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Asking for information



 

When asking a question and being quite sure what the answer might be, the speaker makes use of a ‘rising’ tone. Usually the expected answer is ‘Yes’. Thus, ‘making sure’ is a direct checking on the part of the message which is not new information both for the speaker and for the listener. Cf.:

 

Is that the TItle? - YES.

 

A ‘fall-rise’ tone in imperative utterances has the same pragmatic meaning of ‘making sure’, but in addition it implies that the speaker is asking the listener to do him a favour by answering his question, thus helping him. Cf.:

 

GO! - CERtainly.

 

If the speaker doesn’t know in advance what the reply to his question might be, he uses a ‘falling’ tone to ‘find out’ some new information. Cf.:

(a) Is that the PAperback edition you want?

 

(b) Is that the PAperback edition you want?

 

The speaker will probably use (a) version if he knows undoubtedly that such books are normally in paperback format. And, certainly, he will use (b) version in case these editions can be put out in different formats, and he would like to find out which one is needed.

Generally, while asking for information it doesn’t matter much for the speaker whether to show his listener his purpose of asking or not; thus either a ‘rising’ or a ‘falling ‘tone might be used. Though, sometimes, especially in informal conversations, the speaker asks questions for only one purpose – to be polite and friendly, to establish social contacts with other people. In this case he will pronounce his questions with a rising tone, to avoid ‘finding out’ attitude and to establish ’making sure’ and ‘common ground’ attitude.

On the other hand, there are situations when it’s better for the speaker not to show that he has already made an assumption about what the answer might be. In this case he makes use of a ‘falling’ tone and introduces his question with ‘perhaps’ or ‘I wonder’. Cf.:

 

I wonder if you could HELP me.

 

In response to his question the speaker expects the answer to be pronounced in a ‘falling’ tone. But if the reply is in the rising (or falling-rising) tone it means that the answer is not what the enquirer really expects, otherwise he, who answers, is not quite sure himself. Cf.:

 

(a) – Is it a REcent publication, do you know?

- Well, it COULD be.

 

(b) – It isn’t the title of a NOvel?

- Well, I DON’T think it IS.

 

 

 




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