Disjunctive questions being simple sentences consist of at least two sense-groups represented by a statement (affirmative or negative) and a tag question (negative or affirmative), corresponding to two intonation groups. The choice of tones in disjunctive questions depends on the speaker's certainty of the facts expressed in the first sense-group. The most common pattern for a disjunctive question is the Low Fall in the first intonation group (a statement) followed by the Low Rise in the tag question, eg:It is →quite ˎsimple, | ˏisn’t it? The pattern with the Low Rise of the tag question implies a mixture of positiveness and doubt, though it is quite clear that the speaker inclines to one view rather than the other and that the listener's agreement with that view is expected. But the speaker would not be very surprised if he were contradicted. The Low Fall in the second intonation group shows that the speaker demands agreement from the listener, eg: He is a ˎclever man, | ˎisn’t he?
