Creaky fillers and speaker attitude: data from Swedish
Author
Editor
- Dagmar Barth-Weingarten
- Nicole Déhé
- Anne Wichmann
Summary, in English
Spontaneous data from Swedish are presented which suggest that ‘creaky
voice’ associated with the filler EH ‘UH’ is related to the realization of the
speaker attitude ‘uncertainty’ in the sense of ‘indecisiveness’ as regards the
optimal way to linguistically code referents and predicates. It is suggested
that creaky fillers express a certain degree of speaker indecisiveness as
regards the most relevant way in which to express the content of a
proposition. The idea follows from the assumption of the existence of an
’accessability hierarchy’ (Ariel, 1988) that constrains the way information is
coded in relation to the assumed background knowledge of conversational
partners.
By comparing three different phonetic realizations of EH, it was observed
that creaky EH occurred in contexts that non-creaky realizations of EH did
not; non-creaky fillers appeared to be more related to non-interactional
features, i.e. prominence marking on the one hand, and discourse segment
boundary marking on the other hand.
It is suggested that the considerable drop in fundamental frequency
(pitch) associated with creaky EH could create an intonational mismatch
with respect to the preceding discourse. The intonational clash could signal
by means of pragmatic inference, an attitude of uncertainty.
The assumed attitude of uncertanity associated with creaky fillers is
supported by the fact that other interactional devices are sometimes present
in utterances containing creaky EH, e.g. liksom ‘like’, a pragmatic particle
associated with uncertainty as well as to politeness.
In order to strengthen the ideas presented here, however, more extensive
data need to be analysed.
voice’ associated with the filler EH ‘UH’ is related to the realization of the
speaker attitude ‘uncertainty’ in the sense of ‘indecisiveness’ as regards the
optimal way to linguistically code referents and predicates. It is suggested
that creaky fillers express a certain degree of speaker indecisiveness as
regards the most relevant way in which to express the content of a
proposition. The idea follows from the assumption of the existence of an
’accessability hierarchy’ (Ariel, 1988) that constrains the way information is
coded in relation to the assumed background knowledge of conversational
partners.
By comparing three different phonetic realizations of EH, it was observed
that creaky EH occurred in contexts that non-creaky realizations of EH did
not; non-creaky fillers appeared to be more related to non-interactional
features, i.e. prominence marking on the one hand, and discourse segment
boundary marking on the other hand.
It is suggested that the considerable drop in fundamental frequency
(pitch) associated with creaky EH could create an intonational mismatch
with respect to the preceding discourse. The intonational clash could signal
by means of pragmatic inference, an attitude of uncertainty.
The assumed attitude of uncertanity associated with creaky fillers is
supported by the fact that other interactional devices are sometimes present
in utterances containing creaky EH, e.g. liksom ‘like’, a pragmatic particle
associated with uncertainty as well as to politeness.
In order to strengthen the ideas presented here, however, more extensive
data need to be analysed.
Department/s
Publishing year
2009
Language
English
Pages
277-288
Publication/Series
Where prosody meets pragmatics: research at the interface
Volume
8
Document type
Book chapter
Publisher
Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Topic
- General Language Studies and Linguistics
Keywords
- uncertainty
- speaker attitude
- creak
- Filler
- intonation
Status
Published
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISBN: 978-1-84950-631-1
- ISBN: 1750-368X (Series)
- E-ISBN: 9789004253223