Oh, so if I do it while giving directions, then I'm not engaging in "upspeak"?
Question for Brits here
- Thread starter Miss Chicken
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Oh, so if I do it while giving directions, then I'm not engaging in "upspeak"?
Not if you are deliberately asking in your sentence if the person understands, no. Just like if I ask you a question that ends on an upnote I'm not engaging in it, I'm just asking a question.
Ah, OK. That's good to know. So the name "upspeak" is reserved just for when it's an affectation that implies no seeking of acknowledgement?
I don't know if it's "reserved" for that, it's just that is what we are talking about. The affectation. I am going to assume that ending a question on the up intonation is used by most english speakers. A quick google says it's the overall usage of it outside of questions that the term refers to.
I might be wrong as I am so used to upspeak that I hardly notice it but -
If an Australian is asking a question don't they start their up intonation earlier in the sentence than when they aren't asking a question?
If an Australian is asking a question don't they start their up intonation earlier in the sentence than when they aren't asking a question?
I don't know. I thought context would make it clear there was an answer needed? But probably but?
heh.. my favorite is when there is upspeak AND "but" added to the end of the sentence. For like, code but.
heh.. my favorite is when there is upspeak AND "but" added to the end of the sentence. For like, code but.
Maybe. I know as an Australian I have no trouble knowing if a question is being asked or not. I am sitting here trying to work out how I know.
Well to be clear (hopefully, anyway), in the giving directions example, as illustrated in the video, grammatically the series of directions aren't questions. That's the whole point. The context that the direction giver is seeking acknowledgement that the directions have been understood can be gleaned only by hearing the intonation.
But I'm going to understand that giving directions was used in the video simply to illustrate the mode of speaking, even though from what you're telling me it isn't actually an example of so-called "upspeak", which would make sense since in the case of giving directions, it (at least arguably) isn't really an affectation.
This seems very similar to the stereotypical Canadian eh?, which is also generally spoken with rising intonation.
Maybe whether it's an affectation depends upon whether the question to be acknowledged is only rhetorical.
I'll rewatch the video when I get home.. but this is not a complicated thing. It's the use of an upward intonation at the end of sentences in which no question is clear or implied as an everyday occurrence. Yes it's like the "eh" but since an upward inflection conveys varying things to english speakers who don't use it commonly it has more impact I think. Not sounding too definite, forceful or decisive is how it can come across to other english speakers who don't use it. It is ubiquitous though and doesn't mean any of that.
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