🔊 Rising speech 🔊 To speak rising

to upspeak

9.3

To speak with a rising tone at the end of statements so they sound like questions

verb
/ˈʌpˌspiːk/

: hablar con entonación ascendente

Her habit to upspeak sometimes makes her statements sound like questions.

Examples

She tends to upspeak during her presentations.
Teachers often advise students not to upspeak during presentations to sound more confident.
Some people upspeak when they are nervous or unsure about what they are saying.
Why do you upspeak all the time?
She tends to upspeak at the end of her sentences, making her statements sound uncertain.
When he gets nervous, he often upspeaks, so people think he is asking questions instead of making statements.
In her presentation, she didn't realize she was upspeaking, which made her points seem less assertive.

Surface Forms

upspeak infinitive

upspeaking present participle

upspeaks third person singular

upsoke past

upsoken past participle

Morphology

upspeak = speak (transparent) = up + speak

The verb is formed by prefixing 'up' to 'speak', with 'up' indicating a rising/upward quality (rising intonation), so the derivation is straightforward.

Etymology

Upspeak comes from the parts up ('rising') and speak ('talk'). To upspeak means to speak with your voice rising at the end of a sentence so what you say can sound like a question.