Sentence Types

Questions

Group the following questions according to their similarities.

Drag like sentences into the block at the bottom. When all of a similar type are in the box, click on the Check button to assess your answer. If correctly grouped, the sentences will move back onto the list with each group a different color.

Activity 4.7: Question Sort 3

All of the questions in Activity 17 are Yes-No questions.  A speaker uses this type of question when he/she believes that all the information is known, but the speaker is uncertain about the truth level of the information.

Like Wh- questions, Yes-No questions employ inversion of the subject with parts of the verb as part of the question structure.  At least, most questions are formed this way.  It is possible to say a declarative sentence with rising intonation in order to turn it into a question, and an example of this is given above in item 4.  Such a constriction can be labeled a declarative question.  It is only used in speech.

Item 8 also looks like a declarative sentence, but it is actually better seen as a reduced question where inversion has taken place, but then the inverted auxiliary verb has been deleted.  The reason to consider it and inversion plus deletion construction is that the verb tense doesn’t fit the time reference.  A proper question would be Did you have nightmares later last night? and a declarative sentence with rising intonation would be You had nightmares later last night?  Therefore, item 8 is best described as a reduced question, not as a declarative question.  Again, this construction is only used in speech.

The basic Yes-No question formation process involves simply inverting, or switching, the subject and the auxiliary of the verb.  For example, you are watching TV can become are you watching TV?  In sentences where an auxiliary verb is not already present, we add do to act as an auxiliary and then invert it with the subject.  An example of this is when the declarative sentence form is He likes vampires, and we cast the Yes-No question as Does he like vampires?  At this point, we must note that there is one exception to the addition of do to act as an auxiliary where there is none, and that is with the BE verb.  A declarative sentence with BE might read He is a vampire, but the Yes-No question form is not Does he be a vampire?  Rather we say Is he a vampire?  where we simply invert the main verb itself with the subject instead of adding an auxiliary verb.

Less commonly, questions can be formed through the use of tags.  Most common are tags of opposite polarity to the main clause.  Items 6 and 7 are examples of opposite polarity tag questions in English.  To form these questions, a speaker begins with a declarative sentence, but instead of inverting the subject and auxiliary in the sentence itself, adds the inverted construction and only the inverted construction, to the end of the utterance.  In an opposite polarity tag question, if the main clause is affirmative, the tag will be negative (including not), but if the main clause is negative (including not), the tag will be affirmative.  We use opposite polarity tags when we expect the declarative sentence is true, but we want a check on it.  Basic Yes-No questions with subject-auxiliary inversion signal the absence of any expectation on the truth value of the information.

While opposite polarity tags are common, we sometimes use tag questions with the same polarity.  These tag questions are sometimes used in different ways, though.  They may convey self-talk or a challenge more than the seeking of information or the confirmation of fact. 
Examples might be, They thought they could get away with it, did they? and You like vampire movies, do you?  Finally, we often use the word right as a tag, and it matches the polarity of the main clause, although an argument could be made that rather than having same polarity, it is neutral in polarity.

Yes-No questions can be embedded, too, but like Wh-questions, the embedding process creates a complex sentence, and so discussion on those sentences will be taken up much later.  A quick example can be provided here, however, for curiosity’s sake: I don’t know if there will be a sequel.