) Sophie's brought her friend along.

Who? (= which friend?)

(ii) Sophie's brought her friend along.

Who? (= who↑ has?)

The appropriate answer to who? in (i) is the friend's name. The appropriate answer to who? in (ii) is Sophie.