May Week at Cambridge

Informational Educational Descriptive Monologue

The Invariant of Phonostylistic Characteristics of Informational Educational Descriptive Texts Reading

Timbre	impartial, dispassionate, reserved, resonant
Delimitation	phoriopassiiges — phrases — intonational groups; pauses are mostly at syntactical junctures, normally of medium length but for the end of the passage
Style-marking prosodic features	Loudness	normal (piano) throughout the text, varied at the phonopassage boundaries
Levels and ranges	decrease of levels and ranges within the passage
Rate	normal (moderate) or slow, not variable
Pauses	mostly syntactical of normal length, occasional emphatic ones for the semantic accentuation
Rhythm	systematic, properly organized isochronic, decentralized accentuation
Accentuation of semantic centres	Terminal tones	common use of final categoric falls; in non-final segments mid-level and low rising tones are often used
Pre-nuclear patterns	common use of falling and level heads or, several falls within one interpausal unit
Contrast between accented arid unaccented segments	not great

Much has been said earlier about the differences between reading and speaking. Our goal here is to demonstrate them on the prosodic level by concrete examples. Now the text "May Week in Cambridge" was reproduced spontaneously by the same speaker in the form of a monologue. He did it in a rather formal manner and directed it to the same group of students. We may specify it as a certain specialized talk intuitively associated with the task set before the speaker — to give information on customs and traditions of university life in Britain. So it is clearly restricted to a particular informational function, thus the text presented seems to be.most suitable for this informational style register and we consequently have cause to refer to it.

(Reproduced by Roy Paully)

-»As you probably ^xknow | the uni veisities of "Oxford and yCambridge | are the _»two ^voldest universities in ^vEngland || and be~* cause of > that, | because of their _xage | they have -» many tra_vditions \ which to _vforeigners f might _»appear to be very _vstrange. || ~* One of these tra>ditions | is ^xMay Week in Cam bridge. Ц) This is par^xticularly,strange | as it doesn't 'happen in ,May and is not in 'fact a.week. || It stretches 'over ^vtwo weeks. | the 7th and '8th weeks of the ^xterm. || There is ^xno 'real 'reason for ^xcalling it May.Week | and per>haps \ it is ^x heralding the 'coming of ^vMay (which is till then 'being ig>nored \ in ^xfavour of 'more ^xserious matters \ like examinations. There're ~* many different activities \ which _> go on during ^May ,Week | for the most 'part there are 'many >plays | put on by indi vidual 'college so.cieties. | very often 'taking place outdoors I in ~* College ^xgardens. There are ^xalso ^xrowing races | with ~*crews of _veight \ competing in 'bumping races. What I ~*mean _xbumping races \ is when the _vaim is >to $ >bump \ ~*back of the "boat \ in _vfront of you \ on the -»Cam Driver.

^vPersonally \ I come from ^xOxford University, | so ->I know t far more about^xOxford. || In >Oxford | we don't have a _vMay .Week. || We work until the end of the ^xeighth week | when ex-ami"* nations ^xfinish and | it is not till _vthen | that we -» have our e_xguivalent of May Week | when _» similar.things take^x place.

The purpose of the communication in the setting described explains the businesslike, dispassionate, detached, impartial voice timbre. Occasionally the speaker sounds interested, especially, when he speaks about his own experiences.

Speaking about the delimitation of spoken texts it should be pointed out that it depends on the degree of spontaneity. The basic unit of a monological spoken text is also a phonopassage but its stretch is greatly varied, much greater than in reading. As in oral speech the rules of syntax are not strictly followed, passages are broken into utterances which do not often coincide with sentences. Pauses at the end of the phrase are commonly optional; hesitation pauses often break a syntagm into several intonational groups and occur both intentionally and non-inten-tionally. They may be filled and non-filled (silent):

What I - mean _vbumping races $ is when the _vaim is > to f >bump I ~* back of the ^xboat \ in _xfront of you \ on the -»Cam _vriver.

As the addressees are a comparatively small group of people the text on the whole is of normal loudness which is not greatly varied but for the decreases towards the end of the passage. The increase of loudness is evident at the start of the phonopassage and on its emphatic communicative centres. This may be also referred to levels and ranges. Various ranges and levels bind together several successive sequences, each having its own tone group, into a larger unit.

The rate of utterances is remarkably varied. In the majority of cases it is normal, but increases towards allegro on less significant units and decreases towards lento on emphatic centres of the phrase or supraphrasal units.

The length of pauses depends on the syntactical and semantic value, the maximum length being at the passage boundaries.

This spoken monologue is characterized by non-systematic rhythmicality, subjective isochrony; the rhythmicality within the phonopassage is achieved by the alternation of all prosodic parameters.

Semantic centres of all segments of speech are accentuated by the variation of all prosodic features. Terminal tones are final and categoric, the emphasis being achieved by the use of high (medium) abrupt falls, or several falls within one interpausal unit. Low rising and mid-level tones are common for initial or non-final intonation groups to bind them together into a phrasal un«:

In >Oxford | we don't have a ^May,Week.

Types of heads in pre-nuclear patterns are varied: level heads of one accentuated pre-nuclear syllable prevail, sometimes several partially accented syllables occur between them. Descending falling heads are also quite common, occasionally broken by the "accidental rise":

Personally \ I come from ^vOxford University, | so -> I know tfar more about ⁴Oxford.

As the monologue is quite spontaneous the contrast between accented and non-accented segments is great; also the centralized type of stress helps to underline the semantic centres:

This is particularly.strange | as it doesn't 'happen in,May | and is not in 'fact a ^xweek.

Now the auditory analysis of various informational descriptive monologues and the works of phonetic-style researchers (20, 23, 30) allow us to conclude that this description may be applied to the majority of spoken monologues produced within the register and may be treated as the invariant of the prosodic characteristics of the informational descriptive spoken monologue.

Table 4

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