Usage
In the United States, the phenomenon of HRT may be fairly recent but is an increasingly common characteristic of speech especially among younger speakers (see Ching, 1982 for one of the few accounts of HRT in American English). However, serious scientific/linguistic inquiry on this topic has a much more extensive history in linguistic journals from Australia, New Zealand, and Britain where HRT seems to have been noted as early as World War II.
It has been noted in speech heard in areas of Canada, in Cape Town, the Falkland Islands, and in the United States where it is often associated with a particular sociolect that originated among affluent teenage girls in Southern California (see Valleyspeak and Valley girl). Elsewhere in the United States, this intonation is characteristic of the speech heard in those parts of rural North Dakota and Minnesota that through migration have come under the influence of the Norwegian language.
Although it is ridiculed in Britain as "Australian Question Intonation" and blamed on the popularity of Australian soap operas among teenagers, HRT is also a feature of several UK dialects.
A 1986 report stated that in Sydney, it is used more than twice as often by young generations as by older ones, and particularly by women (Guy et al., 1986). It has been suggested that the HRT has a facilitative function in conversation (i.e., it encourages the addressee to participate in the conversation), and such functions are more often used by women. It also subtly indicates that the speaker is "not finished yet", thus perhaps discouraging interruption (Allen, 1990; Guy et al., 1986; Warren, 2005). Its use is also suggestive of seeking assurance from the listener that she is aware of what the speaker is referring to.
Read more about this topic: High Rising Terminal
Famous quotes containing the word usage:
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—A.J. (Alfred Jules)
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—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)