Talking it up: The role of temporal context in the interpretation of uptalk

This dissertation deals with how listeners interpret meaning from uptalk, defined here as rising pitch found on declarative utterances. Rising pitch has been considered a hallmark of interrogative statements in English. However, phrase final rising pitch on declarative utterances, i.e. uptalk, has been hypothesized to signal both (1) a lack of confidence or commitment in the utterance just produced, a backward-looking function (Ohala, 1984; Smith & Clark, 1993; Gunlogson, 2001), or (2) the current utterance should be interpreted with respect to the subsequent utterance, a forward-looking function (Pierrehumbert & Hirschberg, 1990). The central hypothesis tested here is whether prolongations interact with uptalk to yield different interpretations.;In Experiment 1, listeners rated speaker knowledgeableness on a scale of 1 (not accurate) to 7 (accurate). Non-prolonged utterances were rated as more accurate than prolonged utterances. Ratings were not affected by uptalk and the factors did not interact. In Experiment 2, listeners monitored for a word in the second utterance of the pair. There was an interaction between uptalk and prolongation. Words preceded by prolonged uptalk were monitored faster than words preceded by non-prolonged uptalk. In Experiment 3, listeners monitored for upcoming words as in Experiment 2, however were either told that the speakers were either experts or non-experts in their domains. The interaction found in Experiment 2 was replicated for non-experts, however was dampened for experts.;These data support the need to incorporate both temporal and situational factors into theories of intonational meaning. The dissertation concludes by discussing how listeners rely highly on mental state inferences to establish the meaning of intonational events. A preliminary model of situated intonational meaning is discussed in the final chapter.