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Article published In:
English World-Wide
Vol. 43:3 (2022) ► pp.357–381

English intonation in storytelling

A comparison of the recognition and production of nuclear tones by British and Hong Kong English speakers

| University of Oxford
| University of Reading
| Chinese University of Hong Kong

This paper presents data for a tightly controlled recognition and production study of English language intonation in reading by speakers of British English and second language learners of English in Hong Kong. We demonstrate a relatively high correlation between the scores for the two studies when data are separated by utterance type (statement, echo, WH-question, etc.). Our finding that this cohort of English learners performs better at production of nuclear tones than in the corresponding recognition study when both are judged by a template for British English adds support to the claim that the perception-production link, a theory that production is contingent on perception, is not borne out by the empirical study of learners of World Englishes. Data collected for the British English speakers give insight into a changing intonational phonology, while Hong Kong data indicate differences in intonational categories, a different distribution of tones, and possibly tonal innovation.

Keywords: intonation, production, perception, L2, Hong Kong English, emergent phonology, nativisation
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Method for Study 1: Recognition of tonal suitability
    • 2.1Participants
    • 2.2Materials
    • 2.3Procedure
  • 3.Results for tonal recognition study
  • 4.Method for production study
  • 5.Results for the production study
    • 5.1Choice of tune
    • 5.2Nucleus position
  • 6How do the studies relate to one another (hypotheses 2a and 2b)?
    • 6.1Correlation by speaker
    • 6.2Correlation by sentence type
    • 6.3Global scores
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 4 August 2022
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/eww.21035.hud
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