Why do they ask?: a discursive phonological study of interrogative forms in four video commentaries

Cóccaro, Mauro A. (2020). Why do they ask?: a discursive phonological study of interrogative forms in four video commentaries. University of Birmingham. Other

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Abstract

This study explores interrogative forms in four video commentaries from The Guardian, as a frequent persuasive choice to build interaction between speaker and the virtual audience. The analysis examines resources of dialogic engagement together with resources in the phonology to describe how the authors of oral commentaries engage with their viewers and with their own arguments. The aim of this dissertation is to reveal the ways in which intonation choices extend or support the dialogic function of ‘questions’.

To understand how authors build their arguments and how they build role relationships for themselves and for their projected audience, questions are studied following Martin and White’s Engagement framework (2005). The analysis is complemented with a phonological perspective following the models of Discourse Intonation (Brazil, et al, 1980; Brazil, 1997) and Systemic Functional Linguistics (Halliday and Greaves, 2008; Tench, 1996).

The research shows that intonation affects textual meanings, but mainly interpersonal ones. By identifying correspondences between dialogic and phonological tendencies, this study seeks to foreground the relevance of the meaning-making potential of intonation in studies of oral language.

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Thesis (Other)

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Other

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