The Tag Question And Its Illocutionary Force

The tag question is a frequently used linguistic phenomenon in spoken English.It draws a lot of attention from researchers because of its varied forms and complexpragmatic functions. Although it falls into the category of the interrogative sentencein form, it not only expresses inquiry function, but also performs a great number ofother pragmatic functions in use. Many English learners, however, could easilyignore or overlook the very feature of the tag question, which results in pragmaticfailures.Many linguistic researchers have observed the unique features of the tagquestion both in its form and function, with an attempt to explain its uses from manydifferent perspectives, such as the pedagogical grammar perspective,grammaticalization perspective, rhetorical perspective and pragmatic perspective.These multi-perspective investigations on the tag question lead to a comprehensiveunderstanding of the tag question. However, within the pragmatic study, people aremore inclined to explain the tag question based on the Politeness Principle in termsof why various forms of the tag question are used. Few accounts are based on theanalysis of the illocutionary force of tag questions within the speech act theoreticalframework.This thesis first makes a reclassification of tag questions in actual use. Relyingon the concept of illocutionary force defined by J. Searle, it then analyzes theillocutionary forces of each type of tag questions by observing the data gatheredfrom daily conversation.The study shows illocutionary forces of tag questions are conventionallyassociated with different forms in use so that it conforms that illocutionary forcescan be identified from different linguistic devices in a narrow sense.