Functions of prosodic features

Discourse function

The study of the discourse function attempts to look at sentence intonation patterns within larger contexts in which they occur. It gives us a chance to find that there are prosodic cues which serve as

• references to shared knowledge of the speakers in the conversational interaction;

• signals to focus the listener's attention on aspects of the message that are most important;

• means to regulate the conversational behavior of the participants, like turn-taking, for instance: to indicate to others that they have finished speaking, that another person is expected to speak, that a particular type of response is required.

What are you doing here? — I've been asking myself the same question./1 came with a ^colleague. So how are 'you?//—^v Well, /apart from being "very disappointed 'not to see my favorite reindeer „jumper again, Tm,well.//

In the above dialogue each speaker raises pitch at the end of the utterance, be it a special question or a statement, as a signal for the other party to begin talking. It can be interpreted as encouraging further conversation or appealing, or just giving a turn to the other participant. A rising tone is definitely directed at the listener. We could also comment on the use of the falling-rising tone hinting at some information shared by the two participants (about the reindeer jumper).

Sometimes the shared information is part of the cultural background, like an allusion at "The Grasshopper and the Cricket" by John Keats in the following:

I'm like the "grasshopper/ who sang all "summer.//

In the following dialogue there is a reference made by the mother to the latest meeting with a supposed-to-be boyfriend whose name is also supplied with a fall-rise:

'Have you 'heard from 'Mark "Darcy?— 'Good-'bye Mum. (The hint is not taken, the daughter refuses to discuss the theme).

To conclude: "We speak in order to communicate, and we need to interact with our listeners to do this. We must indicate what type of information we are presenting and how it is structured, and at the same time we must keep our listeners' attention and their participation in the exchange of information." {Roach 2001:35). Thus practically all the separate functions traditionally attributed to intonation (syntactical, attitudinal, accentual, semantic) could be seen as different aspects of discourse function.

It should be noted here that it is more customary to attach the term prosody to the following discourse functions:

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