Tag hey: examples from the SAfE data and a description of their functions

A WordSmith search on the ICE-SA found hey to occur 50 times, of which 40 were determined to be tags.145 _{The interview transcripts and butterfly-collecting together provided an additional 14} tokens of tag hey for a total of 54. All tokens are shown in Appendix D. By comparison, the ICE-

145 Tokens of hey that were not tags were those that were either free-standing, in clause-initial position, or

SA revealed fourteen tokens of tag huh and four of tag eh, and the interviews provided one instance of tag huh and none of tag eh (a sampling of these tokens is provided in Appendix D). No tokens of tags huh and eh were taken from butterfly-collecting.

Occurrences of tag hey in the SAfE data were restricted to spontaneous conversations in casual situations (e.g., friendly gatherings or informal conversations) and were not found in recordings of parliamentary debates, legal proceedings, prepared news broadcasts and the like. Preliminary analyses of the SAfE use of tag hey indicate that it is an invariant tag used during casual or informal discourse. It functions as a complex message structuring device with a wide range of functions. In most instances it is difficult to pin-point a single function to attribute to its use; some functions seem to meaningfully overlap while others are almost polar opposites. Beyond indicating speaker uncertainty or requesting confirmation, tag hey serves as a kind of check-point, providing an opportunity for the hearer to indicate whether clarification is needed or for the speaker to detect inattention. It also may express interest or act as an attention-getter to either highlight or soften a point of information. Other functions include coercing audience involvement, gauging the hearer’s interest or level of attention, expressing speaker interest, and use as an empathic face-saving device. The overriding function tying them all together appears to be one of communicating in-group acknowledgement, asserting some sort of polite affinity with the hearer or establishing solidarity. In this way, its use resembles a phrasing style (even a prosodic rhythm) that may be habitual among many SAfE speakers. The ability to recognise this phrasing style used with tag hey is central to its interpretation as a subtle attempt to establish rapport or solidarity. This observation is exemplified in some of the tokens such as examples (38) and (39) in which tag hey seems almost like a vocalisation rather than linguistic item. In these cases especially, its function of expressing some kind of connection with the hearer is apparent.

(38)

Ja, thanks hey

(personal observation) (39)

A: What are you doing now B: I'm actually at work now hey

Keeping in mind the overriding function of marking solidarity, these tokens were organised according to the three functional groups for tags outlined by Tottie and Hoffmann (2009: 141).

• Epistemic: expresses level of certainty and may request confirmation or clarification • Affective: expresses attitude, challenges, attracts attention

• Hortatory: urges an interpretation that either softens or emphasises a statement

Appendix D (column E) shows that some tokens were judged to fall into more than one of these three categories. As such, 34 tokens were categorised as affective, 13 as epistemic, and 10 as hortatory. Tokens representing each category are discussed below.

Token (40) is an example of an affective use of tag hey. It is used in a narrative, following a child’s interruption, to seek agreement or understanding from the hearer:

(40)

(child interrupts conversation between two adult friends)146 A: Boys hey. Shaw! You're lucky you had girls.

(ice-sa_spoken\s1a-065.txt)

Use of tag hey in (40) reveals the speaker’s internal state or attitude by communicating an attempt at comradery that may be similar to [you] know what I mean.

Example (41) is one of epistemic use in which tag hey conveys a level of uncertainty. Here, tag hey is used as part of an interrogative to elicit confirmation, a function that is shared with tags huh and eh in certain contexts.

(41)

(speaker A is attempting to explain a transportation idea to C)

A: … Now this is what I've been thinking. OK it uhm … To get … How to get … the, you know, when you park in the one station how to get back to that station. That is the only thing that one has to work out. Unless you have a bike.

C: A bicycle hey

A: Or a motorbike ...a scrambler ... that you just put on a trailer. (ice-sa_spoken\s1a-080.txt)

146 Described settings in parentheses are provided by this researcher and are best-guesses based on the

Examples (42) and (43) below are categorised as hortatory uses of tag hey. In (42), two friends are discussing some reading material (e.g., a book) that A has loaned to F when A recalls it has not yet been returned.

(42)

F: […] but the point is that English, that I having read some of the blurb now what I can understand A: mm oh yes you must give it back to me hey

F: English is now being used in so many countries [...] (ice-sa_spoken\s1a-043.txt)

Example (42) shows tag hey functioning similarly to the clause-final [do] you hear me? or the Afrikaans clause-final hoor jy my? (or one of the shortened forms). It is not used or interpreted as an interrogative, but rather functions both to draw the hearer’s attention to this recalled piece of information and possibly also to metaphorically backpedal on interrupting the other speaker (F) as well as the appearance of a potentially harsh command marked by the use of must. If this is correct, tag hey performs double duty: both emphasising a remark and softening it to avoid an unintended interpretation.

Tag hey in example (43) is used for emphasis; that is, to draw attention. The broader discussion in the transcription suggests A and B are in a garden or vineyard assessing plant growth.

(43)

A: See this vine is shooting hey this one here. B: You must replace this wood before they start. (ice-sa_spoken\s1a-063.txt)

Tag hey in (43) is used like a pointer to direct attention to something specific (in this case, this vine) and bring to prominence what has been said; it might be synonymous with right here, you see? or look.147

147 It should be noted that the judged pragmatic use of any token hinges on how the researcher perceives

the data. For example, a request for confirmation also may be interpreted as correcting another’s utterance, as in example (41). However, the functions that have been attributed to the data tokens do appear to reflect those also described in the DSAE.

The data strongly suggest that the SAfE use of tag hey cannot be exchanged easily with either tag huh or eh as doing so appears either awkward or alters the intended pragmatic meaning:

#See this vine is shooting huh this one here. #See this vine is shooting eh this one here.

In summary, tag hey appears to function as an interjection that is similar to tags huh and eh; but unlike tags huh and eh, possible functional contributions from lexical origins have been found for tag hey. If this is correct, tag hey represents morphophonological reduction (or replacement) and pragmaticalisation, and thus grammaticalisation can be explored. In the following section, the multilingual influences on the SAfE use of tag hey that have led to its grammaticalisation are described.