Narrow focus, yes-no answers and tags

A yes-no question is a query about polarity (see

). A direct answer to a yes-no question involves narrow focus on polarity and the words that indicates it.

To give a direct answer, we can say yes or no (or use a synonymous adverb or adverbial phrase, such as sure, definitely or no way). The nucleus goes on this word or phrase:

The word yes or no (or its equivalent) may be followed by a short sentence fragment (or indeed a longer sentence) involving a verb. Less commonly, we use the sentence fragment without a yes or no. It, too, bears a nuclear accent. In a sentence or sentence fragment used in this way, it is the operator(= auxiliary or modal verb) that shows whether the sentence is positive (yes) or negative (no). The focus is on the polarity, so we put the nucleus on the verb.

It is also possible to deaccent the initial yes or no:

Although the word not is accentable, the n't of a contracted form is not: instead, the accent goes on the stressed syllable of the word containing n't:

Notice the difference between narrow focus on polarity in answer to a yes-no question and narrow focus on a noun phrase in answer to a wh question:

There are various other elliptical constructions which likewise have narrow focus on the word that indicates polarity:

We also get a nucleus on the polarity word in tag-like questions consisting of a verb plus a pronoun. These, too, involve narrow focus on polarity:

And the same applies to tag questions if (as is usually the case) they have their own IP: