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Lists as embedded structures and the prosody of list construction as an interactional resource
(2003)
This article describes a salient intonation contour of the Dresden urban vernacular which Gericke (1963) called 'Fallbogen' (falling curve). The contour is described both structurally and functionally. The structural analysis describes the phonetic trajectory of the contour and the phonological structure and alignment of the contour with the syllables of the utterance. In the functional analysis, the use of the contour is investigated in its conversational context. The 'Fallbogen' is reconstructed as a contour which is deployed in order to signal and constitute emphasis and heightened emotive involvement in talk-in-interaction; this analysis is validated with recourse to recipients' responses in the utterances following the use of the 'Fallbogen' contour
After reviewing the research on Saxon regionalized intonation and giving an overview of our research project on regionalized intonation in German, a particular salient regionalized intonation contour from the Dresden vernacular is described in detail. In addition to a more widespread contour that is also used in the Berlin vernacular, albeit in different contexts, the so-called 'upward staircase contour' which is formed by a lower plateau, a rise and a higher plateau, the Dresden vernacular also uses very salient regionalized variants of such staircase contours: These variants entail upward staircases with, metaphorically speaking, two steps; i.e. after the lower plateau and the rise up to a higher plateau, the pitch rises up again in order to form a third plateau. Depending upon the alignment of the second rise and the third plateau, with only the final unaccented syllable of the intonation phrase or with the nuclear accented syllable and the following tail, the contour needs to be distinguished, yielding either an 'upward staircase with an additional final rise plateau' or a 'double upward staircase'. These two contours are shown to be used in different conversational contexts and in different functions in the Dresden vernacular. - Data for this study come from natural speech by speakers of the Dresden vernacular. The phonetic and phonological analysis of the contour is based on auditive, acoustic-phonetic and phonological methodology; the functional analysis of the utterances with the salient contours relies on the techniques of conversation analysis
Content: 1. Introduction 2. The notion of speech style: from a dependent variable to contextualization cue 3. Speech styles in conversation from a German Sozialamt 3.1 Extracts from conversation 3.2 Speech style constituting cues 3.3 Choice and alternation of speech styles in conversation 4. Summary and conclusions
A system of descriptive categories for the notation and analysis of intonation in natural conversation is presented and discussed in relation to other systems currently suggested for incorporation in discourse analysis, The categories are based on purely auditive criteria. They differ from e.g. tonetic approaches by relying more on transcribers' and analysts' perception of the form and internal cohesiveness of contours, especially with respect to rhythmicality and/or pitch contour (gestalt). Intonation is conceived of as a relational phenomenon; the role of intonation in conversational utterances can only be analyzed by considering its co-occurrence with other properties of utterances like syntactic, semantic and discourse organizational structures and devices. In general, intonation is viewed as one signalling system contributing to the contextualization of utterances in their conversational context. A broad functional differentiation between different types of intonation categories seems plausible: Local categories like accents might fulfill mainly semantic functions, while global categories like different contour types might fulfill primarily functions with respect to the interactive coordination of activities in conversation.
The role of intonation in the organization of repair and problem handling sequences in conversation
(1988)
Transcripts of repair and/or problem handling sequences from natural conversations are presented and analyzed with special reference to the role of intonation in the interactive organization of these sequences. It is shown that (a) in the initiation of so-called repair or local problem handling sequences, intonation is used as a type-distinctive device, and (b) in the handling of a global problem handling sequence, intonation is systematically used as a means to constitute and control participant cooperation. In general, intonation is analyzed as one contextualization cue cooccurring with specific syntactic, semantic and discourse organizational devices to signal the status of an utterance in conversational context. It is hypothesized that especially in the global problem handling sequence, different categories of intonation, i.e. different accent and contour types, are systematically used to signal and control participants' interactive problem handling in different, indexically relevant ways simultaneously.
After a review of previous work on the prosody of emotional involvement, data extracts from natural conversations are analyzed in order to argue for the constitution of an 'emphatic (speech) style', which linguistic devices are used to signal heightened emotive involvement. Participants use prosodic cues, in co-occurrence with syntactic and lexical cues, to contextualize turn-constructional units as 'emphatic'. Only realizations of prosodic categories that are marked in relation to surrounding uses of these categories have the power to contextualize units as displaying 'more-than-normal involvement'. In the appropriate context, and in cooccurrence with syntactic and lexical cues and sequential position, the context-sensitive interpretation of this involvement is 'emphasis'. Prosodic marking is used in addition to various unmarked cues that signal and constitute different activity types in conversation. Emphatic style highlights and reinforms particular conversational activities, and makes certain types of recipient responses locally relevant. In particular, switches from non-emphatic to emphatic style are used to contextualize 'peaks of involvement' or 'climaxes' in story-telling. These are shown in the paper to be 'staged' by speakers and treated by recipients as marked activities calling for displays of alignment with respect to the matter at hand. Signals of emphasis are deployable as techniques for locally organizing demonstrations of shared understanding and participant reciprocity in conversational interaction.