I’m totally with you. I think it is somewhat speaker dependent, but that is how I would say those questions.
What’s your NAme
How OLD (are you)?
Where are you FROm?
Comment on Why do all languages share the same intonation for questions?
otp@sh.itjust.works 2 months agoThey seem to have a rise-drop, at least when I say them.
“How old are you?” is interesting because the rise is on the third-last word (“old”). But “How old is your daughter?” has the rise in the first syllable of daughter.
I’m totally with you. I think it is somewhat speaker dependent, but that is how I would say those questions.
What’s your NAme
How OLD (are you)?
Where are you FROm?
Do you really pronounce those with a higher pitch? Or do you pronounce them louder?
You would never say
"What’s YOUR name?
“How old are YOU?”
“Where ARE you from?”
?
The first two have emphasis that imply something different than a simple question. Like you are asking a bunch of people individually, and you are directing each question at a specific person.
The last one would maybe be like, if the person did something weird, and you were sarcastically asking where the are from, to imply that they were raised by wolves, or something like that.
Point being, yes, you can ask like that, but it has different connotations than a simple question, which I think is where you would use the rising intonation.
Deconceptualist@lemm.ee 2 months ago
That’s just emphasis. You can tell because you can shift it to another word.
Nibodhika@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Switching the emphasis on one word can completely change the meaning of a phrase, there’s one example I love: "I never said she stole his money"
Botzo@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I wonder if it’s more because we frame the question by altering the structure to indicate the appropriate response.
We could just as well ask “you are from where?” Or “your name is what?” That matches the expected sentence structure of a response, and the natural pitch rises.
otp@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
But the default stress towards the end of the question is what makes it a question.
You can move the stress to another word for emphasis on yes-no questions, too, similarly removing the “rising intonation” that makes a question.
E.g., “Do you want any cheese^?” vs. “Do you WANT any cheese?” (Falling intonation after “want”)