A Study On Intonation As A Means Of Conveying Deontic Modality In English.pdf

Viet nam National University, Hanoi college of foreign languages postgraduate department nguyÔn thÞ hång tuyªn A study on Intonation as a means of conveying deontic modality in English Nghiªn cøu vÒ n[.]

Viet nam National University, Hanoi college of foreign languages postgraduate department nguyễn thị hồng tuyên A study on Intonation as a means of conveying deontic modality in English Nghiªn cøu ngữ điệu nh- ph-ơng tiện biểu đạt tình th¸i tr¸ch nhiƯm tiÕng Anh M.A minor thesis Field: English Linguistics Code: 60.22.15 Hanoi-2009 Viet nam National University, Hanoi college of foreign languages postgraduate department nguyễn thị hồng tuyên A study on Intonation as a means of conveying deontic modality in English Nghiên cứu ngữ điệu nh- ph-ơng tiện biểu đạt tình thái trách nhiệm tiếng Anh M.A minor thesis Field: English Linguistics Code: 60.22.15 Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr Võ Đại Quang Hanoi-2009 Viet nam National University, Hanoi college of foreign languages postgraduate department ngun thÞ hång tuyªn A study on Intonation as a means of conveying deontic modality in English Nghiên cứu ngữ điệu nh- ph-ơng tiện biểu đạt tình thái trách nhiệm tiÕng Anh M.A minor thesis Field: English Linguistics Code: 60.22.15 Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr Võ Đại Quang Hanoi-2009 Part I: Introduction Rationale: In the process of learning English, a large number of learners recognize that intonation is one of the most important issues and as the backbone of English It not only causes difficulties for the speaker himself but also for the listener Since English intonation is considered as one of the most important matter and as the backbone of English, there have been a lot of opinions about this topic In J P.O’ Connor’s opinion, the words themselves are unchangeable in expressing meaning but they are enriched in the process of using tunes What enriches the words is the speaker’s feelings at that moment and this way of using tunes is called intonation Here the phonetician wanted to emphasize the important role of tunes in English because the speaker can use it to express his state, he can say it definitely or hesitantly or sometimes he can say it with interest or without interest According to Barbara Randford (1988), expressing oneself and understanding other people are two of the most necessary goals for foreign language learners in general and for English language learners in particular In order to achieve two main goals successfully we must know how to master English intonation effectively It is the best way for us to express our attitudes, feelings, emotion while we are speaking On the other hand, it is helpful for us to understand other people’s feelings, emotion in their specch so that we can lead our talks to the result full of success and intelligibility Furthermore, intonation helps us to focus on the most considerable things to speak or express This make our talks more interesting and we feel more confident when we speak in public or in a crowd With the wrong use of intonation, our speeches may be broken because the listeners not understand what are the goals of our speeches More seriously, in some cases they are not patient enough to pay attention to us and they may try to find the way to stop our conversations as soon as possible In our everyday lives, much of our time is spent for communication with other people and in our communication, we not only exchange facts but also express our emotions and attitudes, or in other words we express modality.Thus, to study modality in general and investigate how much a speaker commits to what he says in particular is very interesting and essential Modality gained much populaity among linguists According to Halliday (1985: 86), modality is “an expression of the speaker’s opinion” towards the content of what he is saying, whether he considers it is possible, probable, certain, etc For Lyon (1997), a speaker’s qualification of his commitment to the truth of his/her proposition becomes an important issue Besides, the study of modality has spawned innumerable academic papers, namely Bybee (1985), Palmer (1986) and others In Vietnam, Hoàng Phê (1984) and Đỗ Hữu Châu (1989) have studied on Vietnamese modal system and there have been a number of English-written M.A theses on this issue, for example: Modality and Modal Auxiliaries: A systematic Comparision of English and Vietnamese by Đỗ HữHuyến (1996); Modality in English by Hoµng Thu Giang (2001); A Contrastive analysis of modal meanings expressed via Must, Should, Have to in English and the equivalent in Vietnamese by Phạm Thị Mai Anh (2005) Indeed, learning to express and interpret modality is very difficult, particularly for learners of English as a foreign language The learners’ failure in the understanding of the modal meanings has already prevented the from getting the goals of communication As a learner and a teacher of English as a foreign language the writer has realized the importance of researching intonation as a means of conveying modality, specificly on deontic modality to get the success in communicating goals It is the reason the writer would like to choose Intonation as a means of conveying deontic modality in English as the subject for this thesis with the hopes that the research can serve as a very small contribution to liguistic studies and also to teaching and learning English as a foreign language In addition, suggestions and pedagogical implications of this study can be utilized to aid teachers of English and learners of Enlish at Hoa Lu University in Ninh Binh