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Difficulty: HardIntonation Patterns

During a workplace conversation, a manager utters the statement, 'You haven't submitted the quarterly financial summary yet, have you?' with a distinct upward pitch movement on the tag 'have you?'. What does this specific intonation pattern indicate about the manager's state of mind?

  1. The manager is expressing genuine uncertainty and asking a real question to discover whether the summary has been submitted.Answer
  2. B
    The manager is confident that the summary has not been submitted and expects the listener to agree.
  3. C
    The manager is issuing an authoritative command instructing the employee to submit the summary immediately.
  4. D
    The manager is expressing surprise that the summary was already completed ahead of schedule.

Answer

The manager is expressing genuine uncertainty and asking a real question to discover whether the summary has been submitted.
In standard English intonation, when a question tag carries a rising pitch movement, it functions as a genuine question. The speaker does not know the answer for sure and is seeking information rather than confirmation. Therefore, the option describing the manager as expressing genuine uncertainty and asking a real question is correct.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the syntactic structure of the utterance.
The utterance consists of a negative declarative statement followed by an affirmative tag: 'You haven't..., have you?'
Identifying the clause and tag structure is necessary to apply intonation rules.
2
Identify the pitch movement specified on the question tag.
The pitch movement on the tag 'have you?' is described as an upward pitch movement (rising intonation).
Intonation contours on question tags govern their pragmatic meaning in English.
3
Apply standard English phonological rules for question tag intonation.
A rising intonation on a question tag signifies that the speaker is doubtful or genuinely seeking information rather than confirming an established belief.
Falling intonation on tags signals confirmation/agreement, while rising intonation signals genuine inquiry and uncertainty.

Key Concept

Pragmatic function of rising intonation on tag questions
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Topics

Intonation Patterns

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