Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T12:42:03.177Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Linguistic change in intonation: The use of high rising terminals in New Zealand English

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

David Britain
David Britain
Affiliation:
Victoria University of Wellington
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article reports sociolinguistic research on linguistic change in an intonation feature of New Zealand English, namely, the use of high rising terminal contours (HRTs) in declarative clauses. Recorded interviews from 75 inhabitants of Porirua, a small city north of Wellington, were analyzed for the use of HRTs. The speaker sample was subdivided according to years of age (20–29, 40–49, 70–79), sex, ethnicity (Maori and Pakeha), and class (working and middle). The results show that linguistic change is in progress, the use of HRTs being favored by young Maori and by young Pakeha women. The results are explained in terms of the function of HRTs as positive politeness markers. The usefulness of the term “linguistic variable” in the analysis of intonational change and discourse features is assessed.

Type
Research Article
Information
Language Variation and Change , Volume 4 , Issue 1 , March 1992 , pp. 77 - 104
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1992

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allan, K. (1984). The component functions of the high rise terminal contour in Australian declarative sentences. Australian Journal of Linguistics 4:19–32.Google Scholar
Allan, S. (1990). The rise of New Zealand intonation. In Bell, A. & Holmes, J. (eds.), New Zealand ways of speaking English. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. 115–128.Google Scholar
Atkinson, J. (1984). Wrapped words: Poetry and politics among the Wana of Central Sulawesi, Indonesia. In Brenneis, D. & Myers, F. (eds.), Dangerous words: Language and politics in the Pacific. New York: New York University Press. 33–68.Google Scholar
Bauer, L. (1986). Notes on New Zealand English phonetics and phonology. English World-Wide 7:225–258.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bauer, L. (in press). The history of English in New Zealand. In Burchfield, R. (ed.), The Cambridge history of the English language: Volume 5. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bayard, D. (1987). Class and change in New Zealand English: A summary report. Te Reo 30:3–36.Google Scholar
Bayard, D. (1991). Social constraints on the phonology of New Zealand English. In Cheshire, J. (ed.), English around the world: Sociolinguistic perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 169–186.Google Scholar
Bell, A. (1984). Language style as audience design. Language in Society 13:145–204.Google Scholar
Bell, A. & Holmes, J. (eds.). (1990). New Zealand ways of speaking English. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Bell, A. & Holmes, J. (eds.). (1991). New Zealand. In Cheshire, J. (ed.), English around the world: Sociolinguistic perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 153–168.Google Scholar
Benton, R. (1966). Research into the English language difficulties of Maori schoolchildren: 1963–64. Wellington: Maori Education Foundation.Google Scholar
Benton, R. (1991). Maori English: A New Zealand myth? In Cheshire, J. (ed.), English around the world: Sociolinguistic perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 187–199.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Besnier, N. (1988). The linguistic relationships of spoken and written Nukulaelae registers. Language 64:707–736.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Besnier, N. (1989). Information withholding as a manipulative and collusive strategy in Nukulaelae gossip. Language in Society 18:315–341.Google Scholar
Billings, D. (1987). Expressive style and culture: Individualism and group orientation contrasted. Language in Society 16:475–497.Google Scholar
Brenneis, D. & Myers, F. (eds.). (1984). Dangerous words: Language and politics in the Pacific. New York: New York University Press.Google Scholar
Britain, D. (forthcoming). A pragmatic analysis of the use of high rising terminals in New Zealand English.Google Scholar
Brown, G., Currie, K. & Kenworthy, J. (1980). Questions of intonation. London: Croom Helm.Google Scholar
Brown, P. & Levinson, S. (1987). Politeness: Some universals in language use. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cheshire, J. (1987). Syntactic variation, the linguistic variable and Sociolinguistic theory. Linguistics 25:257–282.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ching, M. (1982). The question intonation in assertions. American Speech 57:95–107.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, H. & Wilkes-Gibbs, D. (1986). Referring as a collaborative process. Cognition 22:1–39.Google Scholar
Coates, J. (1986). Women, men and language. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Coates, J. (1988). Gossip revisited: Language in all female groups. In Coates, J. & Cameron, D. (eds.), Women in their speech communities. London: Longman. 94–121.Google Scholar
Coupland, N. (1988). Dialect in use. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.Google Scholar
Cruttenden, A. (1986). Intonation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Dines, E. (1980). Variation in discourse—“and stuff like that.” Language in Society 9:13–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duranti, A. (1981). The Samoan fono: A Sociolinguistic study. Canberra: Australian National University, Department of Linguistics.Google Scholar
Eckert, P. (1989). The whole woman: Sex and gender differences in variation. Language Variation and Change 1:245–268.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Edwards, V. & Sienkewicz, T. (1990). Oral cultures past and present: Rappin' and Homer. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Finnegan, R. (1988). Literacy and orality. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Geluyken, R. (1987). Intonation and speech act type. Journal of Pragmatics 11:483–494.Google Scholar
Gordon, E. & Deverson, A. (1985). New Zealand English: An introduction to New Zealand speech and usage. Auckland: Heinemann.Google Scholar
Graddol, D. & Swann, J. (1989). Gender voices. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Guy, G., Horvath, B., Vonwiller, J., Daisley, E. & Rogers, I. (1986). An intonation change in progress in Australian English. Language in Society 15:23–52.Google Scholar
