General Considerations

Q Stylistic use of intonation

Q General considerations

PHONOSTYLISTICS

LESSON 9

CHECK YOURSELF

Questions and tasks:

1. What is assimilation?

2. What features of the articulation of a consonant may be affected by assimilation?

3. What types of assimilation are there in the English language?

4. What is the distinction between different types of assimilation?

Key words and expressions:

phonostylistics, linguistic, extra-linguistic factor, stylistic differentiation, oral texts, phonetic phenomena, 'least linguistic', phenomena of speech, feature of utterance, systemic relationships, relatively isolated function, aspects of language structure, situational background, linguistic features, situational factors, variables, extra-linguistic context, phonetic processes, independent status, 'theory of phonostylistics', gen­eral recognition, lin­guistic domain, objectives of phonostylistics, paralinguistics, psychology, psycholinguistics, sociology, sociolinguistics, dialectology, literary criticism, aesthetics, information theo­ry, interdisciplinary status, prima­ry determinants, phonetic norm, deviation, variation, invariant, phonetic synonyms, euphonology, sound symbolism

Phonostylistics came into existence as an attempt to star bridging the gap between linguistic and extra-linguistic factor in analysing stylistic differentiation of oral texts.

Phonostylistics is not just a new brand of linguistics, to set side by side on the shelves with all the old brands. It is a whole different way of looking at phonetic phenomena. It is a way of doing phonetic science which includes various extra-linguistic factors, instead of systematically excluding them.

'Least linguistic ' end would be placed for all phenomena of speech that are not language, i. e. those feature of utterance which seem to have little potential for entering into systemic relationships, which have a relatively isolated function and cannot be easily integrated with other aspects of language structure, e.g. vocal effects lacking any semantic force (such as breathy and raspy voice quality or coughing). Moreover, under the heading of 'least linguistic' would also fall the situational background against which the linguistic features are used. A sub-set of situational factors (or variables) forms the so-called extra-linguistic context, that is, everything non-linguistic which exists at the time of using the linguistic features.

As the term suggests, phonostylistics is concerned with the study of phonetic phenomena and processes from the stylistic point of view. It cropped up as a result of a certain amount of functional overlap between phonetics and stylistics, thereby there is no full agreement as to whether it is to be related to the former or the latter. Another approach is to grant pho­nostylistics an independent status. Despite the recent dramatic increase of interest in the subject, too little empirical work has been done for any well-grounded 'theory of phonostylistics ' to emerge as yet. The attempts made so far have resulted in a gen­eral recognition of the existence and the importance of this lin­guistic domain, but its contours have not been more or less defi­nitely outlined.

In dealing with the objectives of phonostylistics, it should be taken into account that it bears on quite a number of adjacent linguistic and non-linguistic disciplines such as paralinguistics, psychology and psycholinguistics, sociology and sociolinguistics, dialectology, literary criticism, aesthetics, information theo­ry, etc. Since they are confronted with certain overlapping issues and there are no rigorous functional boundary lines to be drawn, it can be inferred that phonostylistics has an interdisciplinary status.

The more one examines speech in its full interactional con­text, the more one finds examples of utterance where the prima­ry determinants of the speaker's identity and purpose, and of the listener's response, are phonostylistic. 'Say it as if you meant it', 'You don't sound as if you were a diplomat', and the unavoidable 'It wasn't what he said, but the way that he said it”, provide a clear insight into the essential characteristic of phonostylistics, i. e. it is concerned with how a person talks about something rather than what he talks about. This problem plays a peripheral role in phonetics, but it receives high priority consideration in phonostylistics. To solve the problem one has to describe in minutest detail stylistically marked modifications of vowels, consonants, vowel-consonant sequences, syllabification, stress, intonation, as well as all the non-linguistic features of utterance. However, the problem in its entirety is nowhere near solution.

Now we shall attempt to delineate the range of issues that are integral to phonostylistics.

1. The Phonetic Norm and Deviation (or Variation). A phonostylistician is usually interested in deviations from norm rather than in norms themselves, although the norms have to be determined before deviations from them can be noted and interpreted. The norm is regarded as the invariant of the phoned patterns circulating in language-in-action at a given period of time. Deviations from these patterns may be great but they never exceed the range of tolerance set by the invariant, otherwise an utterance may become unrecognizable or misleading, as in the case of a very strong foreign accent.

2. Phonetic Synonyms, i. e. utterance variations, conditioned by numerous situational (extra-linguistic) factors, for instance “lemme-let me”, "gonna — going to”, “c'mon — come on”, “g'by — good-bye”, “awreddy — already”, “don't-cha — don't you”, “prob'ly — probably”, “t'day — today”, “s'pose — suppose”, etc. This involves the study of reduction and assimilation processes, sound elision and ecthlipsis, as well as phonemic distinctions neutralization.

Variants of words, differing in accent placement, should also be classified as phonetic synonyms, e.g. "`hospitable - hos'pitable”, "`formidable — for`midable”, "`interesting - inte'resting”, “ciga'rette — 'cigarette”, "kilo`metre — ki'lometre ", “`adult — a'dult” and the like.

3. Euphonology (Gk. 'eu' — well; 'phone' — a sound; 'logos' — a word), dealing with characterization of speech sounds from a euphonic point of view. Euphony presupposes pleasant­ness or smoothness of sound, assimilation of the sounds of sylla­bles to facilitate pronunciation and to please the ear.

The fact that different sounds may be agreeable or disagreeable to the ear is a matter of common knowledge; it does not take a trained ear to detect that differences exist. For example, it has been noted that in Ukrainian [л] is the most musical sound, [p] is a strident, jerky sound opposed to the liquid [л]; [з] and [с] are dry, sibilant sounds.

Euphonology also treats arrangement of sounds which has a certain aesthetic value, e.g. alliteration, assonance, rhyme and other types of sound repetition.

5. Sound Symbolism. It is based on the assumption that sepa­-
rate sounds due to their specific features are able to evoke certain ideas, emotions, perceptions and images. For instance, it has
been suggested that the English vowel [u:] generally conveys
sorrow and seriousness, while [i:] produces the feeling of joy.

6. However, it is realistic to generalize only if such information is
provided and supported by statistics, otherwise it is a matter of
individual perception and therefore subjective.

Besides, sound symbolism manifests itself in a combination of speech sounds which aims at imitating sounds produced in nature, by people, by things or by animals, e.g. splash, giggle, bang, purr and so on. It is noteworthy that members of different language communities may perceive and imitate these sounds differently, in accordance with the phonological systems of their languages (see Table 4, which exemplifies the use of words to imitate sounds produced by animals in Ukrainian, English, Spanish and Danish).

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