Intonation part 2

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 723.

Certain monosyllabic words normally lack their own accent and attach themselves in pronunciation to the following word or the preceding word to form a single word unit. The words are called proclitics because they are considered to “lean forward” on the following word for their accent. Proclitics are normally written without an accent and do not affect the accentuation of the following word. The words are called encliticsbecause they are considered to “lean upon” the following word for their accent. We might say that enclitics and proclitics are words that neither stand on their own nor allow their neighboring words to stand alone in pronunciation or enunciation. Enclitics and proclitics force communion and community among words. Thus the initial unstressed syllables preceding the nucleus are called proclitics, those following the nucleus are called enclitics. Proclitics are pronounced faster than enclitics.

There are two alternative views among the phoneticians in qualifying the unstressed syllables located between the stressed ones. According to the semantic viewpoint the unstressed syllables tend to be drawn towards the stressed syllable of the same word or to the lexical unit according to their semantic connection, concord with other words.

Negro Harlem | became | the largest |colony | of coloured people.

According to the other viewpoint the unstressed syllables between the stressed ones tend to join the preceding stressed syllable. It is the so-called enclitic tendency. Then the above mentioned phrase will be divided into the following rhythmical groups:

Negro Harlem | became the | largest |colony of | coloured people.

It seems that the enclitic tendency is more typical of the English language, though in the speech flow it is sometimes difficult to define the borders of rhythmic groups. The division into rhythmic groups is often regulated by speech tempo and style. The enclitic tendency is more typical for informal speech whereas the semantic tendency prevails in accurate, more explicit speech.

The more organized the speech is the more rhythmical it appears, poetry being the most extreme of this. The length of the intervals is perceived by the listener as equal despite the changing number of unstressed syllables between the peaks of the rhythmic groups. The most frequent type of a rhythmic group includes 2-4 syllables, one of them stressed, others unstressed. The basic rhythmic unit is defined as an accentual group or a stress group which is speech segment including a stressed syllable with or without unstressed syllables attached to it; a pause group – a group of words between two pauses, or breath group – which can be uttered within a single breath.

The treatment of rhythm has changed much since the investigation of the spoken text as a linguistic unit. A.M.Antipova defines rhythm as a complex language system which is formed by the interrelation of lexical, syntactic and prosodic means. Prosody creates similarity and isochrony of speech elements. Thus the sphere of rhythm functioning is actually very wide. Rhythmicality marks every text segment: rhythmic groups, intonation groups, phrases and phonopassages. The rhythmic effect of the text units is obtained by the prosodic parameters, the pitch of the voice, loudness, duration. The detailed prosodic analysis of the oral text reveals its rhythmicality. In her fundamental work based on the instrumental analysis of English speech A.M. Antipova comes to the conclusion that the rhythmic structure of speech continuum is a hierarchy of rhythmical units of different levels.

The most striking rhythmicality is observed in poetry. Any poem sets out to convey a great deal more than an idea and it is this that distinguishes it from prose. The poetic rhythm is a complex system with the hierarchical organization of its units arranged by prosody as well as lexical and syntactical means. The similarity of rhythmical units is certainly strengthened by the metre, which is some strict number and sequence of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line. Strict alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables in metric versification allows us to regard a syllable as the minimal rhythmic unit in metric verse. Then again comes a rhythmic group, an intonation group, a line, a stanza. They all form the hierarchy of rhythmic units in poetry. English verse is marked by a descending bowshaped melody contour. The strict recurrence of such intonation patterns secures a stable periodicity in verse rhythm. The basic rhythm unit in verse, however, is a line. On the prosodic level the rhythm in a line is secured by the same number of syllables, their temporal similarity, descending melody contour, tone an intensity maximum at the beginning, tone and intensity minimum at the end and the final pause. These parameters make the line a stable rhythmic unit. There are some structural, semantic and sound devices which help the poet to strengthen the prosodic means of rhythmicality. Among them assonance, alliteration, repetition, parallelism, polysyndeton, simile, metaphor, intensification.

Then goes a fairy-tale which is nearest to poetry and could be considered as intermediate stage between poetry and prose. A fairy-tale has a specific manner of oral presentation, different from any other sort of text the prosodic organization of a fairy-tale creates the effect of euphony which implies sound harmony, melodiousness, measured steps of epic character of phonation. The most functional features of euphony are rhythmicality and the melody component of intonation. The rhythm of a fairy-tale is created by the alternations of commensurate tone, loudness and tempo characteristics of intonation. Intonation groups are marked by similarity of tone contour and tempo in the head and the nuclear tone. Rhythmicality is often traced in alternations of greater and smaller syllable durations. The fairy-tale narration is marked by the descending or level tone contour in the head of intonation groups and specific compound nuclear tones: level-falling, level-rising, falling-level, rising-level. The level segment of nuclear tones adds to the effect of slowing down the fairy-tale narration and its melodiousness.

A.M. Antipova finds a remarkable regularity in the sounding of long phrases. Syntactical units like subordinate clauses, enumerations and other constructions are often grouped into a kind of steps. The first intonation group of each step is pronounced on a higher level than the final intonation group of the previous step. Such periodicity creates a sort of background against which the rhythm units are realized. Still there are many factors which can disrupt the potential rhythm of a phrase. The speaker may pause at some points in the utterance, he may be interrupted, he may make false starts, repeat a word, correct himself and allow other phenomena. Spontaneous informal discourse reveals a rich variety of rhythm organization and the change of rhythmic patterns within a single stretch of speech. The choice of the intonation pattern by the participants of the conversation depends on their relationship to each other, the subject matter they are discussing, the emotional state of the participants and other situational factors. As a result informal spontaneous conversation sounds very lively and lacks monotony.

Any stretch of speech can be split into smaller portions by means of pauses. By “pause” a complete stop of phonation is meant. Pausation is closely connected with the other components of intonation. The number and the length of pauses affect the general tempo of speech. Pauses made between two sentences are obligatory. They are longer than pauses between sense-groups and are marked by two parallel bars / || /. Pauses are usually divided into filled and unfilled, corresponding to voiced and silent pauses. Pauses are distinguished on the basis of relative length: unit, double and treble. Their length is relative to the tempo and rhythmicality norms of an individual. The exception is “end-of-utterance” pause, which length is controlled by the person who is about to speak.

Pauses play not only segmentative and delimitative functions, they show relations between utterances and intonation groups, performing a unifying, constitutive function. They play the semantic and syntactic role, e.g. There was no love lost between them (they still loved each other). There was no love | lost between them (they did not love each other). Attitudinal function of pausation can be affected through voiced pauses, which are used to signal hesitation, doubt, suspence. Such pauses have the quality of the central vowels /ә, з:/ or /m, з:m/. They may be used for emphasis, to attach special importance to the word, which follows it. The rules of changes of pitch, loudness and tempo form the prosodic system of English.

The tamber or the voice quality is a special colouring of the speaker's voice. It is used to express various emotions and moods, such as joy, anger, sadness, indignation and the rest. Tamber should not be equated with the voice quality only, which is the permanently present person-identifying background, it is a more general concept, applicable to the inherent resonances of any sound.