Yes-no questions

Yes-no rise

Yes-no questions (= general questions, polar questions) ask whether something is the case or not. Such questions are capable of meaningfully being answered 'yes' or 'no' (though there may be other possible answers such as 'perhaps' or "I'm not sure"). The default tone for a yes-no question is a rise. We call it the yes-no rise.

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▸Are you ⤴ready?
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Is ▸that the ⤴time?
▸Will you be at the ⤴meeting?
Have you ▸been hear ⤴long?
▸Has he a⤴greed to it?

〉 I'm ▸just going to the ⤵supermarket.
》 Can ▸I come ⤴too?
Yes-no question can be positive or negative. Whatever their polarity, they usually have a yes-no rise:
▸Won't you be at the ⤴meeting?
▸Haven't you ⤴finished yet?
▸Don't you like your ⤴soup?
▸Haven't we met be⤴fore?
Some utterances with the grammatical form of yes-no interrogatives are not questions so much as requests. They, too, usually have a yes-no rise:
▸Would you pass me the ⤴water?
▸Will you send him a ⤴letter?
▸Could I have some ⤴paper?
▸Couldn't I take the ⤴car?

Insistent fall

It is also possible for a yes-no question to be said with a fall. This makes the question more insistent. It is more businesslike, more serious, perhaps more threatening. We call this tone meaning the insistent fall.

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〉 I'll ▸ask you once ⤵more: | ▸Did you take the ⤵money?
》 ⤵No , | I ⤵didn't.
〉 ▸Can you ⤵prove that?
The insistent yes-no fall is often used in guessing games.
〉 ▸Guess where I ⤵come from.
》 From ⤴France?
〉 ⤵⤴No.
》 From ⤵Italy, then?
〉 ⤵No.
》 D'you com from ⤵Spain?
The insistent yes-no fall is also regularly used when a speaker repeats a question because the other person didn't hear it properly:
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〉 Have you come ⤴far?
》 Sorry?
》 I ⤵⤴said, | ▸have you come ⤵far.
In colloquial speech the initial auxiliary verb and pronoun are often omitted:
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▸Got the ⤴keys? (= ▸Have you got the ⤴keys?)
[Do you] ▸see what I ⤴mean?
[Have you] ▸all ⤴got that? (= Do you all understand?)
[Are you] ▸short of ⤴cash?
[Would you] ▸like a ⤴drink?
[Is it] â–¸still snowing?

Last update at: 2023/09/04 09:27:01