A Phonological Analysis Of Tone And Tonicity

Ngo, Hood, Martin, Painter, Smith & Zappavigna (2022: 8):

(14')

// … so

//3 hopefully next / time I will

//1 get my / hair colour / back //

(15')

//3 [handclap] / um / but for / now

//3 this will / do //

Blogger Comments:

This phonological analysis first appeared in Martin & Zappavigna (2019: 9-10). See Misunderstanding Rhythm And Tonicity. The problems with the authors' analysis are as follows.

[1] In the first tone group, the tonic is on next not time:

//3 hopefully / next time I will

This also makes more sense in terms of meaning, since it identifies next as the Focus of New information (contrasting with 'last' time).

[2] In the second tone group, the tone is tone 13, not tone 1, so the analysis misses the second tonic on back:

//13 get my / hair colour / back

Importantly, the handclap coincides with this tonic the authors have missed, and so the gesture is linguistic in Cléirigh's model, realising, with the tonic, a Focus of New information. That is, the authors have missed an important instance of what they have rebranded as "sonovergent" paralanguage.

[3] In the third tone group, the only problem is the significant mistiming of the handclap: 

//3 um /but for / now

[4] In the fourth tone group, the tone is tone 1-, a narrow fall in pitch, not a tone 3, a level or low rise in pitch:

//1- this will / do //

This also makes more sense in terms of meaning, since here the speaker has completed a section of discourse, which is more consistent with tone 1 than tone 3, since tone 3 tends to signal more meaning to come, as in the previous tone group.

∞

These analyses can be verified by listening to the data here.