Relative Importance in English and Persian: Thematization or Tonic Prominence?
Journal Title: Journal of Research in Applied Linguistics - Year 2010, Vol 1, Issue 2
Abstract
There are two common ways to assign relative importance in spoken language: tonic prominence and thematization. The former is expressing the main points of information units in speech (Halliday, 1994), and the latter is putting an element at the beginning of a clause. This study explores how relative importance is realized in English and Persian. It also investigates how advanced Persian learners of English assign it in English. 20 Persian declaratives were given to 30 Persian Native Speakers (PNSs) to assign relative importance in whatever way. Results revealed that PNSs more thematize rather than use tonic prominence. Then, the English equivalents of the 20 Persian declaratives were given to 10 English Native Speakers (ENSs). Results demonstrated that ENSs thematize more too. Finally, the same English clauses were given to 20 learners of English. Contrary to expectations, results showed their greater use of tonic prominence.
Authors and Affiliations
Kamran Mehrgan, Mohammad Alipour
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP369031
- DOI -
- Views 124
- Downloads 0
Dual function of first position nominal groups in research article titles: Describing methods and structuring summary
Previous research has identified the nominal group as the most distinctive feature of the research article title. In contrast, the findings reported in this paper suggest Theme/Rheme is the dominant structure in title te...
Relative Importance in English and Persian: Thematization or Tonic Prominence?
There are two common ways to assign relative importance in spoken language: tonic prominence and thematization. The former is expressing the main points of information units in speech (Halliday, 1994), and the latter is...
Philosophy in John Gardner’s Grendel
John Gardner’s Grendel is a celebrated example of the ontological postmodernist fiction. Along with a discovery of self with which Grendel the narrator of the novel is concerned, grand narratives such as philosophy are q...
Which is which and who is who: Roger Waters up against Media
Pink Floyd was a British band whose work began in the late 60s. Roger Waters, the main contributor of the band, wrote almost all the lyrics and was also a main figure behind producing the motion picture of the album. He...
Elements of Critical Context Studies
In this paper, it is argued that Critical Discourse Studies (CDS) should be extended to also include what may be called Critical Context Studies (CCS). After a summary of the new theory of context, defined in terms of sp...