Pausation and tamber

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MELODY

Speech melody or pitch of the voice is closely connected with sen­tence stress. Crystal states that "the only realizations of stress, which are linguistic, which are capable of creating an effect of relative pro­minence, of accent, are those which are effected with the complex

help of pitch, quantity and quality variations. The most important is pitch." ^L

Successive contours of intonation singled out of the speech flow may be defined differently: sense-groups (semantic approach), breath-groups (extra-linguistic approach), tone groups (phonological definition)^a intonation groups, tone (tonetic) units, pitch and stress patterns. Each tone unit has one peak of prominence in the form of a nuclear pitch movement and a slight pause after the nucleus that end the tone unit and is usually shorter than the term "pause" in pausation system.

The tone unit is one of the most important units of intonation theory. It contains one nucleus, which is often referred to as nuclear tone, or peak of prominence. The interval between the highesfand the lowest pitched syllable is called the range of a sense-group. The range usually depends on the pitch level: the higher the pitch, the wid­er the range. High, medium and low pitch of the voice is shown on the staves. The change of pitch within the last stressed syllable of the tone-group is called a nuclear tone. It may occur not only in the~nu-cleus but extend to the tail — terminal tone.

The inventory of tonal types given by different scholars is dif­ferent. Sweet distinguishes 8 tones: - level, ' high rising,, low ris­ing, ^лhigh falling,»low falling, ^v compound rising, ^л compound falling, - rising-falling-rising. Palmer has four basic tones: falling, high rising, falling-rising, low rising. He also mentions high-fall­ing and "low level" and describes coordinating tonal sequences ("" identical tone groups), and subordinating tonal sequences (■' " dissimilar tone groups). Kingdon distinguishes high and low, normal and emphatic tones and gives rising, falling, falling-rising (divided and undivided), rising-falling, rising-falling-rising and level tone (the latter is not nuclear). O'Connor and Arnold give low and high falls and rises, rise-fall, fall-rise, and a compound fall 4- rise (the latter is considered a conflation of two simple tunes). Halliday recognizes seven major types, \ ',,, ^л, ^v, ⁴⁺, ^л+/.

Vassilyev gives ten tone units. He states that tones can be moving and level. Moving tones can be: simple, complex and compound. They are: Low Fall; High Wide Fall; High Narrow Fall; Low Rise; High Narrow Rise; High Wide Rise; Rise-Fall; Fall-Rise; Rise-Fall-Rise. The most common compound tones are: High Fall + High Fall; High Fall 4- Low Rise. Level Tones can be pitched at High, Mid and Low level.

Methods of indicating intonation are different: wedge-like symbols, staves with dots and dashes, which correspond to unstressed and stressed syllables within the voice range, tonetic stress marks, numeri­cal system, etc. The system of staves is the most vivid, the system of

¹ Crystal D. Prosodic Systems and Intonation in English.— Cambridge,
1969,— P. 120.

² Crystal's terminology.

tonetic symbols is the most economical and vivid, that's why they are most popular in our textbooks.

'The tonetic units that constitute the total tone pattern (contour) are the following:

1. unstressed and half stressed syllables preceding the first stressed
syllable constitute the prehead of the intonation group;

2. stressed and unstressed syllables up to the last stressed syllable
constitute the head, body or scale of the intonation group;

3. the last stressed syllable, within which fall or rise in the intona­
tion group is accomplished, is called the nucleus; the syllable marked
with the nuclear tone may take a level stress;

4. the syllables (or one syllable), that follow the nucleus, consti­
tute the tail, e.g.

It's been a 'very igood, even ing for me.

prehead

scale nucleus

tail

The most important part of the intonation group is the nucleus, which carries nuclear stress (nuclear tone).

According to the changes in the voice pitch preheads can be: rising, mid and low:

rising

• * •

mid

4 f #

low

Scales can be: descending, ascending and level.

According to the direction of pitch movement within and between syllables, descending and ascending scales can be: stepping, sliding and scandent;

descending stepping descending sliding descending scandent

_	*
	t	*\
—		I - *

ascending stepping

ascending sliding

ascending scandent

nmminiS 1 ^the_f^^{ds ш the} descending scale is made specially

SB5 th/f ^1C4 ^arrrJ^s P^{]aced before} the dash-mark which indicates the stressed syllable on the staves, or before the word

made specially prominent in the text— f\/ accidental rise, e.g. 'John

is |very _tbusy.

This type of scale is called

up broken descending scale.

The falling tones convey completion and finality, they are categor­ic in character. The rising tones are incomplete and non-categoric. Of all the level tones mid level tone is used most frequently. The level tones may express hesitation and uncertainty.

Attitudinal function of intonation can be observed in utterances consisting of one word and in utterances consisting of more than a single word. In the latter cases it is not only that the type of the nu­cleus is important but also the pitch of the utterance preceding the nu­cleus: prehead and head. The attitudinal function of different tonal types in statements, special and general questions, commands and in­terjections is accurately and thoroughly described in the "Intonation of Colloquial English" by J. D. O'Connor and G. F. Arnold and in our textbooks on phonetics.