province in the process of studying and learning English because in the school year of 2009-2010, the first English majored students will be trained to become junior secondary teachers of English for Ninh Binh Province Aims of the study: The study is aimed at:  providing as exhaustive as possible a description of the basic tunes in English and English deontic modality in terms of forms, functions, features and meanings  giving systematic description of two semantic features: obligation and permission as subtypes of deontic modality in English and studying the four basic tunes in English as a means of conveying those two semantic features  finding mistakes commonly made by Vietnamese learners in using Intonation as a means of conveying deontic modality  offering some suggestions on possible solutions to these mistakes and implications on teaching intonation as a means of conveying deontic modality Scope of the study It would be ideal for the thesis to study on intonation as a means of conveying both deontic modality and epistemic modality However, since the limitation of time , knowledge and the aims of the study the writer focuses on Intonation as a means of conveying deontic modality, more specificly, the four basic tunes in English as a means of conveying obligation and permission in deontic modality Method of the study In order to achieve the goal set from the beginning, a number of books and studies in the field of intonation and modality were collected and then studied thoroughly to set up the theoretical framework for the intonation and as well for the deontic modality.The study was classified mainly based on the basic tunes in English by J.D.OConnor (1991) and by Assoc Prof Dr Võ Đại Quang in “Lecture on Principles of Phonetics and Phonology” (2008), “Nghiªn cứu số ph-ơng tiện biểu đạt nghĩa tình thái câu - phát ngôn tiếng Anh tiếng Việt- (“Th«ng Tin Khoa Häc”, Sè 3-2008) About Modality, the study was mostly based on the opinion of Palmer (1986) And a combination of different methods of analysis will be used in this study: The first is the discriptive method Basic tunes in English and semantic features of deontic modality will be described in turns to find out how intonation can convey deontic modality Secondly, an investigation was made into the intonation and the deontic modality in order to find out the commonest mistakes made by Vietnamese learners when studying intonation as a means of conveying deontic modality by recording, interviewing, discussing with the Vietnamese learners of English Finally, a thorough analysis on the results of the study was made to give the suggestions and implications on teaching English intonation as a means of conveying deontic modality Design of the study This study is designed in three parts: Part is the Introduction: this part includes the rationale, scope, aims, methodology and design of the study Part is the Development: This is the main part of the study and is divided into three main Chapters Chapter One is dealt with the general theoretical concepts involving the subject under consideration Chapter Two discusses the intonation as a means of conveying deontic modality in English Chapter Three focuses on a number of mistakes existed on the process of studying English intonation, especially conveying deontic modality Part is the Conclusion: This part lays out the findings of the study, draws important conclusions and suggests implications of teaching and learning English as a foreign language and suggestions for further research are also presented Part II: Development Chapter 1: Theoretical background 1 Intonation in English 1.1.1 Definitions of English intonation English Intonation is a very important and difficult matter in the process of learning, studying and teaching English There are a number of lingustists have given the definitions of intonation In “Oxford Advanced Learner’s Encyclopedic Dictionary”, 1992, Oxford University Press, intonation is defined as: “the rise or fall of the pitch of the voice in speaking, especially as this aspects the meaning of what is said: intonation patterns.” According to the definition of Paul Tench (1996), the lingusitic use of pitch in untterances can be called intonation In his definition, two things are clearly classified Firstly, he specifies “pitch” as the essence of intonation Secondly, the definition futher specifies the concern between intonation and utterances Barbara Bradford (1988) defined Intonation is a feature of the spoken language It consists of the continuous changing of the pitch of a speaker’s voice to express meanings The author specified that people can mean different things by using the same group of words, arranged in the same oeder, but saying them in different ways J.D O’Connor (1967) mentioned to the different attitudes of expressing a word group, it can be said definitely or hesitantly, angrily or kindly, with interest or without interest, “and these differences are largely made by the tunes we use: the words not change their meaning but the tune we use adds something to the words, and what it adds is the spesker’s feelings at that moment; this way of using tunes is called intonation.” Here the phonetician wanted to emphasize the important role of tunes in English and a necessary study about the shapes as well as the meanings of tunes in English For Peter Roach (1983), “no definition is completely satisfactory but any attempt at a definition must recognize that the pitch of the voice plays the most important part Only in very unusual situations we speak with fixed, unvarying pitch and when we speak normally the pitch of our voice is constantly changing.” In sum, all the above mentioned