12 expressing uncertainty, it merely functioned as politeness devices
” Holmes, 2001, 288.
c. Indicating Lack of Finality
Rising intonation on declarative also simply signs that the person is not giving the final word on that matter
– they are open to continuing the exchange
Eckert Ginet, 2003, p. 174.
Eckert Ginet 2003 noted that there were many possible reasons for the speaker B to use the high rising terminal HRT in such an exchange other
than insecurity about whether the time suggested was “right” or unwillingness to commit herself. She might be asking any one of a number
of questions whose content is not explicitly given in the utterance: why do you want to know? ... are you proposing that we go out for dinner instead
of eating here at home? p. 174.
Similar argument is also said by Ladd that “rising finals simply mark
incompleteness, lack of finality ” as cited in Eckert and Ginet, 2003, p. 175.
d. Showing Positive Politeness
Ainsworth states that rising intonation on declarative also indicates positive politeness as cited in
Blahu
šová, 2013, p. 24. Positive politeness is the impression of being friendly and non-authoritative expressed by the uptalkers, due
to the rising nature of the tone Bradford, 1997 as cited in
Blahu
šová, 2013, p. 24. Therefore, positive politeness also means solidarity or support for the addressee
Britain, 1992 as cited in
Blahu
šová, 2013, p. 25.
B. Findings
This part is the findings in which the results as well as the interpretation of the data are presented. It presents the discussion of how tag questions and rising
13 intonation on declaratives are used by the two female main characters Bex and
Suze in Confessions of a Shopaholic movie. Later, some words in the dialogues are bolded to indicate the significant feature discussed.
1. The Use of Tag Questions by the Two Female Main Characters in
Confessions of a Shopaholic Movie
A tag question is a phrase “contains an inverted auxiliary form determined
by the auxiliary in the main clause, and a pronoun that agrees with the subject of the main clause
” Eckert Ginet, 2003, p. 167. It was mentioned in the theory that there were three functions of tag question: as an uncertainty tag, a facilitative
tag and a softening tag. Then, based on the analysis, all of the functions were found in Confessions of a Shopaholic movie. However, it was found that this
feature was rarely used by the two female main characters in the movie since it was only used for four times. Here are the examples of tag question used by the
two female main characters in Confessions of a Shopaholic movie as an uncertainty tag, a facilitative tag and a softening tag.
a. Tag Question Used as an Uncertainty Tag
Here is the example of tag question functions as an uncertainty tag found
in the movie. [5]
At a wedding dress store 00:39:21
– 00:40:06 Suze
: looking at Bex This is so relevant. It‟s the most
relevant thing in the world. There isn‟t another reason
why you want to go to Miami,
աis there?
Bex : No.
Suze : Maybe it rhymes with Fluke?