Phonostylistics. Suprasegmental phonostylistic peculiarities. Intonational Styles

Phonostylistics. Segmental phonostylistic peculiarities. Stylistic variations

Phonostylistics is a branch of linguistics which analyses phonetic phenomena from stylistic point of view.

Ph-cs studies the way phonetic means are used in this or that peculiar situation, which exercises the conditioning influence of a set of factors which are referred to as extralinguistic factors.

Extralinguistic factors:

* age

* social state

* gender

* relationship between the communicators

1. Age – is associated with the role structure in the family and in social groups, with the assignment of authority and status and with the attribution of different levels of competence.

The speech behaviour of a person not only conveys information about his or her own age but also about the listener or the receiver of the verbal massage. Thus, the elderly person usually speaks in a high-pitched voice, people usually use this level speaking to younger children.

2. Social state – the interaction of individuals depends upon their learning and accepting the roles of social behaviour. A certain individual may possess a certain rank in an organization which entitles him to be addressed in a certain fanshion by his subordinates, in another way by his equals and in another way by his superiors

3. Gender – there is a consistent tendency for women to produce more standard or rhetorically correct pronunciation which is generally apposed to the omission of certain speech sounds. Women pronounce the standard realization of the verb ending “-ing” more frequently than men who realize “-in” (readin, interestin). Female speakers use more “polite” pattern of assertive pronunciation (Yes. Yes, I know) while male speakers use a more deliberate pattern (Yes. Yes, I know)

Phoneticians distinguish 2 or 3 styles:

1) official

in realization of vowels – distinct, clear pronunciation, preserving their qualities

plosive + plosive with a plosion

instead of devoicing the sonorant the preceding consonant is devoiced (play, try) => extralinguistic causes

2) non-official

* in diphthongs – the elision of the glide [ai] à [ә] (likely), [uә] à [ә] (sure)

* plosive + plosive à the 1-st plosive is elided (sit down [sidaun])

3) neutral

sonorant may be elided (extralinguistic causes)

Intonational Styles

– is a system of interrelated intonational means which is used in a certain social sphere and serves a definite aim in communication.

From the point of view of purpose of communication:

Informational formal (neutral)

Scientific

Declamatory

Publicistic

Familiar Conversational

The situational context & the speaker’s purpose determine the choice of an intonational style. The primary situational determinant is the kind of relationship existing between the participants in the communicative transaction.

The distinction of intonational styles is based on the assumption that there are 3 types of information present in an utterance:

intellectual information

volitional information

emotional & attitudinal inf

Informational Formal Style (Neutral)

press reporting, broadcasting & educational descriptive narratives

the rate of speech doesn’t vary greatly

pauses are not prolonged

rhythm is organized properly

single out the main ideas

falling, mid-level, low-rising tones

no great contrasts between accented & unaccented segments of phrases

Intellectual information prevails

Scientific Style (Academic)

Characterizes lectures, scientific discussion, conferences

The speaker must sound self-assured, authoritative, instructive

Terminal tones are compound

A great number of high categoric falls

The contrast between accented & unaccented segments isn’t great

Loudness may be increased

Pauses may be prolonged

Rhythm is organized properly

Intellectual & Volitional information prevails

Declamatory Style (Artistic, Stage style)

Theatrical activities, screen productions, TV

Sounds pronounced distinctly

Loudness varies according to the type of emotion rendered and the listeners

The rate of speech is deliberately slow

Pauses are long, emphatic

The contrast between accented & unaccented segments isn’t great

Terminal tones contain – a lot of categoric low and high falls in final and initial intonational groups

Emotional information prevails

Publicistic Style (Oratorical)

The aim of the speaker is to persuade & influence the audience

Speech is always prepared

Great contrasts of pitch, loudness, tempo, timbre

Every sound must be distinct

Strict rhyt

Volitional information prevails

Conversational Style

The speakers are comparatively free, sound neutral, use non-standard forms of speech

Conversations are not planned

The utterances are incomplete

A lot of hesitational pauses, slips of the tongue

A lot of introductory phrases

The intonational groups are short

Tone groups are often broken

The tempo varies greatly

Reduction of vowel

Mixture of all styles of information

A lot of question tags

The occurrence of contrasted verbal form

№ 14. National varieties of English pronunciation

It is common knowledge that over 300 million people now speak English as first language. It is the national language of Great Britain, the usa, Australia, new Zealand and Canada.