definitions have mentioned intonation is the change of the pitch of the voice in speaking 1.1.2 Functions of English Intonation 1.1.2.1 Grammatical function According to Peter Roach (1983), with the help of intonation the listener can recognize the grammar and syntactic structure of what being said More clearly, the listener is better able to realize the placement of boundaries between phrases, clauses or sentences, the difference between questions and statements and the use of grammatical subordination may be indicated Look at a typical example by Peter Roach (1983): “ Those who sold quickly mame a profit." This can be expressed in at least two different ways: a/ Those who sold quickly mame a profit b/ Those who sold / quickly made a profit We can see the placement of tone-unit boundary causes the difference in the above example Besides, consider two different paraphrases of the sentences: a A profit was made by those who sold quickly b A profit was quickly made by those who sold With this function, we are easy to clarify the different types of sentences, they can be the declaratives, the interrogatives, the exclamatives, the requests, etc For example, if the speaker use the falling tune (or in the lower pitch) at the end of the statement sentence, the listener can realize that is the declarative But if the speaker use the rising tune (or raise voice) at the end of the utterance, the listener can understand that is the interrogative, even that is incomplete utterance and the expecting answer for the utterance is “Yes/ No” For example: She is Peter's wife (falling tune at the end of the utterance, and this sentence plays a role in providing the listener with the information that: that woman is Peter’s wife.) She is Peter's wife (raising tune at the end of the utterance, and this sentence can be understand as a question: She is Peter’s wife?) In short, with the grammatical function, sentences can be divided into different spoken purposes Each kind of sentence has a suitable kind of intonation So we can conclude that intonation plays an important role in expressing the grammatical meaning of a sentence 1.1.2.2 Attitudinal Function This function is probably the most familar With attitudinal function, the speaker can express their feelings, attitudes while speaking It helps to transfer a special meaning in questioning and answering It corresponds most clearly to the observation “Not what they said but the way they said it.” (Paul Tench-1996) Here, Paul Tench wanted to emphasize the term: “the way they said it”, that conveys the mood of the speaker or his attitude shown to the addressee Moreover, the speaker can give a message with different ways depending on the his states of emotion A message can be given politely, angrily, grumpily, warmly and so on Specifically: - The Glide-down: cofirming in categoric statement or expressing a forceful agreement from the questionner in tag question - The Dive: expressing the hesitation, uncertainty, sarcasm - The Take-off: expressing the anger, annoyance - The Glide-up: tranfering the interrogative meanings The great importance of attitudinal function of English intonation is undeniable If a person who has a dull voice with neither rises or falls sounds like a dull person, but one who can express that he is bored, indignant, friendly or angry and so on by using different pitches of his voice can have greatly good impression on the listener Unless the learners of English learn the appropriate way to use this function of intonation in a given situation, he will be facing with a great risk that the listener does not understand his attitude or emotion expressed in the sentence, for example, in his talk, he would like to express his bored or unhappy state but with wrong intonation he seems to be expressing a very happy mood This misleading view of intonation must have caused unnecessary anxiety to many learners of English Therefore, it is very necessary to learn this function of intonation thoroughly 1.1.2.3 Discourse function Looking at the larger context of speech, we can see that intonation helps the listener to identify the given information as well as the new information In conversation, intonation can convey to the listener what kind response is expected We call the above functions are intonation’s discourse function 10 Example: Tenpence Definitely + When there is more than one important word in the group: Example: What was the matter with that? + In group with more than three important words: Example: How can I possibly pay him two hundred pounds? + Unstressed syllables before the stressed syllable of the first important word: Example: I was very glad + Any stressed syllable near the beginning: Example: I taught him all I know - Functions: + We use the Glide - down for statements whichs are complete and definite Example: I ' wouldn't 'mind 'seeing it a gain + We use the Glide - down for Wh - question: Example: 'Why did you 'change your mind? + We use the Glide - down for short questions used as responses: Example: (I went to cinema last night) Did you? + We use the Glide - down to seek for agreemen in question - tag; Example: It's cold today, isn't it? (Forcing the answer "yes") + We use the Glide - down for strong commands: Example: ' Come and ' have dinner with us! + We use the Glide - down for strong exclamations: Example: ' Good Heavens! 