Functions of rhythm

Rhythm is a complicated language system. This system comprises well organized elements of different sizes in whish smaller rhythmic units are joined into more complex ones: a rhythmic group – an intonation group – a phrase (a line in poetry) – a phonopassage.

- Rhythm serves to unite elements in speech: smaller units are organized into larger ones, larger units include smaller ones. So rhythm unites text segments into a whole and at the same time cuts the discourse into elements. This is integrative and delimitative function.

- Rhythmically organized speech is easily perceived. From the psycholinguistic point of view the regularity in rhythm seems to be in harmony with his biological rhythms.

- On the linguistic level the pragmatic value of speech rhythm is realized in its volitional function. Rhythm is capable of expressing different degrees of emotional effect of the listener.

Eg. ˋWill you 'stop that 'dreadful ˋnoise.

INTONATION

The most essential speech unit completes an independent enough to function, as a unit of communication is a sentence. It can perform the function not only because it consists of words that are made up of definite sounds have a definite meaning and follow each other in a definite order according to the rules of language, but also because it possesses definite phonetic features without which the sentence cannot exist. These features are closely connected with a meaning of the utterance as a whole and carry important information that the words of the utterance do not convey. Each feature performs a definite task and all of them work simultaneously.

They are:

1. Pitch of the voice: does not stay on the same level while the sentence is pronounced, it fluctuates rising and falling on the vowels and voiced consonants. These rises and falls are not chaotic but form definite patterns, typical English. The fluctuations of the voice-pitch are called speech melody.
2. Sentence stress or accent – is a greater prominence of one or more words among other words in the same sentence.
3. Tempo – is the relative speed with which sentences and intonation group are pronounced in connected speech.
4. Speech timbre / ' tæmbə/ - is a special colouring of voice which shows the speaker’s emotions (pleasure, displeasure, sorrow, etc).
5. Pauses – sentences are usually separated from each other by pauses. If necessary, the sentence is subdivided into shorter word-groups, according to sense. These are called sense-groups or syntagms. The pauses between sentences are characterized by a relative long pause. The pauses between sense-groups (intonation groups) are shorter, they very in length. There may be no pauses between intonation groups at all.
6. Rhythm. The result of subtle interrelation of stress and time is a peculiar rhythm resembling a drumbeat.

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