The Interpersonal Function of Intonation in the Declarative Statements of the Spontaneous Speech of the Thamari Dialect of Yemeni Arabic: A Study Based on Halliday’s Approach
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.53286/arts.v7i3.2701Keywords:
Declarative Sentences, Intonational Pattern, Phonological Realization, Neutral Declarative SentenceAbstract
The main aim of this paper is to investigate the function of tones in construing neutral declarative statements, elicited in neutral contexts in the Thamari Dialect of Yemeni Arabic (DDYA), and then to contrast it with the intonational patterns of declarative statements construing surprise, and reservation, elicited in different contexts. This study examines these intonational patterns in the spontaneous speech within the Systemic Functional Linguistics framework (SFL). The system of tones is acoustically analyzed in this study by means of the PRAAT software program. Our main concern in this intonation system is to answer the question whether variant contexts trigger variant intonational patterns in the declarative Mood aspect of DDYA. The main criteria adopted to identify the marked and unmarked intonation pattern is the frequency of occurrence ratio. The intonational contour patterns are analyzed acoustically by eliciting the F0 contour on PRAAT. The data then is analyzed at different levels i.e. the phonological realizations of the intonation patterns, and the meanings and the speech functions they construe in the semantic level. Finally, in the statistical analysis, the data is grouped into two categories: congruent and incongruent patterns. The data showcases that two intonational approaches have been used by DDYA speakers to convey attitudinal expressions. While a Mid-Fall pattern is used to express facts of neutral mode, a Rise-Fall and a Fall-Rise patterns are used to convey surprise and reservation keys respectively.
Downloads
References
Al-Ani, S. H. (1970). Arabic phonology: An acoustical and physiological investigation. Walter De Gruyter Inc.
Al-Azzawi, M. B., Khalid, A. O., Mohammed, A. A., & Kanaan, A. R. (2023). Intonation in English and Arabic. In 2nd Students Conference (Department of English – Al-Noor University College). Al-Noor University College.
Alhafni, B., Mubarak, H., Chowdhury, S. A., & Darwish, K. (2024). Exploiting dialect identification in automatic dialectal text normalization. arXiv. https://arxiv.org/abs/2401.12345
Alharbi, L. M. (1991). Formal analysis of intonation: The case of the Kuwaiti dialect of Arabic [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. Heriot-Watt University.
Ali, N. A. (2000). A contrastive study of segmental and suprasegmental features of Arabic and English spoken in Yemen [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. Central Institute of English and Foreign Languages, Hyderabad.
Alkhairy, M. A. (2005). Acoustic characteristics of Arabic fricatives [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. Florida.
Alssuswa, A. (1984). لهجة ذمار: دراسة صوتية وصفية [Dhamari Dialect: A Descriptive Phonological Study] [Unpublished master's dissertation]. Cairo University, Egypt.
Arronte Álvarez, A., Issa, E. S. A., & Alshakhori, M. (2022). Computational modeling of intonation patterns in Arabic emotional speech. In Proceedings of Speech Prosody. Prosody, 615-619.
Bani Younes, M. (2020). The role of phonology in the disambiguation of disjunctive questions (Doctoral dissertation, University of York). University of York Research Database. https://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/27824/
Boersma, P., & Weenink, D. (2009). Praat: Doing phonetics by computer (Version 5.1.05) [Computer software]. Retrieved May 1, 2009.
Brazil, D. (1997). The communicative value of intonation in English. Cambridge University Press.
Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. (2008). (3rd ed.). Cambridge University Press.
Chejne, A. G. (1969). The Arabic language: Its role in history. University of Minnesota Press.
Eggins, S. (1994). An introduction to systemic functional linguistics. Pinter Publishers.
El Zarka, D. (2023). A configurational model of Egyptian Arabic intonation. Grazer Linguistische Studien, 94, 9-44. Https://doi.org/10.25364/04.49:2023.94.1
Halliday, M. A. (1970). A course in spoken English: Intonation. Oxford University Press.
Halliday, M. A. K., & Greaves, W. S. (2008). Intonation in the grammar of English. London: Equinox.
Halliday, M. A. K., & Matthiessen, C. M. (2004). An introduction to functional grammar (3rd ed.). Arnold.
Halliday, M., Matthiessen, C. M., & Matthiessen, C. (2014). An introduction to functional grammar (4th ed.). Routledge.
Hellmuth, S. (2006). Intonational pitch accent distribution in Egyptian Arabic (Doctoral dissertation, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London). SOAS University of London. https://doi.org/10.25501/SOAS.00028680
Hellmuth, S. (2014). Investigating variation in Arabic intonation: An analysis of two Egyptian Arabic dialects. In J. Schaub & C. R. C. Clahsen (Eds.), Variation in language: In honour of Professor Lesley Milroy (pp. 129–150). John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Helmy, S. (2018). An intonational study of Egyptian Colloquial Arabic (Doctoral dissertation, University of Salford). Salford University Research Explorer. https://usir.salford.ac.uk/id/eprint/48731/
Journal of Arabic Sociolinguistics. (2023). Arab linguistics, Arabic linguistics, and language ideology. Journal of Arabic Sociolinguistics. 1(1). 98-122. https://doi.org/10.3366/arabic.2023.0007
Kitchen, A., Ehret, C., Assefa, S., & Mulligan, C. J. (2009). Bayesian phylogenetic analysis of Semitic languages identifies an Early Bronze Age origin of Semitic in the Near East. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 276(1665), 2703–2710. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2009.0408
Ladd, D. R. (2008). Intonational phonology (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press.
Norlin, K. (1989). A preliminary description of Cairo Arabic intonation of statements and questions. Quarterly Progress and Status Report of the Speech Transmission Laboratory, 30(1), 47–49.
Rifaat, K. (ca. 2017). The intonation of Arabic. In Y. Suleiman (Ed.), The Cambridge handbook of Arabic linguistics (pp. [insert page range if known]). Cambridge University Press.
Saeed, I. N. (2024). The attitudinal functions of intonation in Moslui Arabic. Journal of Mosul Studies, 7(4), 88–105.
Singh, G. (2015). Systemic Functional Linguistics–The methodology of meaning. Research Journal of English Language and Literature, 3(4), 361.
Versteegh, K. (1997). The Arabic language. Columbia University Press.
Versteegh, K. (2022). Arabic as a Semitic language. Cambridge University Press.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Copyright and Licensing
copyright is retained by the authors. Articles are licensed under an open access Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 license, meaning that anyone may download and read the paper for free. In addition, the article may be reused and quoted provided that the original published version is cited. These conditions allow for maximum use and exposure of the work.
