Table 3

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 612.

Rhythm

We cannot fully describe English intonation without reference to speech rhythm. Prosodic components (pitch, loudness, tempo) and speech rhythm work interdependently. Rhythm seems to be a kind of framework of speech organization. Linguists sometimes consider rhythm as one of the components of intonation. D.Crystal, for instance, views rhythmicality as one of the constituents of prosodic systems [Crystal 1969].

Rhythm as a linguistic notion is realized in lexical, syntactical and prosodic means

and mostly in their combinations. For instance, such figures of speech as sound or word

repetition, syntactical parallelism, intensification and others are perceived as rhythmical

on the lexical, syntactical and prosodic levels.

In speech, the type of rhythm depends on the language. Linguists divide languages

into two groups: syllable-timed like French, Spanish and other Romanic languages and

stress-timed languages, such as Germanic languages English and German, as well as

Ukrainian. In a syllable-timed language the speaker gives an approximately equal amount of time to each syllable, whether the syllable is stressed or unstressed and this produces the effect of even rather staccato rhythm.

In a stress-timed language, of which English is a good example, the rhythm is based on a larger unit than syllable. Though the amount of time given on each syllable

varies considerably, the total time of uttering each rhythmic unit is practically unchanged. The stressed syllables of a rhythmic unit form peaks of prominence. They tend to be pronounced at regular intervals no matter how many unstressed syllables are located between every two stressed ones. Thus the distribution of time within the rhythmic unit is unequal. The regularity is provided by the strong “beats”.

Speech rhythm has the immediate influence on vowel reduction and elision. Form

words such as prepositions, conjunctions as well as auxiliary and modal verbs, personal

and possessive pronouns are usually unstressed and pronounced in their weak forms

with reduced or even elided vowels to secure equal intervals between the stressed syllables, e.g.:

↘Come and `see me to ̖morrow.

↘None of them was `any ̖good.

The markedly regular stress-timed pulses of speech seem to create the strict, abrupt

and spiky effect of English rhythm. The English language is an analytical one. This factor explains the presence of a considerable number of monosyllabic form words which are normally unstressed in a stretch of English speech. To bring the meaning of the utterance to the listener the stressed syllables of the notional words are given more prominence by the speaker and the unstressed monosyllabic form words are left very weak.

Speech rhythmis traditionally defined as recurrence of stressed syllables at more

or less equal intervals of time in a speech continuum. We also find a more detailed definition of speech rhythm as the regular alternation of acceleration and slowing down, of relaxation and intensification, of length and brevity, of similar and dissimilar elements within a speech event. In the present-day linguistics rhythm is analysed as a system of similar adequate elements. A.M. Antipova [1984] defines rhythm as a complex language system which is formed by the interrelation of lexical, syntactic and prosodic means.

It has long been believed that the basic rhythmic unitis a rhythmic group, a speech segment which contains a stressed syllable with preceding or/and following unstressed syllables attached to it. Another point of view is that a rhythmic group is one or more words closely connected by sense and grammar, but containing only strongly stressed syllable and being pronounced in one breath, e.g. ↘Thank you→ The stressed syllable is the prosodic nucleus of the rhythmic group.

To acquire a good English speech rhythm the learner should: 1) arrange sentences

into intonation groups and 2) then into rhythmic groups 3) link every word beginning with a vowel to the preceding word 4) weaken unstressed words and syllables and reduce vowels in them 5) make the stressed syllables occur regularly at equal periods of time.

Maintaining a regular beat from stressed syllable to stressed syllable and reducing

intervening unstressed syllables can be very difficult for Ukrainian and Russian learners

English. Their typical mistake is not giving sufficient stress to the content words and not

sufficiently reducing unstressed syllables. Giving all syllables equal stress and the lack of selective stress on key/content words actually hinders native speakers' comprehension.

The rhythm-unit break is often indeterminate. It may well be said that the speech

tempo and style often regulate the division into rhythmic groups. 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 example of this. Prose read aloud or delivered in the form of a lecture is

more rhythmic than colloquial speech. On the other hand rhythm is also individual – a

fluent speaker may sound more rhythmical than a person searching for the right word

and refining the structure of his phrase while actually pronouncing it.

However, it is fair to mention here that absolutely regular speech produces the effect of monotony.

