Intonations of 'What(!)(?)'

Conversation started Jul 28, 2015 at 22:06.

Damkerng T.

Jul 28, 2015 22:06

Ah, yes! I just recalled that I had heard "What?" in downstep today.

Anonymous

Language is redundant, and we have lots of different features to signal structure―clause type, constituent boundaries, etc. And we don't always use all of them.

Anonymous

If the only clue I get is the word order, I might well interpret what I'm hearing based on that one clue :-)

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. I think what↗ and what↘ are two different utterances.

Damkerng T.

nods -- "What↘" sounds like "What's up? (I don't really care.)"

Anonymous

> Alice: Guess what I found today?
> Bob： What?↗
> Alice: I said "Guess what I found today"!

Anonymous

Jul 28, 2015 22:08

> Alice: Guess what I found today?
> Bob： What?↘
> Alice: I found a door snail!!

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

Is that intonation?

Anonymous

Yes.

Damkerng T.

Hmm... maybe there are more than two patterns.

Anonymous

Polar questions and reclamatory echo questions tend to have rising intonation.

Anonymous

Wh-questions tend not to have rising intonation.

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

Jul 28, 2015 22:10

Riiiiiiiight!

Anonymous

Reclamatory questions are the sort where you prompt someone to repeat what they said:

Anonymous

> Alice: I met Clinton today!
> Bob: You met _who_?↗

Anonymous

Here, Bob echoed part of what Alice said and marked the part she wanted repeated with a wh-word.

Anonymous

It's accompanied by rising intonation, which tells Alice that it's a reclamatory question.

Anonymous

If Bob said "Who did you meet?↘", a regular wh-question, it wouldn't be appropriate in context. After all, Alice just answered that question.

Anonymous

Jul 28, 2015 22:12

When a reclamatory question is an entire utterance:

Anonymous

> Alice: I climbed the Empire State Building today!
> Bob:  . . . what!?↗

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

That Alice is a big big liar.

Anonymous

Then the wh-word is likely to refer to the entire utterance.

Anonymous

This can be used to express disbelief,

Anonymous

in which case they can be called incredulity questions rather than reclamatory questions.

Anonymous

Jul 28, 2015 22:14

Because Bob's goal might be to express incredulity, not to ask Alice to repeat what she said.

Damkerng T.

Iirc, the "What↘" I heard today was extra downstep. :D

Anonymous

Since incredulity and reclamatory questions tend to have the same form, sometimes speakers don't know whether they're expected to repeat themselves:

Anonymous

> Alice: I evolved into a red-eyed tree frog!
> Bob: What!?↗
> Alice: I said "I evolved into a red-eyed tree frog!"
> Bob: No, I heard you . . . I'm just like, "What!?↗"

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

@DamkerngT. Was it Hagu?

Anonymous

In modern colloquial usage, extra disbelief is sometimes expressed by a flat low tone:

Damkerng T.

Jul 28, 2015 22:15

Hehe, a cute dialogue!

Anonymous

> Alice: I am the President of the United States!

Anonymous

> Bob: What.

Anonymous

And this is often conveyed in colloquial writing (online, in comics, etc.) with a period rather than a question mark.

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

I love this one.

Damkerng T.

@inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M Nope.

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

Jul 28, 2015 22:16

Who's Nope?

Anonymous

I think what starting high, downstepping, then staying low (rather than a smooth fall) expresses something more like: "What is this crap!?"

Anonymous

Like, if you come back to your car and find it's been run through the compactor at a garbage dump and turned into a small cube, which then has a parking ticket attached to it:

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

I'm somehow pronouncing them right today.

Damkerng T.

@snailboat Haha! I think that's exactly right!

Anonymous

> What.

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

Jul 28, 2015 22:18

OMG what's happening to me?

Anonymous

Those are the intonational variations of what I can describe off the top of my head.

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

Oh, I needz sleep.

Damkerng T.

In my context, it was a bit like, "(Oh!) What. (This guy again.)"

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. So, an exasperated what, not expressing any kind of question.

Damkerng T.

nods

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

Jul 28, 2015 22:20

@DamkerngT. Was it when you saw my ELL's profile?

Anonymous

There's a lot of expressive intonation in language.

Damkerng T.

Hehe, no!

Anonymous

And it can vary from speaker to speaker.

Anonymous

Like, imagine a guy just saying a flat "what" in a very high tone

Damkerng T.

A disbelief/ridicule?

Anonymous

Jul 28, 2015 22:22

Although linguists have written about intonation, it's a pretty complex topic, and I wouldn't expect anything like this to be completely documented in any book

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. Could be. But depending on the speaker, it could mean "That's awesome!"

Anonymous

Now imagine saying the same thing but with a smile and a high five ;-)

Damkerng T.

Oh, yes. I meant ridiculously awesome. :D

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. Hey, maybe that's where it comes from.

Anonymous

Never occurred to me!

Conversation ended Jul 28, 2015 at 22:23.

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