I could be wrong here, but it seems to me that a common aspect amongst all languages is the tendency to raise the pitch of your voice slightly when asking a question. Especially at the end of a question sentence.
If I’m wrong about this raised pitch being common amongst all languages, at the very least do all languages change their tone slightly to indicate that a question is being asked?
I guess there needs to be some way to indicate what is and isn’t a question. Perhaps a higher pitched voice reflects uncertainty. Is this something deep rooted in humans, or just an arbitrary choice when language developed?
ABCDE@lemmy.world 10 months ago
English doesn’t even go up at the end of sentences for all questions, just yes or no ones.
lvxferre@mander.xyz 10 months ago
Good catch - WH-questions tend to have a pitch drop instead.
Now thinking, Portuguese and Italian seem to follow the same pattern as English.
Deconceptualist@lemm.ee 10 months ago
Same for German.
cheese_greater@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Do you really think thats true?
lvxferre@mander.xyz 10 months ago
“Rhetorical” questions - like this one - are specially interesting because, while they follow the syntax of a genuine question, they’re pragmatically assertions. You’re implying “this is not true”, even if you’re phrasing it as a question.
And that phrasal pitch contour that you see in yes/no questions is dictated by the pragmatical purpose of the utterance, so if the “question” is not actually a question, it doesn’t get it.
spankmonkey@lemmy.world 10 months ago
I read this as you emphasizing true, not pitching up.
corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 10 months ago
Sorry; maybe try again and think of some other cases?
aido@lemmy.world 10 months ago
No
SendMePhotos@lemmy.world 10 months ago
I love you guys
PrimeErective@startrek.website 10 months ago
Could you give some examples of questions in English that would not be asked with a rising tone at the end?
ABCDE@lemmy.world 10 months ago
What’s your name? How old are you? Where are you from?
spankmonkey@lemmy.world 10 months ago
This clip has Arnold asking questions without the rising tone while the kids mostly use the rising tone.
“Who is my daddy and what does he do?” actually seems to drop a little bit.