Guy, G. & Vonwiller, J. (1984). The meaning of an intonation in Australian English. Australian Journal of Linguistics 4:1–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Halliday, M. (1967). Intonation and grammar in British English. The Hague: Mouton.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hasan, R. (1989). Semantic variation and sociolinguistics. Australian Journal of Linguistics 9:221–275.Google Scholar
Holmes, J. (1984). Hedging your bets and sitting on the fence: Some evidence for hedges as support structures. Te Reo 27:47–62.Google Scholar
Holmes, J. (1986). Functions of you know in women's and men's speech. Language in Society 15:1–21.Google Scholar
Holmes, J. (1990). Politeness strategies in New Zealand women's speech. In Bell, A. & Holmes, J. (eds.), New Zealand ways of speaking English. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. 252–275.Google Scholar
Holmes, J., Bell, A. & Boyce, M. (1991). Variation and change in New Zealand English: A social dialect investigation. Project Report to the Social Sciences Committee of the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology. Wellington: Victoria University of Wellington, Department of Linguistics.Google Scholar
Horvath, B. (1985). Variation in Australian English: The sociolects of Sydney. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Horvath, B. & Eggins, S. (1988). Opinion texts in conversation. Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
Ito, K. (1985). Affective bonds: Hawaiian interrelationships of self. In White, G. & Kirkpatrick, J. (eds.), Person, self and experience: Exploring Pacific ethnopsychologies. Berkeley: University of California Press. 301–327.Google Scholar
James, E., Mahut, C. & Latkiewicz, G. (1989). The investigation of an apparently new intonation pattern in Toronto English. Information Communication 10:11–17.Google Scholar
Jenkins, N. & Cheshire, J. (1990). Gender issues in the GCSE oral English examination: Part 1. Language and Education 4:1–27.Google Scholar
Kuiper, K. (1991). Sporting formulae in New Zealand English: Two models of male solidarity. In Cheshire, J. (ed.), English around the world: Sociolinguistic perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 200–212.Google Scholar
Labov, W. (1966). The social stratification of English in New York City. Washington DC: Center for Applied Linguistics.Google Scholar
Labov, W. (1972). Language in the inner city. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Labov, W. (1980). The social origins of sound change. In Labov, W. (ed.), Locating language in time and space. New York: Academic. 251–265.Google Scholar
Labov, W. (1990). The intersection of sex and social class in the course of linguistic change. Language Variation and Change 2:205–254.Google Scholar
Labov, W. & Waletzky, J. (1967). Narrative analysis: Oral versions of personal experience. In Helms, J. (ed.), Essays in the verbal and visual arts. Seattle: University of Washington Press. 12–44.Google Scholar
Lakoff, R. (1975). Language and woman's place. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Lavandera, B. (1978). Where does the sociolinguistic variable stop? Language in Society 7:171–183.Google Scholar
Linde, C. & Labov, W. (1975). Spatial networks as a site of language and thought. Language 51:924–939.Google Scholar
Lutz, C. (1985). Ethnopsychology compared to what? Explaining behaviour and consciousness among the Ifaluk. In White, G. & Kirkpatrick, J. (eds.), Person, self and experience: Exploring Pacific ethnopsychologies. Berkeley: University of California Press. 35–79.Google Scholar
Metge, J. & Kinloch, P. (1978). Talking past each other – Problems of cross-cultural communication. Wellington: Victoria University Press.Google Scholar
Meyerhoff, M. (1990). “Sounds pretty ethnic eh?”: A pragmatic particle in Porirua speech. Paper presented to the New Zealand Seminar on Language and Society,Victoria University,Wellington.Google Scholar
Meyerhoff, M. (1991). Grounding and overcoming obstacles: The positive politeness motivations of high rise terminals. Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
Milroy, L. (1980). Language and social networks. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Mitchell, A. & Delbridge, A. (1965). The speech of Australian adolescents. Sydney: Angus Robertson.Google Scholar
Rand, D. & Sankoff, D. (1988). Goldvarb: A variable rule application for the Macintosh. Montreal: Université de Montréal, Centre de Recherches Mathématiques.Google Scholar
Rohany, H. (1991). A comparative study of opinion giving strategies in British and Malaysian English. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Essex.Google Scholar
Salmond, A. (1975). Hui—A study of Maori ceremonial gatherings. Wellington: Reed.Google Scholar
Sankoff, D. (1988). Sociolinguistics and syntactic variation. In Newmeyer, F. (ed.), Linguistics: The Cambridge survey: Volume 4. Language: The socio-cultural context. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 241–259.Google Scholar
Schiffrin, D. (1990). The management of a co-operative self during argument: The role of opinions and stories. In Grimshaw, A. (ed.), Conflict talk. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 241–259.Google Scholar
Selting, M. (1988). The role of intonation in the organization of repair and problem handling sequences in conversation. Journal of Pragmatics 12:293–322.Google Scholar
Stubbe, M. (1991). Talking at cross purposes? The effect of gender on New Zealand primary schoolchildren's interaction strategies in pair discussions. M.A. thesis, Victoria University of Wellington.Google Scholar
Sweeney, A. (1987). A full hearing: Orality and literacy in the Malay world. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Tannen, D. (1989). Talking voices: Repetition, dialogue and imagery in conversational discourse. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Trudgill, P. (1986). Dialects in contact. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Turner, G. (1970). New Zealand English today. In Ramson, W. (ed.), English transported: Essays on Australasian English. Canberra: Australian National University Press. 84–101.Google Scholar
Watson-Gegeo, K., & White, G. (eds.). (1990). Disentangling: Conflict discourse in Pacific societies. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
White, G., & Kirkpatrick, J. (eds.). (1985). Person, self and experience: Exploring Pacific eth-nopsychologies. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
White, G., & Watson-Gegeo, K. (1990). Disentangling discourse. In Watson-Gegeo, K. & White, G. (eds.), Disentangling: Conflict discourse in Pacific societies. Stanford: Stanford University Press. 3–52.Google Scholar