The main aim of this paper is to investigate the function of tones in construing neutral declarative statements, elicited in neutral contexts in the Thamari Dialect of Yemeni Arabic (DDYA), and then to contrast it with the intonational patterns of declarative statements construing surprise, and reservation, elicited in different contexts. This study examines these intonational patterns in the spontaneous speech within the Systemic Functional Linguistics framework (SFL). The system of tones is acoustically analyzed in this study by means of the PRAAT software program. Our main concern in this intonation system is to answer the question whether variant contexts trigger variant intonational patterns in the declarative Mood aspect of DDYA. The main criteria adopted to identify the marked and unmarked intonation pattern is the frequency of occurrence ratio. The intonational contour patterns are analyzed acoustically by eliciting the F0 contour on PRAAT. The data then is analyzed at different levels i.e. the phonological realizations of the intonation patterns, and the meanings and the speech functions they construe in the semantic level. Finally, in the statistical analysis, the data is grouped into two categories: congruent and incongruent patterns. The data showcases that two intonational approaches have been used by DDYA speakers to convey attitudinal expressions. While a Mid-Fall pattern is used to express facts of neutral mode, a Rise-Fall and a Fall-Rise patterns are used to convey surprise and reservation keys respectively.
Saba Ali Alkhatari (Sat,) studied this question.
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