Rodney Huddleston and Geoffrey K. Pullum, A STUDENT'S INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH GRAMMAR (Cambridge University Press, 2005)
1. Classify the following according to clause type, and say what kind of speech act they would most likely be used to perform.
| Ex | Would you mind turning the radio down a little. |
| A | Closed interrogative clause, most likely to be used as a directive — more specifically, a request. |
| Ex | I'm sorry for any inconvenience I may have caused you. |
| A | Declarative clause, most likely to be used to make an apology. |
2. Form open interrogatives from the following declaratives, replacing the underlined phrase with a corresponding interrogative phrase such as who, what, when, etc.
| Ex | You invited someone to dinner. |
| A | Who did you invite to dinner? |
| Ex | She left her umbrella somewhere. |
| A | Where did she leave her umbrella? |
3. Attach the proper reverse polarity tags to the following declaratives.
| Ex | She has done a marvellous job. |
| A | She has done a marvellous job, hasn't she? |
| Ex | There is nothing anyone can do about it. |
| A | There is nothing anyone can do about it, is there? |
4. Interrogative tags can also be attached to imperative clauses, as in Don't tell anyone, will you? What tags could naturally be added to the following? (Where both reversed and constant polarity tags can be used, give them both, and comment on any difference between them.)
| Ex | Don't forget to send him an invitation. |
| A | Don't forget to send him an invitation, will you? |
| Ex | Let's have a break. |
| A | Let's have a break, shall we? |
5. The following clauses are given without any final punctuation mark to avoid prejudicing things, so they don't conform to normal written English. For each one, say whether it is (a) an open interrogative; (b) an exclamative; or (c) ambiguous between open interrogative and exclamative. If your answer is (a) or (b), explain what grammatical factors make the clause unambiguous. If your answer is (c), comment on the difference in meaning.
| Ex | When did they arrive |
| A | (a) Open interrogative. This can't be an exclamative because when is not an exclamative marker: exclamatives are marked by what or how. |
| Ex | What fools run this show |
| A | (c) Ambiguous between open interrogative and exclamative. In the open interrogative reading it is asking who the fools are who run this show. In the exclamative reading it is saying that the people who run this show are remarkably foolish. |