Теоретическая фонетика английского языка (803492), страница 22

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However,since our primary concern is the functional aspect of intonation in oralspeech we are not going to specify the particular meaning of the terms andlook at the prosodic organization of oral discourse, or text.The study of oral discourse, i. e. structures extending beyond the sen­tence, demonstrates that intonation is ofcentral importance for the mean­ing and interpretation of spoken language.Probably one of the most important functions of intonation is tyingthe major parts together within the phrase and tying phrases togetherwithin the text showing in the process what things belong more closelytogether than others, where the divisions come, what is subordinate towhat, and whether one is telling, asking, commanding or exclaiming.

Inother words, in the previous sections we considered aspects of meaning inisolation, but now we shall focus on how meanings may be put togetherand presented in an oral discourse.It is demonstrated in recent phonetic investigations that intonationplays a very important role in the semantic organization of textual units.Here is a brief account of how intonation contributes to structuring anoral monologue.. Firstly, intonation is a cue to boundaries between discourse segments.This boundary is perceived due to the pitch parameters and pauses.

Gener­ally the beginning of a topical textual unit is marked by a high onset, in otherwords, the pitch range in the initial syntagm is comparatively wide and itgradually becomes narrower at the end of the textual unit. There is a markedchange ofpitch at the boundaries between textual units which may be accom­panied by a rather long pause and sometimes a change of loudness.In the example presented below (an extract from a lecture) the begin­nings of textual units are in bold print:The origin ofthis lecture I may perhaps be I a purely British problem. II AndI hope this will emerge perhaps I in the course ofdiscussion afterwards, II but it isconcerned with the role ofliterature, I reading and discussing literature I in theteachingofforeign languages.

IIIThe first point I that J need to make I is that modem languages I the study offoreign languages in England Iwas established at university level relatively late. III90Chapter IV. IntonationBesides marking boundaries intonation is an important means of bind­ing textual units together thus creating cohesion of spoken discourse. It isgenerally acknowledged that sentences in a text do not occur at random,there is a mutual dependence ofelements that form the text.

Intonation actsas an indicator of semantic relationships of both between and inside textualunits. By the placement of the nuclear tone, or accentuation, it is shownwhich lexical items carry new information. So the elements of the textwhich convey important information are marked by prosody, while othersremain unmarked which contributes to expressing and developing the in­formation content oftextual units and whole texts.Intonation can show which phonopassages are more important in termsof information they convey. Their prosodic organization is generally char­acterized by higher key, wider pitch range, greater loudness as compared tothe phonopassages which convey additional or less important information.The following extract from a talk given by a student of Cambridge is an il­lustration of how intonation actualizes the information content of textualunits: the lexical items carrying new information are in bold print, phrasesconveying low-key information are underlined.Television Iis really still Ithe dominantform ofentertainment in England.

IIAnd you know I there are 5 channels: I RRC 1, 12, IlTV, IChannel 4 I and re­cently Channel 5 has started out. II Rut in my opinion 1the RRC I is still Iyouknow I the best channell to put it plainly'. II It:~ very well respected abroad andat home. II It gives very good news coverage I it produces great dramas I orhertypes oLprogrammes.

IIIA" regards the prosodic organization ofdialogues, or conversational in­teraction there are two aspects to be taken into account here: the role ofintonation in organizing dialogues and the role ofprosody in structuring theinteraction itself (turn taking, interruptions and so on).We shall start with the organization of connections between phrases,with considering how one idea leads on to another.

Intonation is one ofthe means that fulfils this connection, performing the integrating func­tion.Obviously, in a spoken discourse a phrase does not exist in isolation, itis closely connected to other phrases, especially to the one preceding it.So a phrase exists in a certain verbal context and is relevant to this context.Let's look at the following dialogue:A: Where is John?B: He is in the house.4.5.

Functions of Intonation91In this dialogue phrase A is the context for phrase B, while B is a re­sponse to A and thus is relevant to A as a response to a special question.Relevance is the phenomenon that enables humans to converse. It is clearthat if we take phrase B in isolation its meaning will be obscure. So rele­vance exists only ifthere is a context.If we take an utterance like "John" in isolation, we cannot say muchabout its structure or meaning. But as soon as we make it relevant to a con­text, both the structure and meaning become clear.Who is in the house?John.We canthat it is an elliptical sentence and the meaning is"John is inthe house"'. The same phrase will have a different structure and meaning ina different context:Who did they see?John.The full form of response is "They saw John", a phrase in which thesequence "John" is now an object.

So the two utterances "John" appearidentical in isolation, but different contexts allow us to see their differ­ence.Analysing the role of intonation in discourse we must consider boththe verbal context and the speech situation. The example given above il­lustrates the connection between the information structure, L e. theplacement of the nucleus, with the verbal context and the speech situaSo the study of intonation in discourse is based on detailed analysisof the context, both the immediate verbal context and broader contextof speech interaction.When we view intonation in relation to discourse special attention isgiven to the relevant factors which determine the choice of intonation inparticular context. Generally two areas are considered in this respect: theuse ofintonation to focus the attention ofthe listener on the most impor­tant elements of the message and the use of intonation to regulate theconversational behaviour (A.

Cruttenden, P. Roach, A. Wichmann).As regards the first area, it was already mentioned that in speech in­teraction the placement of the nuclear tone depends on the verbal con­text, i. e. on what has already been said. Compare the position of thenuclear tone in the following short conversations.How does the story start?"It was an unusually dark night... "92Chapter IV. IntonationIn this case the position of the nuclear tone is unmarked, it is the so­called broad focus, and the whole phrase is perceived as new, importantinformation.

Here are some examples of the marked position ofthe nucleartone (narrow focus):What sort ofnight was it? It was an unusually dark night. Nights are usually dark here. It was an unusuallY dark night. The night was not very dark yesterday. It was an unusually dark night.

Focusing the attention of the listener on a particular part ofthe messagecan also be achieved by creating contrast between less important (low-key)information and more important (high-key) information.4.5. Functions oflntonation93leaving problem to go in the tail, can be interpreted as implying that life is asuccession ofproblems. " (J.

C. Wells, 2006). The use ofFall-Rise expressesreference to the knowledge shared by the speaker and the listener.Another aspect of how intonation functions in discourse is the ability ofintonation to regulate conversational behavior. Various prosodic signals canbe used to show that one person has finished speaking, that he wants to con­tinue speaking, that he is expecting an answer or that he is encouraging an­other person to continue the conversation. It can be observed in turn-takingin a dialogue.Hello, Anna.

It's ages since I've seen you. How are you doing? - Not so bad. Busy as usual with exams. And you? - Oh, still at the same place, you know, but enjoying it. The High Fall at the end of the first utterance and the High Rise at theend ofthe second utterance signal that it is the turn ofthe other participantLast time I as I am sure YOU remember I we discussed the functions ofinto­to speak. The rising tone encourages further conversation.nation.Similarly, intonation can show what particular type ofanswer is expect­Thank you very much for coming I nice of you to give us your time.ed from the listener. Compare two short dialogues:prosodic characteristics of the intonation group containing low­- Who do you think will help?key information as compared to the other intonation groups in the utter­- ,Jack will, ,won't he?ance are lower pitch level, narrower pitch range, increased tempo, lower- Well, I hope so.loudness.

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