Prosody and intonation. Utterance prosody and its linguistic functions

PROSODY includes constant non-segmental characteristics of speech: variations in the pitch, loudness, tempo and timber of the voice. Prosody is a synonym to INTONATION - a study of principles and means of division of speech and connection of divided parts such as melody, dynamics, tempo and pausation. Prosody is a broader notion than intonation as it deals with various sound sequences (from syllables to texts), while intonation is applied to speech units no longer than syntagmas.

Functions of utterance prosody:

1. CONSTITUTIVE (STRUCTURAL) - constitutes separate units into prosodic entities; includes integrative (связывающая) and delimitative (расчленяющая) functions.

2. STYLISTIC - each functional style and each function of speech has its own characteristics in melody, tempo, loudness, voice quality, pause. Official style - frequent use of the gradually descending scale, greater degree of loudness, slower tempo of speech; colloquial style - lowered degree of loudness, great number of hesitation pauses.

3. AESTHETIC - general impression from the person's speech.

4. SOCIAL - gives information about gender, age, education, place of living.

The components (subsystems) of utterance prosody and units of its analysis

I. PITCH (=speech melody) is present in every word and in the whole sentence, because it serves to delimit sentences into sense groups, or intonation groups.

1) PITCH LEVEL of the whole utterance is determined by the pitch of its highest-pitched syllable. It shows the degree of semantic importance the speaker attaches to the utterance and also the speaker's attitude and emotions.

2) PITCH RANGE of the utterance is the interval between its highest pitched syllable and its lowest pitched one. According to circumstances the speaker may widen or narrow the pitch range to express emphasis or the speaker's attitudes and emotions.

3) RATE OF PITCH VARIATIONS may be different dependant on the time, during which these variations take place, and on the range of the variations. When the rate of the fall is fast, the falling tone sounds more categoric and definite than when the rate of the fall is slow.

4) TONE can be static and kinetic, can have different pitch levels (low, mid, high)

5) DIRECTION OF PITCH MOVEMENT - kinetic tones can be simple/unidirectional (\, /) and complex/bidirectional (\/, /\, /\/).

II. Rhythm. An essential feature of connected speech is that the peaks of prominence (the stressed syllables) are inseparably connected with non-prominent syllables (the unstressed ones). The latter are attached to the stressed syllables, they never exist by themselves. The notion of rhythm implies a certain periodicity of phonological events. Such a periodicity is a peculiarity of English. English speech is rhythmic => the units of the rhythmic organization of an utterance are stress-groups, which may be as well called rhythmic groups.

The tonal (pitch) subsystem of utterance prosody. Units of its analysis. Tones and tonal contours

Pitch subsystem, units of its analysis (see #20)

The basic unit used to describe the pitch component is the tone. Depending on whether the pitch of the voice varies or remains unvaried tones are subdivided into kinetic and static. Static tones may have different pitch level of the voice — the high static tone, the mid static tone, the low static tone. The differentiation of kinetic tones as high falling and low falling, high rising and low rising, etc. is also based on the differentiation of the pitch level of their initial and final points.

A tone contour is a tone which shifts from one pitch to another over the course of the syllable or word. When the pitch descends, the contour is called a falling tone; when it ascends, a rising tone; when it descends and then returns, a dipping or falling-rising tone; and when it ascends and then returns, it is called a peaking or rising-falling tone. A tone which remains at approximately an even pitch is called a level tone.

The structure of a prosodic contour (intonation group) in English. The functions of its elements

A PROSODIC CONTOUR/INTONATION GROUP is hierarchically higher than a rhythmic group. It is a division in which not only stresses, but pitch and duration (i.e. intonation in the broad sense) play a role.

Structure and functions:

1. THE NUCLEUS STRESS - falls on the semantically most important word (expresses communicative and attitudinal meanings, indicates the end of the intonation group)

2. THE PREHEAD - unstressed syllables preceding the 1st stressed one (the onset, determines the pitch movement within the intonation group)

3. THE HEAD - the 1st stressed syllable and the following stressed and unstressed ones

4. THE TAIL - unstressed or partially stressed syllables following the nucleus (not an independent functional element of an intonation group, since its pitch variations are determined by the nuclear tone)

Basic types of prosodic contours in English

The number of actual utterances produced by native speakers of English is obviously unlimited, yet they can be reduced to a comparatively small list of basic intonation patterns. The discrimination of the basic patterns relies primarily on the directional type of nuclear pitch change:

1. THE RISING TONE PATTERN

2. THE FALLING TONE PATTERN

3. THE FALLING-RISING TONE PATTERN

4. THE RISING-FALLING TONE PATTERN

Since the structure of an intonation group is changeable, each tone pattern is realized in a number of tunes. The most important subdivision is into tunes having head and those without a head.

The rising tone pattern:

1. High/Stepping Head + High Narrow Rise (strong interrogative force transforming any sentence-type into a question)

2. High/Stepping Head + Low Wide Rise (interested, concerned, friendly)

3. Low Head + Low Narrow Rise (calm, disapproving)

The falling tone pattern:

1. High/Stepping Head + Mid Wide/Low Narrow Fall (calm, serious, hostile)

2. High/Stepping Head + High Wide Rise (light, lively, insistent)

The falling-rising tone pattern:

1. Sliding/Faling Head + Fall-Rise Undivided (contradicting, warning)

2. Stepping/High Head + Fall-Rise Divided (appealing, cordial)

The rising-falling tone pattern:

Stepping/High Head + Rise-Fall Contour (impressed, quizzical, challenging)