LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 17:8 August 2017
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
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         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
         C. Subburaman, Ph.D. (Economics)
         N. Nadaraja Pillai, Ph.D.
         Renuga Devi, Ph.D.
         Soibam Rebika Devi, M.Sc., Ph.D.
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Tag Questions in Manipuri and German

Niranjana Thokchom, Ph.D. Scholar
Professor Ch. Yashawanta Singh

Abstract

In Meiteilon/ Manipuri, a Tibeto-Burman language, questions are formed by adding question markers like –la/-ra -dra (-d?-ra)/-tra (-t?-ra) etc. to the derived noun (deverbal). Questions are formed in German with the change of word order like English. Manipuri has two types of Tag Questions, Reverse Tag- and Constant Tag Question. Reverse tag is used commonly in other languages also. Constant Tag on the other hand are used in very specific cases, for instance Constant tag is used in declarative with tag, positive proposition and positive tag question, however it does not go along with interrogative in Manipuri. While Constant Tag is found with limited lexical items, Reverse Tag on the other hand is clearly visible in TQ in German, an Indo-European language. German language uses lexical items such as nicht wahr, oder, gell (used in southern part of Germany), stimmt’s, richtig, ja, ne etc. to form tag questions. While nicht wahr is used in speech as well as written form the other tags are mostly used in speech form and seldom in written form. In studying the tag questions in Manipuri and German it has been observed that the choice of auxiliary does not need to agree with the tense, aspect and modality. As in Manipuri, tag-question are constructed by the verbal phrase only and there is no existence of auxiliary verb. In German although the auxiliary exist in the sentence, tag questions are formed by the addition of lexical tag items (as mentioned above) only, irrespective of the tense.

Keywords: Reverse Tag, Constant Tag, Question Tag, Proposition.

Introduction

A tag question is a syntactic structure in which the uttered proposition seeks confirmation through the addition of Question tag markers. In a tag question a declarative or an imperative statement is normally turned into a question by adding an interrogative- fragment or marker. Tag questions are used mostly when the speaker wants a confirmation of the uttered statement. There are two very commonly used?types of tag questions, Reversed and Constant tag. Tags are normally added at the end of a clause, and can be either noun phrase tags, question tags or declarative tags.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Niranjana Thokchom, Ph.D. Scholar
nirathokchom@gmail.com

Professor Ch. Yashawanta Singh
chungkhamyash@gmail.com

Department of Linguistics
Manipur University
Canchipur-795003
Imphal West
Manipur State
India

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