A Dialogue Act Analysis of Rises in Australian English Map

Task Dialogues

J. Fletcher, R. Wales, L. Stirling, I. Mushin

The major intonational tunes of AuE and BE/ AE are considered to be more or less identical.

Differences in dialect are due to differences in tune use.

Ex:

Statements in AuE are sometimes realized with a simple terminal high rise.

Claim: a high rise in AuE is used for both statements and yes/no questions

(whereas in BE it is only used for yes/no questions)

not phonologically identical

two kinds of rises (simple rises)

1. statement rise:starts relatively low and rises to a high level

2.question rise:starts relatively high and continues to rise

statement high rise

yes/no question rise

Another source of dialectal difference can be found in fall-rising tunes (complex rises):

1. low range fall-rise:

starts high, falls, rises again

2. high range fall-rise:

starts high, falls, rises well beyond the pitch level at the beginning

low range fall rise

high range fall rise

What functions do these fall-rises have in AuE?

In BE functions of fall-rises include attitudinal and semantic nuances like encouraging, doubtfulness, etc.

Eight dialogues from the ANDOSL Map Task were selected,

- annotated according to ToBi conventions

- coded for turns (turn = a stretch of talk), to see whether rises ocurred turn-finally or turn-medially.

The simple and complex rises were transcribed as follows:

high onset high rise: H*H-H% or L+H* H-H%

low onset high rise: L* H-H%

low rise: L*L-H%

low range fall rise: H*L- H%

high range fall rise: H*+ L H-H%

rise-fall-rise: L*+HL-H%

Dialogue acts were coded for “forward communicative functions“ and “backward communicative functions“

forward communicative functions:

statements, information requests, action directives

backward communicative functions:

agreement, understanding, answer

simple high rises:

- high onset high rises (H* H-H%) were associated with information requests (forward looking functions)

- low onset high rises (L* H-H%) were associated with action and statement directives, and backward communicative functions

complex rises:

- high range fall-rises (H*+L H-H%) were associated with forward communicative functions

- low range fall-rises (H* L-H%) were used for both forward and backward comm. functions, but never concluded information requests

The most frequent simple rise, the low onset high rise (L* H-H%) was associated with statements, instructions, action directives.

The rises in final position were associated with acknowledgements, answers.

Dialogue acts corresponding to information requests were realized as high onset high rises (H* H-H%)

The majority of these rises were turn-final.

high range fall-rises: were associated with same kind of forward communicative functions as low onset rises

low range fall-rises : often concluded the same kind of dialogue acts as low rises (answers, agreements, etc.)

In interactive dialogue (like the map Task) the cooperative function of rising intonation (esp. simple high rises with backward looking functions ,like answers and agreements) was emphasized.

The statement high rise has a continuative function. The task follower often used these rises to signal that they were expecting further instruction from the task leader.

The semantic differences of high and low onset rises are relatively clear, but the nuances of the fall-rises could not be clearly distinguished.

The high range fall- rises might sometimes imply speaker uncertainty, or polite softening.