11 1.1.3.2 The glide - up (The First Rising Tune) - Form: - Intonation marking: ( ) - Description: The Rising Tune is just like the Falling except that it ends with a rise on the voice + On one syllable Example: Two Eight + The stressed syllable of the last important word is low: Example: Are you married? + The stressed syllable of the last important word is low: Example: Have you posted it to him? - Functions: + We use the Glide - up for statement intended to be soothing: Example: I shan't be long + We use the Glide - up if the statement is intended as a question: Fof example: You love him? + We use the Glide - up if we want WH - question to show as much interest in the other person as the subject Example: 'How's your daughter? + With yes/no question, we use the glide - up: Example: 'Can I see it? + We use the Glide - up for greeting and saying good - bye: Example: 'Good morning + For exclamations which refer to something not very exciting or unexpected: 12 Example: Thank you 1.1.3.3 The take - off (The second Risng Tune) - Form: - Intonation marking: ( ) - Description: The Take - off also ends with the rise like the Glide - up but any words and syllables before the rise are low: Example: I was only trying to help him with it + All the syllables before the rise are said on the same low pitch as the beginning of the rise: Example: You didn't really hurt yourself - Functions:+ We use the Take - off for a grumble: Example: You can't ' ' possibly that (you ought to know bettr) ' ' + For repetition questions or repeating some information: Example: Where did you last night? Where did ' ' I + For tag questions after commands: Example: 'Come over ' go last ' night? here, will you? + For tag question with both statement and the tag - question have "not" or don't have "not" Example: You liked it, did you? + When you don't want the other person to agree with you, but to give his opinion: Example: You are 'coming to tea with us, + For exclamations which are questioning Example: Really? Oh? aren't you? 13 1.1.3.4 The Dive (The Falling - Rising tune) - Form: (V ) - Intonation marking: - Description: + On one syllable: Example: Why? + On several syllables: Example: Seventy of them + Words or syllables before the fall are said in the same way as for the glide - down and glide - up: Example: I may be able to come on Monday - Functions: + If the statement is not complete but leading to a following word group, we use the Dive: When'ever he 'come to Vvisit us (he tries to borrow money) Example: + For statements which show seservations on the part of the speaker we use the Dive: I could 'take you 'there Vtomorrow (but not to day) Exaple: or: It 'wasn't a 'very 'nice 'thing to Vdo (you must admit) + For the statement whichs is a correction of what someone has said, we use the Dive: Example: (I like him a lot) You used to like him + For statement which is a warning, we use the dive: Example: You 'musn't shake it too much + If the statement which has two parts, of which the first one is more important to the meaning than the second, we use the Dive? 14 Example: You can keep it if you really want it + If you want the command to sound like a pleading request, we use the Dive: Example: Send it as soon as you can 1.1.4 Summary In this part, the writer has given a systematical presentation of a number of concepts on intonation in English from different linguists, its four main functions, and its four basic tunes with the clear description on the view of J.D.O’ Connor paving the way for the discussion in the next chapter 1.2 Modality in English 1.2.1 Definitions of Modality In English language, modality has been a clear reflection of its key role and seems to be essentially subjective, i.e it refers to the speaker’s opinion or attitude It can be easily understandable because in everyday conversations and in different contexts, all utterances show the purpose, attitude or assessement of the speaker Viewing from a speaker’sevaluation approach, Keifer (1997) stated that modality is “the speaker’s cognitive, emotive, or volitive attitude toward a state of affairs” Palmer (1986) defines modality as semantic information associated with the speaker’s attitude or opinion about what is said Bybee (1985) gives a broader definition: what the speaker is doing with the whole proposition To some extent, both of those liguists have the same views on modality that concerns entire statements, not just events or entities, and its domain is the whole expression at truth-functional level In Lyons (1977), modality is said to be the speaker’s opinion or attitude towards “the proposition that the sentence expresses or the situation that the proposition describes” And for Frawley (1992), modality semantically reflects a speaker’s attitude or degrees of awareness of the content of a proposition In sum, all the above-mentioned definitions show that those linguists have one thing in common seeing that modality describes the speaker’s attitude or judgement toward the proposition and not the proposition itself The notional content of modality hightlights its association with entire statements Modality concerns the factual status of information, it signals the relative actuality, validity, or believability of the content of an expression 15 Modality affects the overall assertability and thus takes the entire proposition with its scope 1.2.2 Types of Modality in English Not all linguists agree with one another about the types of modality They have different classifications of types of modality However, most of them have the same idea about two main kinds of modality: (a) to comment on and evaluate an interpretation of reality (b) to intervene in and bring about changes in events Therefore, a number of ideas of different linguists on types of modality can be considered as follow: Von Wright (1951) in “studying modal logic” distinguishes four types of modality: a) the Alethic modes b) the Epistemic modes c) the Deontic modes d) the Existential modes An important