Abstract
This book applies David Brazil’s Discourse Intonation System to the Hong Kong Corpus of Spoken English (HKCSE) (prosodic). Brazil’s framework has four main components: prominence, key, tone and termination. These are identified as markers of prosodic features of discourse. Throughout the book, these four ‘systems’ are described and exemplified as they occur in the corpus, not only between different speakers but also between sub-registers. The layout of the book is user-friendly and the volume is especially suitable for researchers who are focussing on the merging of corpus linguistics and the study of discourse intonation. One of the many strengths of the book is that it is accompanied by a CD-ROM which includes the prosodically transcribed HKCSE and iConc, the software designed to analyse the corpus. The book features reader-friendly tables and figures which help in understanding its overall content. The first chapter describes the collection of texts of the HKCSE and briefly discusses its composition. The HKCSE contains approximately one million words and is equally divided into four registers: academic, conversation, business and public. Collected in Hong Kong between 1997 and 2002, the HKCSE was recorded in different contexts including, but not limited to, lecture theatres, university offices, the common room in a church and public utilities. Described as ‘an intercultural corpus’ (p. 7), the HKCSE consists of interactions of various cultural groups, the main ones being Hong Kong Chinese speakers and native English speakers. The participants were mainly adults who have Chinese or English as their first languages. Readers who may be especially interested in compiling corpora for research purposes may find this chapter very useful because it provides details about the data collection stage from preparation to corpus compilation. The next chapter, Discourse Intonation Systems, provides an introduction to the framework developed by Brazil (1985, 1997) and is intended to familiarise readers with the basis of the framework which
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
