Posted on 06/09/2015 11:41:48 PM PDT by upchuck
...Building to a crescendo is a small thing that is now screaming at me, particularly when I tune into NPR and other lefty venues. Something doesn’t exist until you name it, so I am offering the term beta-lilt, which is the verbal affectation of ending a sentence a tone higher than the body of the statement. This normally is used to imply a question like an invisible question mark, which is perfectly fine in the sparse use of a normal conversation. However, it has somehow become the basis for all conversation among certain people. As a guess, I would say it is generally found in the Millennials with an emphasis on the women and beta males within that group.
Now that I have brought it to your attention, I believe you will quickly recall its use and recall that it goes with a subservient verbal posture that implies a serf speaking to his overbearing master. A further guess would be that it developed within our ‘institutions of higher learning’ [/snark] where students are browbeaten into sitting at the feet of their all wise professors of gender studies and are always testing their place in the pecking order like a puppy with a few too many whacks with a rolled up newspaper.
Implicit in this affectation is the premise that “I am making a statement and I don’t know whether you will agree with it, so I am offering it as a question, so when you signal any disagreement (probably non-verbally), I am less likely to have to prostrate myself in front of you.”
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
More like passive aggressive speech. It’s a whiny way of speaking that indirectly makes its point and tries to limit the listener’s response.
Another annoying trend is ending sentences with a question mark when a question.has not been grammatically asked? It is annoying? It is the written version of up speak?
Putting a question mark at the end of a sentence that does not need one is ignorant.
You’re welcome. I suspect if you recorded a person doing this and then played it back for them that they’d quit once they saw how foolish it makes them sound.
When discussing NPR, we must always consider Mora Liason.
She was the NPR white House correspondent during the Clinton years. Shortly there after, she had a child
She has never denied it is a Clinton bastard
“It’s called “Up Speak”...It mimics the tone of an asked question suggesting that the speaker wants to indicate that he isn’t sure of what he’s saying.”
Or sure of the world around them. Maybe they should just keep quiet, watch, listen and learn.
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