Stylistic Use of Intonation

Pausation and Tamber

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 /||/. Pauses made between sense-groups are shorter than pauses made be­tween sentences. They are marked /|/.

Pauses are usually divided into filled and unfilled, corresponding to voiced and silent pauses. Pauses are distinguished on the basis of rela­tive length: 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 delimitative 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 lost between them (they loved each other). There was no lov | 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 /ə, з:/ or /m, з:m /. They may be used for emphasis, to attach special importance to the word, which fol­lows it.

The tamber or the 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. Tamber is studied along the lines of quality: whisper, breathy, creak, husky, fal­setto, resonant, and qualification: laugh, giggle, tremulousness, sob, cry.

According to M.A. Sokolova's data, stylistically distinctive function of intonation is determined by the intonational styles, which are the fol­lowing:

1. Informational

2. Academic (Scientific)

3. Publicistic (Oratorial)

4. Declamatory (Artistic)

5. Conversational (Familiar)

Intonational styles register and speech typology correlate along the lines of

1. varieties of language: spoken or written;

2. forms of communication: monologue or dialogue, polylogue;

3. degree of speech preparedness: prepared, spontaneous;

4. the number of participants: public, non-public;

5. character of participants' relationship: formal, informal.

Spontaneous informal conversational style comprises eight groups of attitudinal intonation patterns. Their use depens on the situation, emotionalstate of the speakers, their relationship, extralinguistic factors. This style is very polular with the students, so the teachers should pay due attentionto the communicative part of intonation teaching.

We hope that Exercises, Control tasks and Tapescripts will be helpful forbetter understanding different intonational styles.

Дата добавления: 2014-01-06