English and Serbian Canonical Tag Questions: A Study on the Perception of Their Intonation and Pragmatic Functions

This article examines the phonological and pragmatic properties of canonical tag questions (CTQs) in English (L2) and Serbian (L1). While English CTQs are realizable with either rise or fall, depending on the pragmatic function implied, their Serbian counterparts are deemed only available with an H% contour as obligatorily information-soliciting questions (Godjevac 2000b: i.a.). The article challenges this allegation by suggesting that a fall can also be utilized in rhetorical questions. These were implemented in five contextualized recorded dialogues and a Likert scale, with 30 first-year phonologically uninstructed and 30 third-year phonologically instructed Serbian native English undergraduate university students. The results displayed a far greater predilection for rises. Hence, the presence of interphonological transfer into English was tested next. In 40 recorded dialogues, the respondents were to identify the tone and pragmatic functions of English CTQs. The results indicate that, while third-year students are better at telling the rises apart from the falls (p<0.05), there is no significant difference between them and first-year students in discriminating between the two tones’ pragmatic functions (p>0.05). However, (i) the fact that the participants recognize English rises with their concomitant functions better than the falls taken together (p<0.001), and (ii) the fact that the rise seems to be the tone of choice in Serbian CTQs, the findings appear compatible with the interpretation that there is a significant interphonological transfer from Serbian into English. The paper, hence, points to a need for an earlier introduction of phonology courses, seconding the appeal of select previous papers.