The most frequent type of a rhythmic group includes 2-4 syllables, one of them

stressed, others unstressed. In phonetic literature we find a great variety of terms defining the basic rhythmic unit, such as an accentual group or a stress group which is a 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. As you have probably noticed, the criteria for the definition of these units are limited by physiological factors. The term “hythmic group” used by most of the linguists [see Lehiste 1973; Gimson 1981; Антипова 1984] implies more than a stressed group or breath group. I.V. Zlatoustova [1979] terms it “rhythmic structure”. Most rhythmic groups are simultaneously sense units. A rhythmic

group may comprise a whole phrase, like “I can't do it” or just one word: “Unfortunately...” or even a one-syllable word: Well...; Now.... So a syllable is sometimes taken for a minimal rhythmic unit when it comes into play.

We undoubtedly observe the most striking rhythmicality in poetry.In verse 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 bow-shaped melody contour, decentralized stress organization. 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 similar number of syllables, their temporal similarity, descending melody contour, tone and 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.

Phonetic devicesadd considerably to the musical quality a poem has when it is

read aloud.

1. First and foremost among the sound devices is the rhymeat line endings. Most

skilful rhyming is sometimes presented by internal rhyme with two rhyming words within a single line.

2. Assonanceoccurs when a poet introduces imperfect rhymes often employed

deliberately to avoid the jingling sound of a too insistent rhyme pattern, e.g. “stone”

is made to rhyme with “one”; “youth” is rhymed with “roof”. In this way the rhymes do not fall into a sing-song pattern and the lines flow easily.

3. Alliterationis the repetition of the same sound at frequent intervals.

4. Sound symbolism(imitation of the sounds of animals) makes the description very vivid.

Structural or syntactical stylistic devicesindicate the way the whole poem has been built, thus helping the rhythm to fulfil its constitutive function.

1. Repetition.Poets often repeat single lines or words at intervals to emphasize a

particular idea. Repetition is to be found in poetry which is aiming at special musical effects or when a poet wants us to pay very close attention to something.

2. Syntactical parallelismhelps to increase rhythmicality.

3. Inversion,the unusual word order specially chosen to emphasize the logical centre of the phrase.

4. Polysyndetonis a syntactical stylistic device which actually stimulates rhythmicality of a poem by the repetition of phrases or intonation groups beginning with the same conjunctions “and” or “or”.

Semantic stylistic devicesimpart high artistic and aesthetic value to any work of

art including poetry.

1. Simileis a direct comparison which can be recognized by the use of the words,

“like” and “as”.

2. Metaphoris a stylistic figure of speech which is rather like simile, except that the comparison is not direct but implied and that makes the effect more striking.

3. Intensificationis a special choice of words to show the increase of feelings, emotions or actions.

4. Personificationoccurs when inanimate objects are given a human form or human feelings or actions.

The next point should concern prose.In prose an intonation group, a phrase and a phonopassage seem to have similar prosodic organization:

1. the beginning of a rhythmic unit is characterized by the tone and intensity maximum, the slowing of the tempo;

2. the end of a rhythmic unit is marked by a pause of different length, the tone and

intensity minimum, slowing of the tempo, generally sloping descending terminal tones;

3. the most common prenuclear pattern of a rhythmic unit is usually the High (Medium) Level Head.

The prosodic markers of rhythmic units differ in number. The intonation group has the maximum of the prosodic features constituting its rhythm. The phonopassage and the rhythmic group are characterized by the minimum of prosodic features, being mostly marked by the temporal similarity.

It should be also noted that 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

hesitation phenomena.

Spontaneous dialogic informal discourse reveals a rich variety of rhythm organization and the change of rhythmic patterns within a single stretch of speech. The most stable regularity is observed on the level of rhythmic and intonation groups. They often coincide and tend to be short. The brevity of remarks in spontaneous speech explains the most common use of level heads of all ranges, abrupt terminal tones of both directions. The falling terminal tone seems to be the main factor of rhythmicality in spontaneous speech. Longer intonation groups display a great variety of intonation patterns including all kinds of heads and terminal tones. 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.

The experimental investigations carried out in recent researches give ground to

postulate the differences in the prosodic organization of prosaic and poetic rhythm:

1. In verse there are simple contours often with the stepping head, the falling nuclear tone is more often gently sloping; there is a stable tendency towards a monotone.

2. In verse the stressed syllables are stronger marked out by their intensity and

duration than in prose.