SENTENCE STRESS, OR ACCENT

Sentence stress is a greater prominence of words, which are made more prominent in an intonation group. The special prominence of accented words is achieved through the greater force of utterance and changes in the direction of voice pitch, accompanied by changes in the quantity of the vowels under stress (in unstressed position vowels may undergo qualitative changes, see unstressed vocalism).

The difference between stress and accent is based on the fact that in the case of stress the dominant perceptual component is loudness, in the case of accent it is pitch. Degrees of stress in an utterance cor­relate with the pitch range system. Nuclear stress is the strongest — it carries the most important information. Non-nuclear stresses are subdivided into full and partial. Full stress occurs only in the head of an intonation group, partial stress occurs also in the prehead and tail. Partial stresses in the prehead are most frequently of a low va­riety, high partial stress can occur before a low head. Words given partial stress do not lose their prominence completely, they retain the whole quality of a vowel.

In tone-groups stress may undergo alternations under the influ­ence of rhythm, but there are some rules concerning words that are usually stressed or unstressed in an utterance.

Given below is the list of words that are usually stressed:

Nouns.¹ Adjectives. Numerals. Interjections. Demonstrative pro­nouns. Emphatic pronouns. Possessive pronouns (absolute form). In­terrogative pronouns. Indefinite pronouns: somebody, someone, some­thing, anybody, anyone, anything (used as subject). Indefinite neg­ative pronouns: no, none, no one, nobody, nothing. Indefinite pro-

Such as "thing", "person", "place" are unstressed.

nouns some, any (expressing quality). Indefinite pronouns: all, each, every, other, either, both. Indefinite quantitative pronouns: much, many, a little, a few. Notional verbs. Auxiliary verbs (negative con­tracted forms). Two-word prepositions. Two-word conjunctions. Par­ticles: only, also, too, even, just.

The words that are usually unstressed:

Personal pronouns. Reflexive pronouns. Reciprocal pronouns. Relative pronouns.¹ Possessive pronouns (conjoint form). Indefinite pronouns: somebody, someone, something, anybody, anyone, anything (used as object). Indefinite pronouns some, any (when expressing quan­tity). Auxiliary verbs² (affirmative form). One-word prepositions and conjunctions. Articles. Particles: there, to. Modal verbs (contract­ed forms and general questions are exceptions).

The meaning of the verbs may, should, must changes depending on whether they "are stressed or unstressed, e. g. You '•may go — possi­bility. You may 'go — permission.

Stresses in an utterance provide the basis for identification and understanding of the content, they help to perform constitutive, dis­tinctive and identificatory function of intonation. These functions are performed jointly with the pitch component of intonation.

RHYTHM AND TEMPO

Rhythm is the regular alternation of stressed and unstressed syl­lables. It^is' so'typical of an English phrase that the incorrect rhythm betrays the non-English origin of the speaker even in cases of "cor­rect" pronunciation.

The'phenomenon of rhythm is closely connected with the phonetic nature of stress.

The units of the rhythmical structure of an utterance are stress groups от rhythmic groups. The perception of boundaries between rhythmic groups is associated with the stressed syllables or peaks of prominence.

Unstressed syllables have a tendency to cling to the preceding stressed syllables — enclitics, or to the following stressed syllables — proclitics. In English, as a rule, initial unstressed syllables cling to the following stressed syllables, non-initial unstressed syllables are enclitics:

**^~^ — usual rhythm pattern,.T>, — exceptions with the

initial unstressed syllables.

Each sense-group of the sentence is pronounced at approximately the same period of time, unstressed syllables are pronounced more

¹ The pronoun which in non-defining clauses is usually stressed, e.g. I
gave him a spade, which tool he hid in the barn.

² In general questions the affirmative forms may be stressed and unstres­
sed.

rapidly: the greater the number of unstressed syllables, the quicker they are pronounced. Proclitics are pronounced faster than enclitics. Rhythm is connected with sentence stress. Under the influence of rhythm words which are normally pronounced with two equally strong stresses may lose one of them, or may have their word stress realized differently, e. g.

'Picca'dilly—-'Piccadilly 'Circus—'close to Picca'dilly

I princess—a 'royal prin'cess

lindiarubber—a 'piece of india'rubber—an Hndiarubber _vball

Pausation is closely connected with the other components of into­nation. The number and the length of pauses affect the general tempo of speech. A slower tempo makes the utterance more prominent and more important. It is an additional means of expressing the speaker's emotions.

Pauses made between two sentences are obligatory. They are longer than pauses between sense-groups and are marked by two paral­lel bars /Ц/. Pauses made between sense-groups are shorter than pauses made between sentences. They are marked I l_t I \l, I \\L

Pauses are usually divided into filled and unfil ed, corresponding to voiced and silent pauses. Silent pauses are distinguished on the ba­sis of relative length: brief, 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.

Another subdivision of pauses is into breathing and hesitation.

Pauses play not only segmentative and delirnitative 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 tost between them (they loved each other). There was no love j 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 /э, s:/. They may be used for emphasis, to attach special importance to the word, which follows it.

The tamber or^Tthe 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, etc.

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. It is studied along the lines of quality: whisper, breathy, creak, hus­ky, falsetto, resonant, and qualification: laugh, giggle, tremulousness, sob, cry (the list compiled by Cafford and Laver).

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