Prosody in conversational questions

  • My analysis of question-word questions in conversational question-answer sequences results in the decomposition of the conversational question into three systems of constitutive cues, which signal and contextualize the particular activity type in conversational interaction: (1) syntactic structure, (2) semantic relation to prior turn, and (3) prosody. These components are used and combined by interlocutors to distinguish between different activity types which (4) sequentially implicate different types of answers by the recipient in the next turn. Prosody is only one cooccurring cue, but in some cases it is the only distinctive one. It is shown that prosody, and in particular intonation, cannot be determined or even systematically related to syntactic sentence structure type or other sentence-grammatical principles, as most former and current theories of intonation postulate. Instead, prosody is an independent, autonomous signalling system, which is used as a contextualization device for the constitution of interactively relevantMy analysis of question-word questions in conversational question-answer sequences results in the decomposition of the conversational question into three systems of constitutive cues, which signal and contextualize the particular activity type in conversational interaction: (1) syntactic structure, (2) semantic relation to prior turn, and (3) prosody. These components are used and combined by interlocutors to distinguish between different activity types which (4) sequentially implicate different types of answers by the recipient in the next turn. Prosody is only one cooccurring cue, but in some cases it is the only distinctive one. It is shown that prosody, and in particular intonation, cannot be determined or even systematically related to syntactic sentence structure type or other sentence-grammatical principles, as most former and current theories of intonation postulate. Instead, prosody is an independent, autonomous signalling system, which is used as a contextualization device for the constitution of interactively relevant activity types in conversation.show moreshow less

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Metadaten
Author details:Margret SeltingORCiDGND
URN:urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-36635
Publication series (Volume number):Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Philosophische Reihe (38)
Publication type:Postprint
Language:English
Publication year:1992
Publishing institution:Universität Potsdam
Release date:2010/03/15
Source:Journal of pragmatics. - 17 (1992) 4, S. 315-345, ISSN 0378-2166, DOI 10.1016/0378-2166(92)90014-3
Organizational units:Philosophische Fakultät / Institut für Germanistik
DDC classification:4 Sprache / 40 Sprache / 400 Sprache
License (German):License LogoKeine öffentliche Lizenz: Unter Urheberrechtsschutz
External remark:
The original publication is available at www.sciencedirect.com:
Journal of pragmatics. - 17 (1992) Issue 4, p. 315-345
ISSN 0378-2166
DOI 10.1016/0378-2166(92)90014-3
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