Intonational Meaning in Cameroon English Discourse A Sociolinguistic Perspective

This study is a phonetic description of intonation in Cameroon English, a postcolonial variety of English. Its focus is on the usage of specific tones, paratone and the intonational marking of the information status in discourse. Two main descriptive frameworks are used, namely the Discourse Intonation and the Auto-Segmental Metrical frameworks. Findings of the study are based on the auditory and acoustic analyses of natural conversation as well as read speech and, with relation to the sociolinguistic variables of education and gender, the linguistic variable speaking style. These findings demonstrate for example that, unlike speakers of other postcolonial Englishes (cf. Nigerian English), Cameroon English speakers make new information more prominent (or louder) than given information in the discourse structure. Furthermore, it is shown that Cameroon English speakers make extensive use of the falling pitch movement in speech, which leads the author to conclude that the falling tone does a lot of work in Cameroon English. Lastly, the findings also reveal that sociolinguistic theories postulated in native English communities do not necessarily apply in postcolonial English settings given that native English and postcolonial Englishes have being developing along different lines.