Read the following extracts from Russian and foreign phoneticians and dwell on the difference in the points of view on the problem.

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 475.

Further Theoretical Background

1. ...В интонации следует различать два аспекта: один, который можно назвать коммуникативным, поскольку интонация сообщает, является ли высказывание законченным или незаконченным, содер­жит ли оно вопрос, ответ и т.п... Другой, который можно было бы на­звать эмоциональным, состоит в том, что в интонации заключена определенная эмоция, которая всегда отражает эмоциональное со­стояние говорящего, а иногда и намерение его определенным обра­зом воздействовать на слушающего... Эмоциональный аспект инто­нации не обязательно связан со смысловым содержанием высказы­вания... Вместе с тем эмоция высказывания, несомненно, связана с его модальностью... в каждом акте коммуникации отражено не толь­ко то, о чем идет речь (денотативный аспект), но и отношение к со­общению со стороны говорящего (коннотативный аспект).

...Из признания автономности интонации следует, что в языках должен быть известный набор интонационных моделей или, иными словами, интонация должна быть дискретной в парадигматическом плане. Такая точка зрения является в настоящее время господству­ющей. Единого термина для обозначения интонационной единицы не существует так же, как и общепризнанного определения ее. Ее называют и интонационным контуром, и интонационной конст­рукцией, и интонемой; у американских дискриптивистов она назы­вается в одних случаях фонемой тона, в других — фонемой-завер­шителем.

...Интонация складывается из нескольких компонентов: 1) часто­ты основного тона голоса (высотный или мелодический компонент); 2) интенсивности (динамический компонент); 3) длительности или темпа (временной, темпоральный компонент); 4) паузы; 5) тембра. Все компоненты интонации, кроме паузы, обязательно присутствуют в высказывании, потому что никакой его элемент не может быть про­изнесен без какой-либо высоты голоса, силы и т. д. Поэтому все ком­поненты интонации тесно взаимодействуют между собой...

...Важнейшим компонентом интонации является мелодика. ...Мелодика может выполнять разные функции. Наряду с паузой она служит средством членения речи... связывания отдельных частей по­тока речи.

...Мелодика, более чем другие компоненты интонации, служит для выражения коммуникативного типа предложения. ...Очень час­то мелодика наряду с другими средствами используется для целей выделения главного слова в предложении или в синтагме.

Под длительностью как компонентом интонации подразумевает­ся скорость произнесения тех или иных отрезков речи, что и являет­ся содержанием термина «темп»; ...различный темп определяется стилем произношения, который в свою очередь обусловлен ситуа­цией...

...Пауза акустически означает прекращение звука, физиологиче­ски — прекращение артикуляции; однако то, что воспринимается как пауза, может и не иметь этих признаков... часто, когда мы на слух четко воспринимаем паузу, звучание голоса не прекращается. В таком случае говорят о «психологической» паузе...

При хезитации возможно и «звучание», которым часто заполня­ют паузу между синтагмами или предложениями, а также и внутри синтагм, когда говорящий как бы подыскивает нужное слово.

...Тембр служит только для выражения эмоционального аспекта интонации.

ЗиндерЛ. Ф. Общая фонетика. М., 1979, С. 267-270, 278.

2. У фразовой просодии две основные функции: I) членение, 2) выде­ление. Таким образом, фразовая интонация: 1) членит звуковой по­ток на предложения; 2) показывает тип предложения; 3) показывает тип отношений между предложениями и т. д...

В соответствии с этим все компоненты фразовой интонации – мелодемы, хронемы, акцентемы – выполняют двойную функцию: членения-выделения и передачи смысла…

Кроме того, фразовая интонация создает систему содержательных отношений между совокупностями элементов текста – синтагмами и предложениями. Показатель таких отношений и есть интонация.

Николаева Н.М. Вопросы фонологии и фонетики. Тезисы докладов современных лингвистов на VII конгрессе фон. наук. Монреаль, 1971, СС. 170-175

3. Probably the most important grammatical function of intonation in the language to which English belongs is that of tying the major parts together within sentences and tying sentences together within discourse - showing, in the process, what things belong more closely together than others, where the divisions come, what is subordinate to what, and whether one is telling, asking, or commanding.

Bolinger D. Intonation. Selected Reading. England. 1972. P.155.

4. In the case of kinetic tones, there appear to be six amin factors entering into their compostion.

1. Direction or directions of pitch change (rising, falling, falling-rising, etc.) This factor is the most important of all, since it frequently has a semantic function; in other words, the meaning of an utterancemay be changed completely by altering the direction of the pitch range.

2. Position on the scale of pitches used by the human voice (i.e. high or low). The chief function of this factor is to indicate the feelings of the speaker. An utterance may be modified very considerably in feeling by a simple shift up or down the scale, without any other change, and even slight adjustments of this nature may give a valuable indication of a speaker's word. However, in an analysis intended for teaching purposes it is enough to show too different pitch positions.

3. Range of pitches (normal or extended).

4. Intensity (degree of loudness, breath force used, muscular energy, etc.). These two factors combine to provide varying degrees of emphasis, but here, again, it is sufficient to show two degrees, normal and emphatic.

