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RE: Yes, he's swimming.
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=?gb2312?B?zO/Rxb/N?=
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May 31, 2009 23:28 PDT
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Belated remarks:
Shin: What's Santa doing? Is he swimming? ---Mike: Yes, he's swimming.
I don't agree with Steven Schaefer that there are (as I understand his statement) no unmarked intonational patterns in discourse analysis. If we follow Grice's maxims, and also Occam, then, for example, if someone asks: "Is it raining where you're at?" there is only one unmarked pattern for an answer: "Yes it is.", with low tone on "it" and high-falling or mid-falling tonal contour on "is". (to simplify things, I am not going to comment on the "Yes" here) I'm not sure we can define unmarked here as the most commonly heard --- many people might think such a straight, robot-like reply is boring; they would put in some extra wiggles, drawn out syllables etc., mostly to express a little sarcasm or peevishness, but all such variations would be marked in the sense that they are not a simple, "straightforward" reply.
As far as Tami's question goes, the material doesn't tell us whether or not Shin knew that the context included Australia. Therefore, unfortunately, we don't know whether or not to expect any sarcasm from Mike. Unmarked reply, non-sarcastic, would be the same as the above, with unstressed "he's" then a mid-to-high falling contour on "swimming". Sarcastic: mid-to-high "Yes", then (with no pause) a drop to "he's", followed by the first syllable of "swimming" either at the same pitch as "he's" or slightly lower, and the 2nd syllable of "swimming" with a rising contour. To lay it on even thicker, Mke could start out with a drawn out, slowly rising "Yes", then a pause, then up a little bit to say "he's", then the same rise at the end. - In current American teenage slang, Mike's entire (sarcastic) reply might get boiled down to "Duh !"
--- Jakob Dempsey
-----Original Message-----
From: steven.s-@libertysurf.fr [mailto:steven.s-@libertysurf.fr]
Sent: Saturday, May 30, 2009 4:39 AM
To: phonetics
Subject: Re:[phonlist] Yes, he's swimming.
Hello Tami,
The (low) fall on \SWIMming is not in the least surprising,
especially in this context. Mike knows that Christmas is
warm down under, so he simply confirms the fact, as anyone
else could do, knowing what he knows, so yes "Of course he
is" . It is misconceived to assume that there is a normal
tune - an idea I reject on the grounds that all prosody
depends on the context, what each knows of the suject and
how one regards the other speaker... If the fall seems
abrupt, perhaps it is (or is at least just matter-of-fact)
compared to the rise which would seem to invite an
interpretation based on the relationship between the two,
where Mike is adding something like "Why do you ask?" or
"What do you expect him to be doing?", a somewhat
condescending or paternalistic attitude to Shin's naive
question. Ditto for the other two examples, where you might
have an implied "What do you think?".
I would be interested to know what illustrations (of
gestures or facial expressions) accompany these exchanges,
if any. That often conveys some of this implied 'information'.
All the best,
Steven Schaefer
Universit¨¦ Paris 4 - Sorbonne
---------- Initial Header -----------
From : ?? <mn8-@fiberbit.net>
To : phone-@topica.com
Cc :
Date : Thu, 28 May 2009 17:09:53 +0900
Subject : [phonlist] Yes, he's swimming.
Dear all
I would appreciate comments from you.
In one of the English textbooks used in junior high schools
across the nation there is the following dialogue:
Mike: Look at this Christmas card!
Shin: What's Santa doing?
Is he swimming?
Mike: Yes, he's swimming.
Shin: In winter?
Mike: In Australia Christmas is in summer.
Shin: Oh!
I heard the falling nucleus on the repeated item 'swim on
the CD:
YES, he's \SWIMming.
It seems to me that if the answer uses the same words as
were in the question (not a short form) the speaker normally
says the answer with rising intonation with a high pitch on
'he', then a slight dip and a rise on 'swim', whereas on the
CD Mike replies with a fall on 'swim'. Should I interpret
it to mean "Of course he is"?
Here are a few more examples:
a. Is this a book? Yes, it's a book.
b. Are you going? Yes, I'm going.
Tami
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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