3. In verse the tempo is comparatively slower than in prose.

4. In verse the rhythmic units except the rhythmic group tend to be more isochronous than in prose. The rhythmic group presents an exception in this tendency of

verse.

The ability to process, segment, and decode speech depends not only on the listener's knowledge of lexicon and grammar but also on being able to exploit knowledge of the phonetic means. It has been proved that the incoming stream of speech is not decoded on the word level alone. Having analyzed a corpus of ‘mishearings' committed by native English speakers in everyday conversation, scholars have discovered the following four strategies (holding the stream of speech in short-term memory) which the speakers employ to process incoming speech [see: Celce-Murcia et al 1996: 222]:

1. Listeners attend to stressand intonationand construct a metrical template –a distinctive pattern of strongly and weakly stressed syllables – to fit the utterance.

2. They attend to stressed vowels.(It should be noted, however, that errors involving the perception of the stressed vowels are rare among native speakers).

3. They segment the incoming stream of speechand find wordsthat correspond

to the stressed vowelsand their adjacent consonants.

4. They seek a phrase –with grammar and meaning – compatible with the metrical template identified in the first strategy and the words identified in the third strategy.

All four strategies are carried out simultaneously. In addition to carrying out these

strategies, listeners are also calling up their prior knowledge, or schemata(higher-order

mental frameworks that organize and store knowledge), to help them make sense of the

bits and pieces of information they perceive and identify using these strategies [Gilbert

1983; Celce-Murcia et al 1996: 223]

These exemplified strategies suggest that in decoding speech listeners perform the

following processes related to pronunciation:

1. discerning intonation units;

2. recognizing stressed elements;

3. interpreting unstressed elements;

4. determining the full forms underlying reduced speech.

In their overview of phonology and discourse, Celce-Murcia and Olshtain [2000:30-45] emphasize the following important functions of prosody in oral discourse:

1. the information managementfunction;

2. the interactional managementfunction, and

3. the social functionsof intonation.

Now we will discuss these functions in brief and outline their importance for intercultural verbal interactions.

It is generally claimed that phonologyperforms two related intonation management actions in English and in other languages:

1. it allows the speaker to segment intonation into meaningful word-groups;

2. it helps the speaker signal new or important information versus old and less

important information [Celce-Murcia, Olshtain 2000: 36].

In English the speakers usually resort to the following prosodic clues to segment

their speech into meaningful word groups:

1. They make a pause at the end of a meaningful word group, 2) deploy a change in

speech and 3) lengthen the last stressed syllable [Gilbert 1983]. These clues enable them

to organize information into chunks. Consider the following examples to illustrate this

function prosody, in which the same words with different prosody express very different

meanings Celce-Murcia, Olshtain 2000: 37]:

Have you met my brother Fred? Have “Father”, said Mother, “is late”. Father

you met my brother, Fred? said, “Mother is late”.

At the discourse level the speaker should aim at appropriate prosodic segmentation and avoid misinterpretation or confusion on the part of the listener.

The other important information management function of prosody is marking new

versus old information. It should be noted that new information typically occurs at the end of the utterance. In these examples [taken from: Celce-Murcia and Olshtain 2000:38], whatever information is new tends to receive special prosodic attention: the word is stressed and the pitch changes (such syllables are printed in capital letters):

Interaction management functionof prosody includes moves involving contrast, correction / repair, and contradiction [ibid:47]. The speakers signal contrast using prosodic cues (strong stress, high pitch) when they want to shift the focus of attention or create a contrast where there was none before [ibid: 38] as in the example that follows:

S1 I'd like APples, please.

S2 Would you like the YELlow ones or the RED ones?

When contradictionsor disagreementsarise in oral discourse, the speakers apply

prosodic clues to shift the focus from one constituent to another, e.g.:

S1 It's HOT.

S2 It's NOT hot

S1 It IS hot.

S2 Come on, it's not THAT hot.

The speakers actively use prosodic means while self-correcting or correcting their

interlocutors in the process of conversation during the so-called repair.This example of

interactional management function is very similar to disagreement from a prosodic point

of view, e.g.:

S1 You speak GERman, DON'tyou?

S2 Not GERman, FRENCH.

The examples given above illustrate how English speakers use prosody for informational managementand interactional management.

Phonetic and phonological problems of discourse still require a point-by-point and

systemic study.