QUTAG YAML source
code: QUTAG
mfte_code: QUTAG
name: Question tags
definition: >-
Tag questions appended to statements: "isn't it?", "do they?", "won't you?"
normalization: finite_verbs
detection:
- source: mfte
requires:
- word
- pos
parts:
p1:
cql: "[word=\"can|could|will|would|shall|should|may|might|must|did|had|do\"] [word=\"not|n't\"] [pos=\"PRP\"] [word=\"?\"]"
p2:
cql: '[word="can|could|will|would|shall|should|may|might|must|did|had|do"] [pos="PRP"] [word="?"]'
p3:
cql: "[word=\"is|does|was|has|do\"] [word=\"not|n't\"] [word=\"it|she|he|they\"] [word=\"?\"]"
p4:
cql: '[word="is|does|was|has"] [word="it|she|he"] [word="?"]'
p5:
cql: "[word=\"do|were|are|have\"] [word=\"not|n't\"] [word=\"you|we|they\"] [word=\"?\"]"
p6:
cql: '[word="do|were|are|have"] [word="you|we|they"] [word="?"]'
p7:
cql: '[pos="PRP"] [word="can|could|will|would|shall|should|may|might|must|did|had"] [word="?"]'
p8:
cql: "[word=\"it|she|he|they\"] [word=\"is|does|was|has|do\"] [word=\"not|n't\"] [word=\"?\"]"
p9:
cql: '[word="it|she|he"] [word="is|does|was|has"] [word="?"]'
p10:
cql: "[word=\"you|we|they\"] [word=\"do|were|are|have\"] [word=\"not|n't\"] [word=\"?\"]"
p11:
cql: '[word="you|we|they"] [word="do|were|are|have"] [word="?"]'
combine: "p1 | p2 | p3 | p4 | p5 | p6 | p7 | p8 | p9 | p10 | p11"
description: >-
MFTE tag question patterns (lines 607-620). Two groups: canonical
(aux/modal + optional negation + pronoun + ?) and reversed
(pronoun + aux/modal + optional negation + ?). Specific word lists
rather than POS classes to match MFTE's precision. MFTE uses
negative WH-word checks at j-4/j-5 to prevent tagging in WH-question
sentences (e.g., "What could I do?" should not tag "I do ?" as
QUTAG). Since CQL cannot express positional lookbehind, "do" is
removed from the reversed PRP+aux+? pattern to avoid this false
positive; canonical patterns still catch "do you?" etc.
- requires:
- word
- pos
cql: '[pos="MD|VBP|VBZ|VBD"] [pos="PRP"] [word="?"]'
description: 'Approximate: auxiliary/modal + pronoun + question mark.'
sources:
- mfte
notes: Relevant to conversational/speech registers.