5. Duration of the tone on the syllable or on almost any of its component parts (such as lengthening or shortening of particular consonants or vowels). This factor adds expression as well as emphasis. Although there are devices in the International Phonetic Alphabet for showing length, it has not been cus­tomary among phoneticians to indicate special lengthening or shortening introduced to add expression to an utterance. In tonetic texts these devices can be employed if desired, but their introduction would be a refinement that would hardly be necessary except in very special cases.

6. Variation in the rate of pitch change (e.g. in a falling tone, a slow descent from the starting point, with an increase in the rate of descent as the end of the tone is reached, or, conversely, a rapid initial descent followed by a slowing up towards the end). While variations of this sort may occur, they are not cardinal, and may be left for students to pick up by imitation when they have mastered the general intonation of the language.

Kingdon R. The Groundwork of English Intonation. Lnd., 1958. P. XXV, XXVI.

5. ...Intonation, in addition to its function of providing a means of accentu­ation, may also serve to distinguish sentence types (e. g. statement and ques­tion) and to indicate the emotional attitude of the speaker. Such a function applies equally to utterances consisting of more than one word and to those of a single word (of one or more syllables). In these cases, it is not much the situation of the nucleus which is of importance, but rather the type of nucle­us employed, i. e. whether a fall, rise-fall, rise, or fall-rise is used. Thus a statement form of words may be made into a question if a rise is used instead of a fall, e.g. He's 'not \there (statement) v. He's 'not /there? (question)... This semantic function of intonation occurs less frequently than that which shows the speaker's emotional attitude: compare, for instance, «it's 'all \right» (a plain statement of fact), «it's 'all /right» (an encourage­ment), and «It's \all /right» (a grudging or petulant agreement). In this con­nection, in addition to the type of nucleus used, the pitch of that part of the utterance preceding the nucleus (the head) is also of great importance.

The intonation of a sentence may indicate attitudes of the speaker other than those associated with the type of nucleus used or the choice of a rela­tively low or high prenuclear pattern of syllables:

Range of intonation. The degree of enthusiasm, liveliness, inter­est, in those tunes where the pre-nuclear pattern is relatively high will be greater with the higher the pitch of the head, e.g. with an extra-high pitch in the syllable italicized in the following examples and a consequent greater pitch separation of any accented syllables, between the head and nucleus:

It's awfully \good. Are you \sure? 'Well I \never.

Many (other) devices exist for expressing in sound the mood of a speak­er in addition to the actual words which he uses. A rapid rate of delivery, for instance, may express irritation or urgency, whereas a slower rate may show hesitancy, doubt, or boredom in statements, or sympathy or encouragement in questions and commands; a repeated alveolar click denotes discontent; an aggressive voiceless air-stream with friction at the rounded lips and a falling pitch (produced by the adjustment of the mouth cavity by movement of the tongue) expresses surprise, admiration, relief, whereas an aggressive air-stream of the same type may, in addition, be used to signify pain or pleasur­able anticipation; and the utterance may be punctuated by sighs, denoting boredom, impatience, or sorrow.

Gimson A. C. An Introduction to the Pronunciation of English. Lnd., 1973. P. 277, 284.

6. When a person whom we know speaks to us through the telephone we recognize him by his voice. What distinguishes one voice from another is not due to the sounds themselves or to their synthesis as far as we have dealt with these up till now; for people who speak what they look upon as the same language do not generally differ in these respects. What is peculiar to a person's way of speaking his own language is the pitch of his voice; the resulting effect on his manner of speaking is called his intonation, which is the most truly and inalienable personal element in a langage.

The tone of a woman's voice is generally higher than a man's; this explains the fact why we generally have no difficulty in recognizing voices in this respect when heard through the telephone or in a gramophone record. The cause of this difference is to be found in the differences in the organs of speech of men and women (or children).

The same person's intonation also varies according to his feelings: cheerfulness is accompanied by a higher general level than sadness or despondency. The tone with which we speak, moreover, is not the same all through: it may rise or fall. A rising tone suggests that something else is expected to follow; it is suspensive. A falling tone, on the other hand, is conductive, suggesting the finality of a resolution or an unalterable command. The frequency of rises and falls and their suddenness or gradualness laso depends on our state of mind thus, despondency promotes an even intonation.

The tones also have a grammatical function in all the languages.

Kruisinga E. An Introduction to the Study of English Sounds. Gromingen (Botavia), Noordhoff, 1935, p. 31

12. Intonation is the salt of an utterance. Without it, a statement can often be understood, but the message is tasteless. Incorrect uses of it can lead to embarassing ambiguities. Distinctions of meaning that are due to difference in the intonation are not always so clear. That is perhaps why two schools have appeared. For some, intonation is truly linguistic; differences of level and terminal shape in voice inflexions carry meaning.

For this school… every intonation contour has a distinctive function and can be classed in one of the families of contours often called pitch phonemes, or pitch prosodemes, or intonemes. For others, intonation contours are not truly distinctive, they merely reflect the attitude of the speaker.

Without taking sides with either school, we shall find ourselves closer to the distinctive-families point of view.

Delattre P. The General Phonetic Characteristics of Language. University of California, 1966, p. 150