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Garcia Romero, Gilberto (2013) Contrastive modelling of the intonation of recapitulatory echo interrogative sentences in modern American English and Cuban Spanish. MA(Res) thesis, University of Nottingham.
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For more information, please contact [email protected] Contrastive Modelling of the Intonation of Recapitulatory Echo Interrogative Sentences in Modern American English and Cuban Spanish
Gilberto García Romero, B.A
Contrastive Modelling of the Intonation of Recapitulatory Echo Interrogative Sentences in Modern American English and Cuban Spanish
Thesis submitted to the University of Nottingham for the degree of MA (by Research) Hispanic and Latin American Studies
2012
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Contrastive Modelling of the Intonation of Recapitulatory Echo Interrogative Sentences in Modern American English and Cuban Spanish
Abstract. Human speech communication is rich in expressive stylistic, syntactic, lexical and discourse devices which are commonly used to express feelings, attitudes and volitions. Supported by the important contributions of CDA, discourse intonation, discourse semantics and pragmatics this dissertation presents a broad contrastive analysis of the intonation patterns of recapitulatory echo interrogatives in Cuban Spanish and American English. A corpus-driven methodology stresses the importance of prosodic features of any language in the analysis of social interaction. As a step forward in the analysis of interrogative sentences in English and Spanish, this research presents relevant data which can be used in the teaching of English as a second foreign language in most schools in Cuba, as well as Spanish to foreign students.
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Contrastive Modelling of the Intonation of Recapitulatory Echo Interrogative Sentences in Modern American English and Cuban Spanish
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank all those people who, in a way or another, have made this important dream come true. Special thanks to my parents, colleagues, friends who have supported me in the hardest moments of this investigation. And I would also like to gratify my supervisors- Ana Curbeira Cancela and Modesta Correoso Bouly, from the School of Foreign Languages of the University of Havana and Alvaro Vidal Bouzon from the University of Nottingham, for their help and commitment. I could not turn this page without acknowledging my students (Lauren Vera & Darlene Herrera, Yudenia & Jesús, Yisel González, and Yoandris Ferrales) for their paramount research works and the good results achieved, which are somehow reflected throughout this dissertation.
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Contrastive Modelling of the Intonation of Recapitulatory Echo Interrogative Sentences in Modern American English and Cuban Spanish
To my parents, Oneida y José Ramón; To my Grandma F. Eustaquia; To my siblings, Marlen and Adalberto, To my friends, colleagues and Students.
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Contrastive Modelling of the Intonation of Recapitulatory Echo Interrogative Sentences in Modern American English and Cuban Spanish
TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract Acknowledgments Contents Introduction ...... 7 The Cuban Spanish & American English variants ...... 9 Dissertation structure ...... 10
Chapter I The English and Cuban Spanish Intonation Systems: theories and 12 approaches to its analysis and research methods ...... 1.1 The linguistic value of intonation ……………………..…………...... 13 1.2. A brief history of intonation researches before and after the 1920s by English and Hispanic scholars: main assumptions and contributions ………………..……………………...... ……....… 17 1.3 Halliday’s grammatical approach to intonation ………………...... 20
1.4 The Hispanic tradition of intonation studies: main exponents and contributions ……………………………………...... ……....… 39 1.5 Intonation studies in Cuba: the intonation patterns of the Cuban Spanish variant ………………………………….…….…...... 46
Chapter II Intonation and Conversational Discourse Analysis ………...... 56
2.1 Conversational Discourse Analysis: Speech Act Theory, Intonation & Illocutionary Force ……………….……………………………………… 57 2.2 Intonation and Semantic Modality: Expressiveness as a modal semantic macro-category) ……………………...... ……………………… 69
Chapter III Contrastive Modelling of the Intonation of Escandell’s Echo Interrogative Sentences in Modern American English & Cuban Spanish …. 74
3.1 The interrogatives: generalisations within the English and Spanish grammars …………………………………...………...... 74 3.2 Modelling of the Intonation of the Interrogative Sentences in Modern American English & Cuban Spanish. Working methodology and corpus analysis …………………………...……………………...... 79
3.2.1 Pronominal and absolute interrogative sentences ...... 82 3. 2. 2 Irony, intonation and echo interrogative sentences ...... 84 3.3 Recapitulatory Echo Interrogative sentences …………...... ….. 93
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Contrastive Modelling of the Intonation of Recapitulatory Echo Interrogative Sentences in Modern American English and Cuban Spanish
Conclusions ...... 99 Annexes ...... 101 Bibliography ...... 125
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Contrastive Modelling of the Intonation of Recapitulatory Echo Interrogative Sentences in Modern American English and Cuban Spanish
Introduction