Date: Sun, 22 Oct 1995 22:10:30 -0400 From: Duane Price Subject: Re: statements spoken as if it were a question Larry wrote: > we're talking about speaker's intention: to make a statement without appearing too >"assertive" I first noticed this speech habit when I had a professor, a woman, who did it constantly. I noticed, however, that in normal conversation outside the classroom it was much less prevalent for her. I came to understand it, from context, to be a sort of subtle request for affirmation, or perhaps a search for comprehension: as if she were saying, "You follow me?" after each of those statements.