language change among young people: 'uptalk?'

[Annette Karmiloff-Smith]

Ages ago when I was a simultaneous interpreter at the UN, rising intonation
was used as a device to keep the headphone-listeneing audience's attention
when the actual speaker sat down but you were a couple of sentences behind
and wanted your audience to continue listening. So it functioned as an
attention holder rather than turning statements into questions.  I recall
an Australian consecutive interpreter explaining that he used body position
in a similar way, exaggerated the lean forwards when the real speaker
slumped back having finished.
Annette

At 21:17 15/8/99, Carolyn Chaney wrote:
>My experience is a bit different...I notice the rise as a place holder...a
>way of regulating conversation (I'm not done yet).  It seems like
>the way intonation is used in a list...so my turn at talk becomes a list
>of things I have to say, and when I'm ready to give up my turn, my pitch
>goes down.  I also observe this form in the context of public speaking,
>where one should not have to hold onto the speaking turn...but
>nonetheless, many of my students in public speaking-type courses do big
>chunks of a speech like a list.
>
>Carolyn Chaney
>SFSU
>
>On Sun, 15 Aug 1999, Lise Menn wrote:
>
>> That one's been around for a while, and probably another case of gradual
>> regional spread,  because in the PBS video American Tongues, which is
>> quite old now, a New York comedian makes fun of it as 'southern', and then
>> later it was documented, I think by Pam Munro of UCLA, as a California
>> Valley Girl talk pattern.  The rise - which has by now become part of my
>> speech also (and I'm past 55 and from the northeast) - functionally
>> replaces 'y'know' as an appeal to shared experience.
>>
>> Lise Menn
>> Professor
>> Department of Linguistics
>> University of Colorado
>> Boulder, CO 80309-0295
>> 303-492-1609
>>
>> On Sun, 15 Aug 1999 LloyAl at aol.com wrote:
>>
>> > Subj:   Re: language change among young people
>> > Date:   8/15/99 9:28:31 PM EST
>> > From:   LloyAl
>> > To: santelmannl at pdx.edu
>> >
>> > I'm not sure my observation come under the heading of language change, but
>> > here it is. I have  noticed quite often in recent years the use of what I
>> > call a "declarative question". That is the use of a rising inflection
>>at the
>> > end of a statement that almost turns the statement into a question. The
>> > listener usually responds as though a question has been asked. Has anyone
>> > else observed this?
>> >
>> >
>>
>>
>>