Echo Questions Research Articles

The intonation of questions in one variety of scottish english

The data consists of a collection of all types of questions which occur in tape recordings of spontaneous speech of native Edinburgh Scottish English speakers. The goal of the analysis was to discover what factors determined the intonation contours of questions. Interrogative-with-inversion questions occurred with rising and falling contours; the determining factor seemed to be the full (versus partial) application of certain Sincerity Conditions: (i) Questioner does not know whether a particular proposition is true or false; (ii) Questioner has a need to know truth/falsity of the proposition; (iii) Questioner has reason to believe his interlocutor knows whether proposition is true or false. The non-application of Condition (i) is reflected in the use of a low-falling intonation contour. This schema also explains the low-falling contour associated with declarative questions. The contours associated with WH-questions were found to be much less variable. Unlike the ‘straight fall to low’ contour attributed to WH-questions in RP, Scottish English shows a pattern of ‘rise-fall to mid’. Echo questions are not seen as a distinct category, but as a type which vacillates between yes-no questions, and WH-questions.