Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-sxzjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T01:18:31.971Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

High Rising Terminals in New Zealand English

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 February 2009

David Britain
Affiliation:
Department of Linguistics, Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand
John Newman
Affiliation:
Department of Linguistics & Second Language Teaching, Massey University Palmerston North, New Zealand

Extract

The use of High Rising Terminal intonation contours (HRTs) in statements is a particularly salient and often stigmatized feature of a number of varieties of English. In recent years a number of linguists have investigated the feature from pragmatic (ching 1982, Meyerhoff 1991) and sociolinguistic (Guy, Horvath, Vonwiller, Diasley and Rogers 1986, Allen 1990, Britain 1992) perspectives and its use has also stimulated long running debates in the press (New York Times, Fall 1991; Sydney Morning Herald, June 1992) about its origins, functions and appropriateness. In this paper, we combine a brief discussion of its use and dunction with a F0-plot analysis of a number of HRT contours from recordings made in Wellington, New Zealand in 1989.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Journal of the International Phonetic Association 1992

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ainsworth, H. (1992). The Emergence of the High Rising Terminal Contour in the Speech of New Zealand Children. Manuscript.Google Scholar
Allan, S. (1990). The rise of New Zealand intonation. In Bell, A. and Holmes, J. (editors), New Zealand Ways of Speaking English, 115128. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Benton, R. (1966). Research into the English Language Difficulties of Maori Schoolchildren: 1963–64. Wellington: Maori Education Foundation.Google Scholar
Britain, D. (1992). Linguistic change in intonation: the use of High Rising Terminals in New Zealand English. Language Variation and Change 4, 77104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Britain, D. (Forthcoming). Facework in narratives and opinions: the role of High Rising Terminals.Google Scholar
Brown, P. and Levinson, S. (1987). Politeness: Some Universals in Language Use. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ching, M. (1982). The question intonation in assertions. American Speech 57, 95107.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eckert, P. (1989). The whole woman: sex and gender differences in variation. Language Variation and Change 1, 245268.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guy, G., Horvath, B., Vonwiller, J., Daisley, E. and Rogers, I. (1986). An intonation change in progress in Australian English. Language in Society 15, 2352.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guy, G. and Vonwiller, J. (1984). The meaning of an intonation in Australian English. Australian Journal of Linguistics 4, 117.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holmes, J., Bell, A., and Boyce, M. (1991). Variation and Change in New Zealand English: A Social Dialect Investigation. Project Report to the Social Sciences Committee of the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology. Wellington: Department of Linguistics, Victoria University of Wellington.Google Scholar
James, E., Mahut, C., and Latkiewicz, G. (1989). The investigation of an apparently new intonation pattern in Toronto English. Information Communication (Speech and Voice Society and Phonetics Laboratory, University of Toronto) 10, 1117.Google Scholar
Labov, W. (1966). The Social Stratification of English in New York City. Washington DC: Center for Applied Linguistics.Google Scholar
Labov, W. and Waletzky, J. (1967). Narrative analysis: oral versions of personal experience. In Helms, J. (editor), Essays in the Verbal and Visual Arts, 1244. Seattle: University of Washington Press.Google Scholar
Lakoff, R. (1975). Language and Woman's Place. New York: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Meyerhoff, M. (1991). Grounding and Overcoming Obstacles: The Positive Politeness Motivations of High Rise Terminals. Manuscript.Google Scholar
Milroy, L. (1987). Observing and Analysing Natural Language. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Mitchell, A. and Delbridge, A. (1965). The Speech of Australian Adolescents. Sydney: Angus Robertson.Google Scholar
Polanyi, L. (1989). Telling the American Story: A Structural and Cultural Analysis of Conversational Storytelling. Cambridge: MIT Press.Google Scholar