English was originally spoken in England and south-eastern Scotland. Then it was introduced into the greater part of Scotland and southern Ireland. In the 17 th centuries it was brought to North America. Later in the 18^th and 19^th centuries English was exported to Australia, new Zealand and south Africa.

English became wide-spread in Wales at about the same time. Welsh English is very similar to southern English, although the influence of welsh has played a role in its formation. Then in the 20 th century American English began to spread to Canada, Latin America, on the Bermudas, and in other parts of the world. Thus nowadays two main types of English are spoken in the English-speaking world: British English and American English.

According to British dialectologists the following variants of English are referred to the English-based group: English English, welsh English, Australian English, new Zealand English; to the American based group: united states English, Canadian English.

Scottish English and irish English fall somewhere between the two being somewhat by themselves.

The variants of a national language should not be confused with its regional types. There are 10 territorial(regional types) of the English language comprising such areas as the southern English, the northern English and the Scottish.

In the usa the regional types of the American variant of the English language are the following: the eastern type, the southern type and the general American type(western, Midwestern, central western)

19. British English. Received Pronunciation. British Dialects.

The English language is the mother tongue of several countries, such as GB, the USA, Australia, New Zealand. The English language is also used by the greater part of the population of Canada and the Republic of South Africa. It is native to many who live in India, Israel, Malta and Ceylon.

Traditionally, schools and universities in Europe and in many other parts of the world are taught that variety of English which is often referred to as British English. The term serves to distinguish the forms of the English language used in the United Kingdom from forms used elsewhere. There is a meaningful degree of uniformity in written English within the United Kingdom, and this could be described as "British English". The forms of spoken English, however, vary considerably more in most other areas of the world where English is spoken and a uniform concept of "British English" is therefore more difficult to apply to the spoken language.

The social standard of the pronunciation within Britain is the so-called Received Pronunciation or RP. It is the teaching norm at schools and higher learn­ing establishments in Russia because of:

1. the degree of understandability in English-speaking countries,

2. the extent of RP investigation,

3. the number of textbooks and audio-visual aids.

RP is originated in the south-east of England and is a genuinely regionless accent within Britain. This accent is encountered and understood throughout the country. It is currently a social accent associated with the Public Schools in England and with the members of the upper classes. RP is used most often in radio and TV broadcasts in England.

The Received Pronunciation accent is actually used by perhaps only 3% to 5% of the population of England and that’s why the students arriving in England can have difficulties with understanding of 95-97% of the population.

Dialects and accents vary between the four countries of the United Kingdom, and also within the countries themselves. Because of the differences in sensitivity to regional and social distinctions between pronunciation and other aspects of language, it is normal to make a distinction between accent and dialect. Accent is referred to nothing but pronunciation and dialect is referred to every aspect of the language.

Dialects are distributed not only geographically; there is a geographical mobility – people move from one place to another, taking their dialects with them. They modify them in the course of time to fit their new surroundings. Geography is only one of the relevant factors, others being social class, sex and age. Social dialects or sociolects demonstrate non-regional differences. A speaker may show more similarity in his language to people from the same social group in a different area than to people from a different social group in the same area. One of the characteristics of the hierarchal social structure of a country like Britain is that social class as a determinant of speech is more important than geography. We see more geographical variation among people in the lower social classes than at the top of the social pyramid.

Non-RP accents of England are 10 in number and may be grouped in the following way:

1. London (Cockney)

2. Norwich (East Anglia, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Bedfordshire)

3. Bristol (the west of England)

4. Pontypridd (West-south Wales)

5. Wallsall (West Midlands)

6. Bradford (Yorkshire)

7. Belfast (Northern Ireland)

8. Liverpool (Merseyside)

9. Newcastle (the North-east)

10.Edinburgh (Scotland)

If we group them into larger blocks of accents based on British-English standard we have:

English-English, Welsh English, Scottish English and Northern Ireland English.

Dialects of English differ from each other first of all in sound system. Every dialect is a local dialect: it is rooted in a particular region of the English-speaking world. Widely separated ones may be mutually unintelligible or intelligible only with difficulty. Далее про сами диалекты см. методичку стр. 53-58

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