EXCISING TAGS: DISTINGUISHING BETWEEN INTERROGATIVE SFPS AND TAG QUESTIONS IN TAIWANESE

This paper serves as an investigation into the differences between interrogative sentence-final particles (SFPs) and tag questions (tags) in Taiwanese. What we are concerned with is the discrepancies found among the lists of interrogative SFPs in the literature. To distinguish tags from the interrogative particles (PRTs), a testing procedure is devised based on the proposal for testing negative particles (NEG-PRTs) in Hsieh (2001). We conclude that buē, bē, b , m, honn, m , ma, nih are interrogative SFPs and hiòo, m-me(me), sī--b , sī-m (sìm) and sioh are tag questions. Among the interrogative SFPs, buē, bē, b , and m are negative-particles which occur under IP, honn, m , ma, and nih are particles which perch higher, under CP. We believe that distinguishing SFPs from tags is the foundation of a solid investigation into SFPs.