33.3861, Qs: Prosodic Expression of Evaluation

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LINGUIST List: Vol-33-3861. Tue Dec 13 2022. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 33.3861, Qs: Prosodic Expression of Evaluation

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Editor for this issue: Everett Green <everett at linguistlist.org>
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Date: Tue, 13 Dec 2022 10:24:12
From: Olga Lovick [olga.lovick at usask.ca]
Subject: Prosodic Expression of Evaluation

 
Hi all,

I am looking for (published and unpublished) information on whether and how
the domain of "evaluation" can be expressed prosodically.

The domain of evaluation includes augmentation, diminution, intensity,
pejoration, hypocorization etc. In many languages, these notions are expressed
morphologically (e.g. through affixation in Italian, or through reduplication
in English). Yet while information on the morphological expression of
evaluation is plentiful, information on its prosodic expression (whether
accompanied by morphological changes or not) is scarce.

Prosodic evaluation exists (albeit somewhat rarely) in English, e.g. in
expressions as "a looooong time ago" where the vowel of "long" is unusually
protracted and pronounced with raised pitch. In this instance, the resulting
meaning is one of somehow unusual length.

It is much more common in several Dene languages. In Upper Tanana (Dene, N.
America), there is a regular process of lengthening stem vowels in all lexical
categories to express augmentation, intensification, pejoration. This
lengthening is quite extreme (usually 3-4 times as long as a "regular" stem)
and often accompanied by raised pitch. A few examples are shown here, with
lengthening represented by colons (vowel length is distinctive in this
language and written by double vowel symbols). The left column shows the basic
form; lengthened stems are in the right column. Translations are provided for
the basic form as well as for the lengthened one. Data and description from
Lovick (in press).

(1)   Upper Tanana
a.    nagnjit     'I was scared'    nagnji:::t  'I was terrified'
b.    kon' choh   'a big fire'       kon' cho:::h     'an enormous fire, a
conflagration'
c.     k'ahmänn'   'in the morning'  k'ahmä::::nn'     'early in the morning,
first thing in the morning'
d.    hihdelxoh   'they played'     hihdelxo:::h      'they played in a
dangerous and bad way'
e.    ch'ik'eh       'tracks'          ch'ik'e::::h      'lots of tracks'

Similar observations have been made for Koyukon (Tuttle 2018) and Tłįchǫ Yatiì
(Leslie Saxon, p.c.). Outside the Dene language family, it has been reported
for Shiwiar (Chicham; Martin Kohlberger p.c.), Ket (Yeniseian; Matthew Carter
p.c.).

References:
Lovick, Olga. In press. A grammar of Upper Tanana, volume 2: Semantics,
syntax, discourse. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. 
 

Linguistic Field(s): Pragmatics



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