Department of English

Faculty of Arts
University of Ljubljana

DISCOURSE INTONATION
FINAL PAPER

Mentor: doc. dr. Andrej Stopar

Mitja Horvat

Ljubljana
July, 2020
Contents
Transcript of the spoken text.............................................................................................................3
Description of the discourse and additional relevant information................................................5
The choice of tones (referring, proclaiming); The effect of speaker dominance Key (high/low)5
Proclaiming: Unmarked: Fall.............................................................................................................5
Proclaiming: Marked: Rise-fall...........................................................................................................8
Referring: Unmarked: Fall-rise..........................................................................................................9
Referring: Marked: Rise.....................................................................................................................9
“‘That is the place. ||...................................................................................................................10
Transcript of the spoken text

Mark: ↑Hi. || Who are ↑you? ||

The Local Guy: ‘My name is Alec. ||

Mark: ‘Alec. || ‘Mark. || How ↑are you? ||

Alec: ‘Nice to meet you. ||

Mark: ‘Nice to meet you too. ||

Alec: ‘Are you having a great time? ||

Mark: ‘I am having a good time. ||

Alec: ‘It is a nice day isn’t it? ||

Mark: You are one of the ↑locals here? ||

Alec: ‘That’s right, I am one of the locals. ||

Mark: Maybe you can ↑help me. ||

Alec: ‘I’ll try. ||

Mark: I am ↑hungry. || ‘I am looking for a place to go… | ‘like a restaurant. ||

Alec: ‘Well, | ‘if you just turn around, | ‘behind you | ‘is a restaurant. ||

Mark: ‘Right, okay. || ‘Right, okay. ||

Alec: What do you want to ↑eat though? ||

Mark: What is ↑nice to eat around here? ||

Alec: Traditional Mosquito cui↑sine. || It’s the ↑best | you can i↑magine. || You want to ↑try it.

|| Check it ↑out. ||

Mark: ‘Okay. || ‘What kind of foo-? || (I woud presume the key here is high, seeing how Mark

constrains Alec with regard to his response. However, I am unsure because Alec keeps

talking over Mark or interrupting him.)

Alec: ↑Anything, you know. || ‘It’s all delicious. || Are you a vege↑tarian? ||
Mark: ‘No, | ‘I eat anythi-. || (Not sure with anything here. Mark gets talked over before he

could finish this sentence. If I had to guess, I would say that there would have been a falling

tone here and the it would be in mid key.)

Alec: ‘You like to eat a bit of meat. ||

Mark: ‘I eat anything. || I ↑like vegetable- || (I can only presume that Mark wanted to add

something else and / or talk just a bit more about the vegetarian issue, but he gets

interrupted, so I can only guess the key here.)

Alec: ‘For the vegetarian or meat-eater. ‘They cater for everybody. ||

Mark: This place ↑here? ||

Alec: ‘That is the place. ||

Mark: ‘I’m going to go in. || ‘Thanks a ↑lot. ||

Alec: ‘Thanks a lot. || ‘Bye. ||

 Description of the discourse and additional relevant information
In the dialogue I chose, there are two speakers, Mark and Alec. Mark is a tourist who is hoping to
find a place to eat. Alec is a local and is kind enough to lend a helping hand to Mark.

Firstly, they make polite conversation, talking about the weather and Mark’s experience in the town
so far. Secondly, Mark asks Alec for recommendations regarding restaurant choices nearby. Thirdly,
they briefly discuss Mark’s dietary choices / (possible) restrictions (i.e. him being a vegetarian).

The dialogue is relatively chaotic and challenging to analyse, because both Mark and Alec mumble a
lot. Furthermore, Alec interrupts and talks over Mark quite often, making it difficult to describe Mark’s
choice of tone, key etc.

I left out some bits of dialogue at the beginning, because they are not particularly relevant and only
increase the word count. I also decided not to transcribe the speakers’ mumbling, stuttering, etc.

Note: I did not analyse every utterance’s key separately, because most of the time the meaning(s)
repeats.

The choice of tones (referring, proclaiming);

The effect of speaker dominance
Key (high/low)

Proclaiming: Unmarked: Fall

↑Hi. || Who are ↑you? ||

Both tones are unmarked falls (proclaiming): (asking) matter available to the listener
is not yet available to the speaker; (finding out question)
High key is used to mark new topic.

