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KMID : 0917520010080020149
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Journal of Speech Sciences
2001 Volume.8 No. 2 p.149 ~ p.163
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Edge Tones of English Conditional Clauses and an Intonational Contribution to Discourse Interpretation
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Abstract
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This paper investigates the manner in which various syntactic structures with h single meaning implement a consistent intonational pattern by examining English conditional clauses, In the phonetic experiment, we explore the edge tones in three different synthetic clauses which are semantically interpreted as a single´ conditional meaning (an if -clause, a clause with no if and a clause with no ~f but followed by and) and compare them with the edge tone realized in a clause which is not interpreted as a conditional meaning, we also investigate the tonal differences resulting from the semantic: difference between conditional and non-conditional meanings. That is, the conditional clauses expressed in three different syntactic structures show a consistent intonatidnal pattern in their clausefinal boundaries; a rising contour (H- or H) is realized at the edge of the intermediate phrases (ip) or intonational phrases (IP) in 89 of the if clauses, 7 of the clauses with no if, and 79 of the clauses with no tf but followed by and. On the other hand, 8 of the non-conditional clauses have a falling contour (L~ or L,-L) in their final edge. Statistically, Chi-Square tests show that these percentages are all significantly higher, which suggests that a conditional meaning implements a consistent intonationhl pattern though it is expressed through different syntactic structures. Therefore, the result supports Bolinger´s (1989) claim that intonation makes an important contribution to discourse interpretation.
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