Cost of the action and social distance affect the selection of question intonation in Catalan
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Lluïsa Astruc-Aguilera
Abstract
This chapter examines how politeness in offers and requests is encoded by intonation in Catalan, a language which uses two distinct intonational pitch contours for unbiased yes-no questions. Fifteen Central Catalan speakers participated in a Discourse Completion Task that elicited offers and requests in scenarios controlled for level of social distance, power, and cost of the action. The data were prosodically and pragmatically analyzed. The results showed that cost of the action and social distance have significant effects on intonation choices: speakers used rising pitch pattern more frequently with high-level than with low-level cost offers and requests, and also with high-level distance requests. In general, the falling pattern tended to be used more frequently with offers. The study shows that politeness factors need to be taken into account in the description of intonation choices across languages.
Abstract
This chapter examines how politeness in offers and requests is encoded by intonation in Catalan, a language which uses two distinct intonational pitch contours for unbiased yes-no questions. Fifteen Central Catalan speakers participated in a Discourse Completion Task that elicited offers and requests in scenarios controlled for level of social distance, power, and cost of the action. The data were prosodically and pragmatically analyzed. The results showed that cost of the action and social distance have significant effects on intonation choices: speakers used rising pitch pattern more frequently with high-level than with low-level cost offers and requests, and also with high-level distance requests. In general, the falling pattern tended to be used more frequently with offers. The study shows that politeness factors need to be taken into account in the description of intonation choices across languages.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction vii
- Foreword xiii
-
Part I. Intonation, variation and contact
- Task-related effects in the prosody of Spanish heritage speakers and long-term immigrants 3
- Pitch accent tonal alignment in declarative sentences in the Spanish of the Basque Country 25
- Stylistic variation in the intonation of European Portuguese teenagers and adults 45
- Focus and prosody in Spanish and Quechua 69
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Part II. Intonational modeling, syntax and pragmatics
- Cost of the action and social distance affect the selection of question intonation in Catalan 93
- Intonation modeling in cross-linguistic research 115
- Prosody and Emotion in Brazilian Portuguese 135
- The Relation between Prosody and Syntax: The case of different types of Left-Dislocations in Spanish 153
- The intonational meaning of polar questions in Manchego Spanish spontaneous speech 181
- Declarative utterances in Buenos Aires Spanish 207
- Towards automatic language processing and intonational labeling in European Portuguese 227
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Part III. Intonation, acquisition and special populations
- Prosodic and gestural features distinguish the intention of pointing gestures in child-directed communication 251
- Prosody in Portuguese Children with HighFunctioning Autism 277
- Early Prosodic Development 295
- A preliminary study of wh-questions in German and Spanish child language 325
- Assessment of Spanish prosody in clinical populations 351
- Intonation and grammar in the visual-gestural modality 369
- Index 387
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction vii
- Foreword xiii
-
Part I. Intonation, variation and contact
- Task-related effects in the prosody of Spanish heritage speakers and long-term immigrants 3
- Pitch accent tonal alignment in declarative sentences in the Spanish of the Basque Country 25
- Stylistic variation in the intonation of European Portuguese teenagers and adults 45
- Focus and prosody in Spanish and Quechua 69
-
Part II. Intonational modeling, syntax and pragmatics
- Cost of the action and social distance affect the selection of question intonation in Catalan 93
- Intonation modeling in cross-linguistic research 115
- Prosody and Emotion in Brazilian Portuguese 135
- The Relation between Prosody and Syntax: The case of different types of Left-Dislocations in Spanish 153
- The intonational meaning of polar questions in Manchego Spanish spontaneous speech 181
- Declarative utterances in Buenos Aires Spanish 207
- Towards automatic language processing and intonational labeling in European Portuguese 227
-
Part III. Intonation, acquisition and special populations
- Prosodic and gestural features distinguish the intention of pointing gestures in child-directed communication 251
- Prosody in Portuguese Children with HighFunctioning Autism 277
- Early Prosodic Development 295
- A preliminary study of wh-questions in German and Spanish child language 325
- Assessment of Spanish prosody in clinical populations 351
- Intonation and grammar in the visual-gestural modality 369
- Index 387
