Balanced vs unbalanced tag questions...?

Unread post by **Níall Beag** » Wed Aug 10, 2011 7:03 pm

I was going over this topic with some English students last week and I realised I wasn't sure how it worked in Gaelic.

A question tag is a little question "tagged" on to the end of a statement to request confirmation, eg:
Bidh thusa ann, nach bi? - You'll be there, won't you?
Chan roch thusa ann, an robh? - You weren't there, were you?

The examples above are called "balanced" tag questions -- the verb's positive on one side and negative on the other.

In English, we also have "unbalanced" tag questions, eg:
You were there, were you?

The distinction that is made in English is that a balanced question is used for confirmation of old information, whereas the unbalanced question is used for confirmation of new information.
So if someone says "I saw John at the party last night", you could say "you were there, were you?" because it's new information that you're confirming.

I suspect this holds in Gaelic, but can't find anything about it. Any ideas? I'll keep my ears open for it when I'm speaking to natives in the future....

Unread post by **akerbeltz** » Sat Aug 13, 2011 8:14 pm

There's quite a bit in Will Lambs book on it. Bit much to type out, do you have it?

Unread post by **Níall Beag** » Sun Aug 14, 2011 11:03 am

Ah yes... I'd checked "tag" in the index, but not "question". The index only points to a short passage on page 240 -- is there more?

Fòram na Gàidhlig