The Syntax of the Confirmatory Pragmatic Particle Innit

Abstract

In the present paper a syntactic analysis is put forward for the particle innit within a cartographic approach to pragmatic particles and a theory of speech acts. I claim here that when functioning as facilitative and epistemic, innit is not a non-canonical question tag, but rather a confirmatory pragmatic particle that requires the addressee to confirm that the proposition asserted is treated as common ground. Furthermore, the fact that the confirmatory particle innit is inherently negative explains some parallelisms between the syntax of declarative clauses containing innit, the syntax of questions with question tags and the syntax of negated polar questions where negation is interpreted high (outside Tense Phrase).