‘My name is Alec. ||

The tone is an unmarked fall (proclaiming): Alec is sharing his information with Mark
(who does not know it).
Mid key is used to add a piece of information.

‘Alec. || ‘Mark. || ↑How are you? ||

In the case of the first falling tone, Mark apparently behaves against expectations
(i.e. proclaiming when he should be referring). I believe he does so in order to inspire
social togetherness. In the second case, Mark is simply using the (proclaiming) falling
tone as a finding out question, meaning that the matter available to the listener is not yet
available to the speaker (i.e. Mark does not know how Alec is currently doing).
Mid key is used twice. In the first case, Mark is staying neutral. In the second case,
Mark is adding a piece of information. With “How are you?”, mark uses the high key,
indicating a change of subject.
‘Nice to meet you. ||
Nothing particularly special about this tone. Alec simply states that he thinks it is nice
to meet Mark. The unmarked proclaiming tone is used, signaling information which is
new to the listener.
‘Nice to meet you too. ||
The unmarked proclaiming tone is used by Mark, implying that the fact that Mark
thinks it is nice to meet Alec, too, is considered new information.

‘Are you having a great time? ||

The proclaiming falling tone is used. This is because Alec does not know yet whether
or not Mark has been enjoying his time in town so far. The information is only available to
Mark, so Alec asks for it.

‘I am having a good time. ||

Mark is simply sharing his information with Alec, who does not know it yet. The
unmarked proclaiming tone is used.

‘It is a nice day isn’t it? ||

I believe this to be a genuine inquiry on Alec’s side, but some might argue that it is
just part of the pleasantries exchanged when two strangers engage in small talk. Mark’s
change of topic indicates that he, too, thinks of this as a mere pleasantry or rhetorical
question. The unmarked proclaiming tone is used.

You are one of the ↑locals here? ||

Mark is using the unmarked proclaiming tone here, too. This means that this question
is a genuine one. Mark does not have this piece of information yet, so he is asking Alec
in hopes of finding out.
High key is used to mark a new topic.

‘That’s right, I am one of the locals. ||

Alec shares with Mark the piece of information Mark was asking for before. The
unmarked proclaiming tone is used.

Maybe you can ↑help me. ||

The same logic applies to this utterance. Although it does not look like a proper
question, the utterance still has an information gap on Mark’s side, where he is hopeful
that / unsure whether Alec is able to help him out.
Mark is using the high key here to mark a new topic.
I am ↑hungry. || ‘I am looking for a place to go… | ‘like a restaurant. ||
In these statements, Mark is using the unmarked proclaiming tone throughout all
three parts of the utterance. He is sharing his information with Alec so that Alec might
better understand Mark’s situation and then proceeds to help him find a suitable
restaurant.
With “I am hungry”, Mark is still in the process of changing the subject and is
therefore using high key.

‘Well, | ‘if you just turn around, | ‘behind you | ‘is a restaurant. ||
This was a little more challenging to interpret. I am unsure whether Alec says this in
a sarcastic manner. However, the unmarked proclaiming tone is used, indicating that
Alec really is sharing some kind of new information with Mark.

What do you want to ↑eat though? ||

The unmarked proclaiming tone is used. Alec is asking Mark for information
regarding Mark’s thoughts on where he would like to eat.
High key is used to mark a (new) subtopic.

What is ↑nice to eat around here? ||

Mark is not sure what or where exactly he would like to eat, so he asks Alec for more
information. The unmarked proclaiming tone is used.
Again, high key is used to keep the conversation moving.

Traditional Mosquito cui↑sine. || It’s the ↑best | you can i↑magine. || You want to
↑try it. || Check it ↑out.||
Here, in all five cases, the unmarked proclaiming tone is used. Mark does not know
that particular restaurant and what kind of food they serve (i.e. is not really familiar with
the local cuisine), so Alec goes on to share four new bits of information / advice.
In the first case, high key is used to mark a subtopic. Afterwards, high key is used
because Alec believes the information to be contrary to Mark’s beliefs.

[…]. || ‘What kind of foo-? ||

In this case, Mark is interrupted by Alec. However, I believe that the unmarked
proclaiming tone is used here regardless of the interruption. Marks asks a genuine
question which only Alec knows the answer to at that point in time.

