Roller coaster: Distinctive prosodic cuing of turns preempting rejection resistance

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This paper explores the linkage between intonation nested in conversation turns where the speaker is introducing something delicate (e.g., presenting information liable to provoke distancing) or pre-empting resistance to their proposal when there is a strong risk of rejection. These movements, which appear prosodically marked, deviate not only from the local context of the conversation, but from the conversation as a whole. A speech acoustic analysis of three examples of prosodic signalling within these turns suggests that speakers employ a distinct design and delivery which includes a high terminal peak in the intonation contour. We interpret this signalling to represent responsive and resistant local social actions in a rejection implicative sequential environment. Finally, they show evidence of being pre-planned and important to the speaker.

Original languageEnglish
JournalInternational Journal of Applied Linguistics (United Kingdom)
Volume29
Issue number1
Pages (from-to)17-29
Number of pages12
ISSN0802-6106
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2018

    Research areas

  • Intonation, politeness, preempting, prosody, rejection, resistance

ID: 215033053