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Chapter 16 - Aspects of Sentence Intonation in Black South African English

from III - Language Interfaces

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 November 2019

By
Sabine Zerbian
Edited by
Raymond Hickey
Raymond Hickey
Affiliation:
Universität Duisburg–Essen
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Summary

The present chapter provides a detailed look at intonation used for the marking of new and given information in Black South African English (BSAfE). Studies show that, when listening to English, speakers of BSAfE perceive differences in prosody and prominence. Prosodic cues in the signal lead to prosodic entrainment which facilitates processing in speakers of BSAfE. However, speakers/listeners do not show metalinguistic awareness of the prosodic cues nor are these actively produced in their own speech. The findings for intonational marking of information structure in BSAfE are framed by related observations for other varieties of English in order to locate the intonational features of BSAfE in the wider context of intonation in New Englishes. The observed changes in the intonation systems of many New Englishes point to a certain instability of focus prosody.

Keywords

Black South African Englishfocus prosodyprominenceintonationnew and given informationmetalinguistic awareness
Type
Chapter
Information
English in Multilingual South Africa
The Linguistics of Contact and Change
 , pp. 329 - 349
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

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