thing here is the distinction between two types of modality: the Epistemic and the Deontic It can be illustrated for clearer understandings in the following examples: a1: John may be there by now a2: You may come in now b1: John must be there by now b2: You must come in by now May, in general, expresses “possibility” but in a2 may expresses “permission” Similarly to the use of must, in b1 must expresses possibility but in b2 refers to obligation Therefore, may in a1 and must in b1 express the Epistemis modes and may in a2 and must in b2 refer to the Deontic modes Two types of modality mentioned here are considered the most important and popular in different languages Thus, most of modality researchers later have mentioned and analysed N Rescher (1968) in “Topics in Philosophical logic” refers to a system of types of modality Apart from: the Alethic, the Epistemic, the Deontic, the Existential, he has mentioned to other five ones: the Temporal, the Boulomaic, the Evaluative, the Causual and the Conditional 16 John Lyons (1977) distinguishes “Epistemic Modality” from “Deontic Modality” In his opinion, Epistemic modality is concered with the matters of knowledge and belief, and Deontic modality, on the other hand, concerned with the necessity or possibility of acts performed by morally responsible agent Palmer (1990) also distinguishes “Epistemic Modality” from “Deontic Modality” in which Epistemic modality is refered to the speaker’s relation to propositions and Deontic modality is concerned with the his active relation to events In short, with the opinions of different linguists on the types of modality, two types of modality: Deontic and Epistemic, are the most popular and they are also taken into consideration in the following parts 1.2.2.1 Epistemic Modality In general understanding, epistemic modality is concerned with belief, truth, knowledge, etc, in relation to proposition by others or by the speaker himself In the process of researching about epistemic modality, there also exists alot of point of views on this problem Keifer and Lyons (1977) share the same idea that Epistemic modality is “concerned with matters of knowledge and belief” Lew (1997) points out that epistemic modality “modifies the truth of a semantic proposition” For Coates (1983), epistemic modality is “concerned with the speaker’s assumptions or assessment of possibilities and, in most cases, indicates the speaker’s confidence (or lack of confidence) in the truth of the proposition” Bybee and Fleischman (1995) state that “Epistemic are clausal- scope indicators of a speaker’s commitment to the truth of a proposition” Palmer (1990) gives a simple and more comprehensible definition: “Epistemic modality indicates the degree of commitment by the speaker to what he says” In his opinion, epistemics can be interpreted as showing the status of the speaker’s understanding or knowledge which included both his own judgements and the evidential he has for what he says Epistemic modality is a very interesting aspect, however, within the scope of this study, it will not be explored any further 1.2.2.2 Deontic Modality 17 The term “Deontic” comes from a Greek word relating to the imposition of obligations (Lyons- 1995) Mentioning to the deontic modality, there are also a lot of definitions of different linguists Palmer (1990) states that deontic modality is concerned with “influencing actions, states or events” Lyons, Von Wright, cited in Palmer (1986: 18) defines “Deontic modality which is concerned with the necessity or possibility of acts performed by morally responsible agents” Nuyts (2001) states that “Deontic modality is an evaluation of the moral acceptability, desirability or necessity of a state of affairs, i.e it crucially involves notions such as allowance, permission and obligation” According to Lew (1977) also has the same idea that deontic modality “involves the issuing of directives and is associated with notions of such as permission or obligation” Linguistically, these two main meanings of deontic modality are the basis to define prohibition and exemption in which the former means being obliged not to something and the later means permitting not to something The following examples illustrate the types of meaning of deontic modality: Obligation: You must leave now Prohibition: You mustn't leave now Permission: You may leave now Exemption: You may not leave now Some types of deontic modality, in the wide sense, are often expressed in lexical verbs For example: the verbs of hoping and wishing in English, as in: I hope you will come I wish you would come In sum, the concepts of deontic modality are different according to different liguists’ viewpoints The features of deontic modality can be interpreted into: Lexical, Semantic and Pragmatic However, all the mentioned concepts come into two basis semantic categories of deontic modality: Obligation and Permission Within the scope of this study, the writer would like to study those two semantic categories by the use of the modal verbs in the next part 1.2.3 Deontic Modality ... focuses on Intonation as a means of conveying deontic modality, more specificly, the four basic tunes in English as a means of conveying obligation and permission in deontic modality Method of the study. .. studying the four basic tunes in English as a means of conveying those two semantic features  finding mistakes commonly made by Vietnamese learners in using Intonation as a means of conveying. .. semantic features of deontic modality will be described in turns to find out how intonation can convey deontic modality Secondly, an investigation was made into the intonation and the deontic modality