Abstract

This article has as a main purpose to present a description of the functioning of tag-questions in English, Brazilian Portuguese, French, German and Chilean Spanish, from a systemic functional approach to language and in the context of the speech functions and the system of MOOD in the lexicogramatical strata. The main findings give evidence that the behavior of mood tags is similar across the languages, because they all show rising intonation and take the final position in the clauses. However, in languages like English, Portuguese, French and Spanish mood tags are inserted in the declarative and imperative clauses, while in French they are located in the interrogative clauses. On the other hand, languages like English and Portuguese repeat the modal element of the host clause, while mood tags in the other languages do not show the negotiator element.