He has few friends, does/doesn't he?

[5jj]

What do the reputable ones say?

@jutfrank. What do the sources you use say?

 

[jutfrank]

@jutfrank. What do the sources you use say?

I haven't 'used' any sources because I'm going on logic. My point was to say that when you have a negative sentence, you generally use a positive tag. A negative sentence is one that negates a positive sentence.

"He doesn't have many friends, does he?" seems more natural to me.

My point was about the positive/negative logic of sentences, not about what is natural.

He doesn't have friends, does he?

This is a negative sentence (it has not negating the auxiliary), so the tag is positive.

He doesn't have no friends, does he?

This is also a negative sentence, despite the double negative provided by no, which semantically means that he does have friends. Logically, it's a negation of He has no friends. Still, the tag is positive since the sentence is negative.

I think we might just have to agree to disagree on this topic. I can't get past the fact that I'm judging He barely speaks, doesn't he? as the most obvious question (I think I'm alone on this) whereas others seem to prefer He barely speaks, does he? The same with He has few friends, does he?, which I just can't come to terms with (I don't know if I'm alone on this too). I suppose it comes ultimately down to what thought the speaker really has in mind, as usual.

My original goal in answering this thread was to try to simplify things rather than confuse them, as it seems to have turned out.

 

[Ostap]

He doesn't have no friends, does he?

This is also a negative sentence, despite the double negative provided by no, which semantically means that he does have friends. Logically, it's a negation of He has no friends. Still, the tag is positive since the sentence is negative.

Would this sentence more often in colloquial speech mean "He doesn't have any friends, does he?", where double negation is used for emphasizing the negation?

 

[jutfrank]

Would this sentence more often in colloquial speech mean "He doesn't have any friends, does he?", where double negation is used for emphasizing the negation?

No.

You might hear He ain't got no friends, but it doesn't emphasise anything. It's just dialect.

 

[Tarheel]

Quite so. But I didn't ask, "do you have.." I asked ,"Have you got..."

I believe I unconsciously changed the words. However, they mean the same thing or they wouldn't get the same answer.