Discourse Intonation and Systemic Functional Phonology

Abstract

This paper is a reflection on praxis which addresses the phonological stratum as an integral part of the language system. As EFL teachertrainers, we often find that students isolate the different meaning-creating components of language as a natural result of the way courses areorganized at university level. It is in the spirit of helping students integrate the various aspects of language and context that we have set outto compare David Brazil, Malcolm Coulthard and Catherine Johns’s Discourse Intonation model –which we have been working with for morethan ten years– with the intonation approach in Systemic Functional Linguistics, by M.A.K. Halliday and William Greaves. We observe thetheoretical similarities between the two approaches in order to see how they may supplement one another. Then, we analyse a conversationtaken from a film following both theoretical approaches, and draw conclusions in the light of the comparison. Our preliminary results show thatthe two approaches explain the meanings conveyed with reference to different meaning-making resources. Brazil et al. explain the meaningsat risk in the interaction according to the phonological systems they describe (prominence, tone, key and termination). Halliday and Greavesdo so by referring to the phonological and lexico-grammatical strata in combination.

Keywords

• intonation
• tonality, tonicity and tone
• discourse intonation
• conversation
• teaching