I am very interested in a trend I have seen of persons speaking the English
language to habitually add a rising intonation/question inflection to
sentences that are NOT questions. Can anyone lead me to research/information
about this phenomenon. I have taught phonetics and it is a problem when
teaching stress patterns for understanding appropriate prosody and for
understanding when to use the unstressed schwa or schwar because the rising
pitch adds stress. I ALWAYS have to tell many students when they respond to
a question in class, "Don't ask me. Tell me." Some can't. I get up on my
toes and say, "Tell me" as I lower myself. I've always attributed it to the
uncertainty if the answer is correct or not - they are actually "asking" not
"telling." I've also wondered if it is more common in female speech than in
male speech?
Thank you for any information you are able to share.
Judy Kuster
|