Tag questions

Tag questions tend to have their own IP (see

). Thi applies particularly to reverse polarity tags (also know as checking tags). In them the tag is negative if the main clause is positive, positive if the main clause is negative.

Question tags have sharply different meanings depending on whether their tone is fall or a rise (see

2.14

).

A tag is sometimes incorporated as a tail into the IP of the main clause, if it has a rising tone. This does not happen with reverse-polarity tags after a fall:

In constant-polarity tags it is quite usual for the tag not to have their own IP. These are also known as copy tags, and are normally positive-positive. (If a constant-polarity tag does have its own IP, the tone must be a rise, as seen in

)