The Question Intonation of Malay Speakers of English

Chapter
First Online:
Part of the Prosody, Phonology and Phonetics book series (PRPHPH)

Abstract

The aim of this study is to explore the result of the contact between two systems of intonation in bilingual speakers. In particular, it explores possible cross-linguistic influence in the prosodic marking of English questions by speakers of Malay. Ten L1 Malay speakers and ten L1 Malay speakers of English participated in a Map Task, where they produced a total of 259 utterances that were classified as questions following Freed’s (1994) system. For each of them, their function, grammatical form and nuclear pitch accent were analysed. Results show that syntactically unmarked questions are produced significantly more frequently in the L2 English than in the L1 Malay. Moreover, the prosodic marking of questions by Malay speakers of English is systematic: questions consisting of a single word and yes–no questions with inversion have rising nuclei, wh-questions with an utterance-initial wh-word have falls, while wh-questions with an utterance-final wh-word have rises. This two-fold prosodic marking of wh-questions is argued to reflect indirect cross-linguistic influence.

Keywords

Pitch Movement Syntactic Form Tone Language Intonation Pattern External Question 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in to check access.

References

  1. Abdul Wahab, A. 1981. Suatu segi pandangan tentang tatabahasa, 4–12. Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa.Google Scholar
  2. Boersma, P., and D. Weenink. 2009. Praat: Doing phonetics by computer. http://www.praat.org. Accessed April 2013.
  3. Cole, P., and G. Hermon. 1998. The typology of Wh-Movement: Wh questions in Malay. Syntax 1:221–258.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  4. Freed, A. 1994. The form and function of questions in informal dyadic conversation. Journal of Pragmatics 21:621–644.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  5. Geluykens, R. 1988. On the myth of rising intonation in polar questions. Journal of Pragmatics 12:467–485.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  6. Goh, C. C. M. 1995. Intonation features of Singapore English. Teaching and Learning 15:25–37.Google Scholar
  7. Goh, C. C. M. 2001. Discourse intonation of English in Malaysia and Singapore: Implications for wider communication and teaching. LREC Journal 32:92–105.Google Scholar
  8. Govindan, I., and S. Pillai. 2009. English question forms used by young Malaysian Indians. The English Teacher 38:74–94.Google Scholar
  9. Gussenhoven, C. 2002. Intonation and interpretation: Phonetics and phonology. Proceedings of Speech Prosody 47–57, B. Bel and I. Marlien (eds), Aix-en-Provence: Université de Provence.Google Scholar
  10. Gut, U. 2005. Nigerian English prosody. English World-Wide 26:153–177.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  11. Gut, U. 2009. Non-native speech: a corpus-based analysis of phonological and phonetic properties of L2 English and German. Frankfurt a. M.: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
  12. Halliday, M. 1967. Intonation and grammar in British English. The Hague: Mouton.Google Scholar
  13. Halliday, M. A. K., and W. S. Greaves. 2008. Intonation in the grammar of English. London: Equinox.Google Scholar
  14. Hassan, A. 2005. Linguistik am. Kuala Lumpur: PTS Professional.Google Scholar
  15. He, X., V. van Heuven, and C. Gussenhoven. 2012. The selection of intonation contours by Chinese L2 speakers of Dutch: Orthographic closure vs. prosodic knowledge. Second Language Research 28 (3): 283–318.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  16. Hedberg, Nancy, and Juan Sosa. 2002. The prosody of questions in natural discourse. Proceedings of Speech Prosody 375–378.Google Scholar
  17. Hedberg, N., J. Sosa, and L. Fadden. 2004. Meanings and configurations of questions in English. Proceedings of Speech Prosody 309–312. Nara.Google Scholar
  18. Hewings, M. 1995. Tone choice in the English intonation of non-native speakers. International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching 33 (3): 251–266.Google Scholar
  19. Hirschberg, J. 2000. A corpus-based approach to the study of speaking style. In Prosody: Theory and experiment, ed. M. Horne, 271–311. Dordrecht: Kluwer.Google Scholar
  20. Hirst, D., and A. Di Cristo, eds. 1998. Intonation systems. A survey of twenty languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
  21. Kader, M. B. H. 1981. The syntax of Malay interrogatives. Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka.Google Scholar
  22. Kow, Y. C. K. 1995. It is a tag question, isn’t it? The English Teacher 24:44–59.Google Scholar
  23. Krifka, M. 2007. Basic notions of information structure. In Interdisciplinary Studies on Information Structure 6, eds. C. Féry, G. Fanselow, and M. Krifka, 13–55. Potsdam: Universitätsverlag.Google Scholar
  24. Ladd, R. 1996. Intonational phonology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
  25. Lim, L. 2002. Ethnic group differences aligned? Intonation patterns of Chinese, Indian and Malay Singaporean English. In The English language in Singapore: Research on pronunciation, eds. A. Brown, D. Deterding, and L. Ee-Ling, 10–21. Singapore: Singapore Association for Applied Lingustics.Google Scholar
  26. Lim, L. 2009. Some new Englishes as tone languages? In Special issue on The typology of Asian Englishes. English World-Wide. 2nd ed. 30 vol., eds. L. Lim and G. N. Gisborne, 218–239.Google Scholar
  27. Mindt, I. 2001. Intonation im Lancaster/IBM Spoken English Corpus. Tübingen: Narr.Google Scholar
  28. O’Connor, J., and G. Arnold. 1973. Intonation of colloquial English. 2nd ed. London: Longman.Google Scholar
  29. Omar, A., and R. Subbiah. 1995. An introduction to Malay grammar. Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka.Google Scholar
  30. Ramirez Verdugo, D. 2002. Non-native interlanguage intonation systems: A study based on a computerized corpus of Spanish learners of English. ICAME Journal 26:115–132.Google Scholar
  31. Stoel, R. 2005. Focus in Manado Malay: Grammar, particles, and intonation. Leiden: CNWS Publications.Google Scholar
  32. Wells, J. 2006. English intonation, an introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
  33. Wennerstrom, A. 1994. Intonational meaning in English discourse: A study of non-native speakers. Applied Linguistics 15: 399–420.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  34. Wichmann, A. 2000. Intonation in text and discourse. London: Longman.Google Scholar
  35. Williams, J. 1990. Another look at yes/no questions: Native speakers and non-native speakers. Applied Linguistics 11 (2): 159–182.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Copyright information

© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2015

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Universität MünsterMünsterGermany
  2. 2.University of MalayaKuala LumpurMalaysia

Personalised recommendations