The Significance of the Level Tone in Ghanaian English: Evidence from Spoken Discourse

Abstract

In Brazil’s (1985, 1997) discourse intonation model, the level tone is used by speakers to make choices that do not have any real communicative significance within the context of interaction. According to the model, a speaker assigns the level tone in ritualized, unplanned, preplanned, prerecorded, formulaic language, and in reading out. The current study investigates the functions of the level tone in Ghanaian English using Brazil’s discourse intonation framework. Data consisting of 13 hours of conversations recorded from 200 Ghanaians were subjected to both auditory and acoustic analyses. Results show that Ghanaians perform other communicative functions with the level tone in addition to what the model posits. Based on the results, it is argued that the level tone performs significant communicative functions similar to the falling or rising tones in Ghanaian English.