↑Anything, you know. || ‘It’s all delicious. || […]? ||

Again, the unmarked proclaiming tone is used, because Alec is sharing his
information with Mark, who asked for the information in the first place.
High key is used to mark new subtopic.
 ‘You like to eat a bit of meat. ||
Here, the unmarked proclaiming tone is used again. Alec just interrupted Mark and
asked him if whether or not he likes to eat meat.

‘I eat anything. || I ↑like vegetable- ||

Mark would have been referring here, but the unmarked proclaiming tone is used
instead. This is because Alec interrupted him and Mark genuinely believes that this is still
new information for Alec.
With “I like vegetables”, Mark is using high key to mark slight shift in topics, but is
interrupted.

‘For the vegetarian or meat-eater. ‘They cater for everybody. ||

Unmarked proclaiming tone again. Alec is sharing what he considers new information
for Mark.

This place ↑here? ||

Unmarked proclaiming tone. Mark is making asking Alec a question, making sure
that this is the right place.
High key indicating new subtopic.

‘I’m going to go in. || ‘Thanks a ↑lot. ||

In both cases, the unmarked proclaiming tone is used, signalling new information. I
am unsure why Mark used high key with “Thanks a lot.” I would have expected mid key
to be used, but if I had to argue for the utterance-final key to be high, I would say that
Mark somewhat constrained Alec with this utterance.

‘Thanks a lot. || ‘Bye. ||

The unmarked proclaiming tone is used in both cases.

Proclaiming: Marked: Rise-fall

‘Alec. || ‘Mark. || ‘How are you? ||

The marked proclaiming rise-fall is used in this case. Other than signalling Mark’s
dominant role at this stage in the conversation, I am not quite sure why he did not use
the unmarked proclaiming tone.

‘I’ll try. ||
The marked proclaiming tone is this sentence signals that Alec is, at least for a little
while, much more involved and that he is willing to add new information to the common
ground.
 Alec using the marked tones means that, in this case, he is the dominant speaker
and has the option of choosing either marked or unmarked version of tones.
[…], | ‘if you just turn around, | […] | […]. ||
Again, this was a bit confusing. I am unsure whether Alec meant this sarcastically or
not. However, I do believe that he took the role of the dominant speaker here and used
the marked proclaiming tone.

‘Right, okay. || ‘Right, okay. ||

Here, Mark is using the marked proclaiming tone, meaning that new information is
being added to the common ground.

Referring: Unmarked: Fall-rise

‘No, | ‘I eat anythi-. ||

I am not completely sure here. I believe that I hear a unmarked referring fall-rise tone
with “No”, but I would instinctively say that it should be proclaiming, because Alec does
not yet know whether or not Mark is a vegetarian. Thus, Mark telling him “No” counts as
new information being presented. In this case, I would argue that Mark behaves against
expectations (referring when he should be proclaiming). I believe he does so in order to
avoid being overly assertive.

‘That is the place. ||

I would have to say that this, too, is an unmarked referring tone. However, I am
unsure of this. Perhaps I simply cannot hear the tone clearly, or I am overanalysing what
Praat is showing me. I will further discuss it in a separate section later on.

Referring: Marked: Rise

‘Okay. || ‘What kind of foo-? ||
Mark used marked referring tone here with “Okay.” This tone is used by speakers
who are dominant enough to, in our case, express insistence.

↑Anything, you know. || ‘It’s all delicious. || Are you a vege↑tarian? ||

Alec uses the marked referring tone with “vegeratian.” I believe Alec is
using the dominant referring tone here for Mark’s benefit. This is a “making sure”
enquiry.
“‘That is the place. ||
My gut instinct tells me that this is an unmarked referring
tone. However, I am unsure of this. Perhaps I simply cannot hear
the tone clearly, or I am overanalysing the what Praat is showing
me. I will analyse show this in a separate section later on.”

The word “place” in Praat

This follows Mark’s “This place here?” question, where the tone
was an unmarked proclaiming fall. Mark and Alec have discussed
said restaurant at an earlier point in the conversation, so I would
assume that this would be an unmarked referring tone. Alec
introduces a reference which is already part of the interaction.
However, Mark seems rather unsure when asking the question, so
an argument could be made for Alec using the unmarked
proclaiming tone in order to share his information with Mark who
does not know it. If I had to choose, I would go with the fall-rise.

The sentence “That is the place.” 

The marked section is the word

“place” again.