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 delicacy	basic tone
	marked tonality	unmarked tonality
	marked tonicity	unmarked tonicity
	varied rhythm	constant rhythm
	fluent	hesitant
	reduction processes	full syllables
	native accent	standard accent
	range of accents	single accent
	acronym	full 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).