Bidirectional Acknowledgement with Tag Questions --- I'm curious to see whether these softeners exist even in indigenous languages, in which international language/cultural exchange has not had a major influence on the development a language. Potentially, if these exist in every language then it may not just be for acknowledging the other party, but also an opportunity for the other party to acknowledge you (by implicitly agreeing with the subject of the tag-question).

Source author: Mamta Reid liveandsmile@hotmail.com