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Terminal Rise and Rise-fall Tunes in East Norwegian Intonation*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 December 2008

Thorstein Fretheim  and
Randi Alice Nilsen
Thorstein Fretheim
Affiliation:
Department of Linguistics, University of Trondheim, N-7055 Dragvoll, Norway
Randi Alice Nilsen
Affiliation:
Department of Linguistics, University of Trondheim, N-7055 Dragvoll, Norway
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Abstract

This paper argues that there is a phonological opposition between falling and non-falling utterance-terminal tunes in East Norwegian intonation. East Norwegian intonational foci are characterized by a rising pitch movement and there is no way that you can raise the pitch even further to express “rising intonation”. What you obtain instead is a distinction between a focal rise followed by a terminal fall in pitch and a focal rise without a subsequent falling terminal. The falling vs. non-falling terminal contrast is utilized differently in Intonation Units (IUs) with just one Intonational Phrase (IP) than in IUs with more than one Intonational Phrase. In the former type of IU structure a falling terminal constrains the illocutionary potential of the communicative act; in the latter type the falling terminal adds an attitudinal bias, without constraining the illocutionary potential. While most non-falling and falling terminals in connected discourse can ultimately be related to the difference between “openness” and “finality”, respectively, this intonational contrast is shown to have a seemingly quite different function in imperatives.

Type
Research Article
Information
Nordic Journal of Linguistics , Volume 12 , Issue 2 , December 1989 , pp. 155 - 181
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1989

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References

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