Creaky fillers and speaker attitude: data from Swedish
Horne, Merle LU
(2009)
8.
p.277-288
- Abstract
- 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... (More) - 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. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/1464387
- author
- Horne, Merle
LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2009
- type
- Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- uncertainty, speaker attitude, creak, Filler, intonation
- host publication
- Where prosody meets pragmatics: research at the interface
- editor
- Barth-Weingarten, Dagmar ; Déhé, Nicole and Wichmann, Anne
- volume
- 8
- pages
- 277 - 288
- publisher
- Emerald Group Publishing Limited
- external identifiers
-
- other:E-ISBN: 9789004253223
- scopus:84949455841
- ISBN
- 978-1-84950-631-1
- 1750-368X (Series)
- DOI
- 10.1163/9789004253223_013
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- additional info
- The information about affiliations in this record was updated in December 2015. The record was previously connected to the following departments: Linguistics and Phonetics (015010003)
- id
- 1c39a955-cd87-4cda-adc8-fc926114f8ca (old id 1464387)
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-04 11:48:34
- date last changed
- 2023-09-06 12:00:24
@inbook{1c39a955-cd87-4cda-adc8-fc926114f8ca,
abstract = {{Spontaneous data from Swedish are presented which suggest that ‘creaky<br/><br>
voice’ associated with the filler EH ‘UH’ is related to the realization of the<br/><br>
speaker attitude ‘uncertainty’ in the sense of ‘indecisiveness’ as regards the<br/><br>
optimal way to linguistically code referents and predicates. It is suggested<br/><br>
that creaky fillers express a certain degree of speaker indecisiveness as<br/><br>
regards the most relevant way in which to express the content of a<br/><br>
proposition. The idea follows from the assumption of the existence of an<br/><br>
’accessability hierarchy’ (Ariel, 1988) that constrains the way information is<br/><br>
coded in relation to the assumed background knowledge of conversational<br/><br>
partners.<br/><br>
By comparing three different phonetic realizations of EH, it was observed<br/><br>
that creaky EH occurred in contexts that non-creaky realizations of EH did<br/><br>
not; non-creaky fillers appeared to be more related to non-interactional<br/><br>
features, i.e. prominence marking on the one hand, and discourse segment<br/><br>
boundary marking on the other hand.<br/><br>
It is suggested that the considerable drop in fundamental frequency<br/><br>
(pitch) associated with creaky EH could create an intonational mismatch<br/><br>
with respect to the preceding discourse. The intonational clash could signal<br/><br>
by means of pragmatic inference, an attitude of uncertainty.<br/><br>
The assumed attitude of uncertanity associated with creaky fillers is<br/><br>
supported by the fact that other interactional devices are sometimes present<br/><br>
in utterances containing creaky EH, e.g. liksom ‘like’, a pragmatic particle<br/><br>
associated with uncertainty as well as to politeness.<br/><br>
In order to strengthen the ideas presented here, however, more extensive<br/><br>
data need to be analysed.}},
author = {{Horne, Merle}},
booktitle = {{Where prosody meets pragmatics: research at the interface}},
editor = {{Barth-Weingarten, Dagmar and Déhé, Nicole and Wichmann, Anne}},
isbn = {{978-1-84950-631-1}},
keywords = {{uncertainty; speaker attitude; creak; Filler; intonation}},
language = {{eng}},
pages = {{277--288}},
publisher = {{Emerald Group Publishing Limited}},
title = {{Creaky fillers and speaker attitude: data from Swedish}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/9789004253223_013}},
doi = {{10.1163/9789004253223_013}},
volume = {{8}},
year = {{2009}},
}