Sunday 3 July 2016

Presenting Unsupported Claims As A Survey: Contact & Tonality

Martin (1992: 532):
A number of the key realisations for involved and uninvolved contact are surveyed below.

Table 7.12. Tenor — Aspects of the realisation of contact
Contact
proliferation
contraction
[phonology foregrounded]
involved
uninvolved
phonology
Pre-tonic delicacybasic tone

marked tonality
unmarked tonality

marked tonicityunmarked tonicity

varied rhythmconstant rhythm

fluenthesitant

reduction processesfull syllables

native accentstandard accent

range of accentssingle accent

acronymfull form



Blogger Comment:

The claim here is that:
  • the phonological feature of 'marked tonality' construes the tenor feature of 'involved' contact (a lot of previous contact between interlocutors), whereas
  • the phonological feature of 'unmarked tonality' construes the tenor feature of 'uninvolved' contact (less previous contact between interlocutors).
Unmarked tonality is one tone group realising one clause; marked tonality is a tone group realising either less than a clause or more than a clause (Halliday 1967: 20-1).

Martin's claim can be falsified by a concrete example:
  • the realisation of the clause Columbus was the last person to discover America as two tone groups is claimed to construe the tenor feature of 'involved' contact (a lot of previous contact between interlocutors), whereas
  • the realisation of the clause Columbus was the last person to discover America as one tone group is claimed to construe the tenor feature of 'uninvolved' contact (less previous contact between interlocutors).