Discourse Approach to Turn-taking

2.3.2

Tone

‘Tone’, as well as prominence, is dependent on the speaker’s choice in the existential

paradigm, essentially based on whether the utterance to be made would be common

ground (state of convergence) or ‘news’ to the listener (state of divergence). While

prominence is treated as an attribute of a word, tone assigns meaning to the whole of a

tone unit: it starts at the tonic syllable and continues to the end of a tone unit.

Table 2.1 compares the meaning of tone choice and their description. Tone choice is

between ‘referring tones’, ‘proclaiming tones’, and ‘a level tone’. A referring tone

indicates convergence between the participants: the speaker selects it when there is an

assumption that the meaning can be taken for granted by the listener, or when s/he

wishes to make sure about some information. A proclaiming tone indicates

divergence: the speaker selects it when the information is imagined to be new to the

listener, or when s/he wishes to make an inquiry. Referring and proclaiming tones

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have two versions respectively: a) a non-dominant fall-rise tone and a dominant rising

tone; and b) a non-dominant falling tone and a dominant rise-fall tone. What makes

the two versions meaningfully distinctive is the role-relationship in the context of

interaction. The dominant speaker has a choice of using either dominant or non-

dominant tone, but the non-dominant speaker has no such choice. In informal ‘social’

conversations, however, the speaker sometimes prefers a fall-rise tone to reduce

friction and to be friendly to the listener. In making inquiries beginning with ‘perhaps’

or ‘I wonder’, a falling tone is preferred to avoid an unpleasant atmosphere, not to

sound as though the speaker has already made an assumption about the reply (Brazil

1994a, 1994b).

While the orientation of referring tones and proclaiming tones is direct to the listener,

the orientation of the level tone is oblique (Brazil 1997: 132ff). Instead of taking a

listener-sensitive stance, selecting a level tone implies that the speaker is carefully

selecting words and taking time to put the language together, or is mentally preparing

for the next step. Therefore, a level tone tends to be followed by a pause. The

orientation of a level tone is towards the language rather than the message to be

conveyed.

Table 2.1: Five tones and their meanings

Orientation

Meaning

Description

Others

!" (fall-rise)

Referring

(convergence)

" (rising)

Dominant

! (falling)

Direct (towards the listener)

Proclaiming

(divergence)

"! (rise-fall) Dominant

Oblique (towards the language) Opt out

# (level)