Лекциялар жинағы Мамандығы: 5В011900 «Шетел тілі: екі шетел тілі»
жүктеу/скачать 221,88 Kb.
|
лекция - теор ф
| LECTURE 10. Theme: Intonation Structure of English Sentences
After considering the system of English segmental phonemes, the syllabic structure and the accentual structure of English words we are to focus on the topic of particular theoreti al and practical interest, i.e. intonation. In this chapter our general aims will be: first, to present a concise, simple, yet adequate definition of intonation; second, to describe the main structural components of the intonation pattern; third, to present methods for transcribing intonation, that is a suitable way of notation; and fourth, to explore the function of intonation in various textual units, looking particularly at examples m which intonation resolves grammatical and lexical ambiguity. Intonation is a language universal. There are no languages which are spoken as a monotone, i.e. without any change of prosodic parameters. But intonation functions in various languages in a different way. What is the role intonation plays in the language? The further our interests move towards some notion of communicative competence and away from the lesser ability to produce and understand grammatical sentences, the greater is the pressure one feels to take proper account of how intonation contributes to the communicative value of the act of speech. We are beginning to realize more and more that engagement with intonation is not merely a "cosmetic" or "decorative" exercise, comparatively unimportant, but that in fact it leads one to a consideration of some quite fundamental aspects of the communicative process. Unfortunately many teachers have preferred to concentrate their attention upon the study of sounds with the result that the study of intonation is tended to lag behind. One reason for this state of affairs is that a very special skill is required in the recognition of intonation variations. This skill is more difficult to acquire than the ability to recognize strange sounds for two reasons. Intonation is used by native speakers even more unconsciously than are sounds, and — apart from an occasional random hint thrown out by a punctuation mark or by italics — no attempt is made in print to convey intonation, whereas even in a language so abominably spelt as English the orthography continually reminds the reader of the sounds he must produce. The second reason is that we have at our disposal a far more detailed analysis of the sounds of English than of its intonation. It happened so because early phoneticians were preoccupied with segmental phonemes rather more than with intonation. We would like to start with the description of intonation on the auditory and acoustic levels and then pass over to its linguistic function. It is quite impossible to describe intonation in a word or two. Sometimes the ups and downs of pitch and loudness are compared to the waves of the ocean. "The surface of the ocean responds to the forces that act upon it in movements resembling the ups and downs of the human voice" (47, p. 19). There is wide agreement among Soviet linguists that on perception level intonation is a complex, a whole, formed by significant variations of pitch, loudness and tempo (i.e. the rate of speech and pausation) closely related. Some Soviet linguists regard speech timbre as the fourth component of intonation. As a matter of fact, up to now timbre has not been sufficiently investigated yet. Neither its material form nor its linguistic function have been thoroughly described. Though speech timbre definitely conveys certain shades of attitudinal or emotional meaning there is no good reason to consider it alongside with the three prosodic components of intonation, i.e. pitch, loudness and tempo. Nowadays there is another term "prosody" which embraces the three prosodic components and substitutes the term "intonation". It is widely used in linguistic literature, it causes no misunderstanding and, consequently, it is more adequate. We feel strongly that this term would be more suitable for our book too, but, unfortunately, it has not been accepted" in the teaching process yet. We would like to point out that many foreign scholars have been anxious to restrict the formal definition of intonation to pitch movement alone, though occasionally allowing in variations of loudness as well (57; 66). We are firmly convinced that when the question of intonational meaning is raised it is clearly not possible to restrict the term "intonation" by the pitch parameters only because generally all the three prosodic parameters function as a whole though in many cases the priority of the pitch parameter is quite evident. Giving priority to pitch changes we are not going to adopt a narrow definition of intonation and simplify the formal description of it at the expense of the semantic one and will allow intonation a wider definition trying to do justice to the semantic value of all the three prosodic components. It is necessary to point out here that on the acoustic level pitch correlates with the fundamental frequency of the vibration of the vocal cords; loudness correlates with the amplitude of vibrations; tempo is a correlate of time during which a speech unit lasts. Further on we shall describe intonation in the terms of auditory level which are more suitable for the aims of teaching. The acoustic level of prosodic parameters presents special interest for those carrying out experimental research work in the field of theoretical phonetics. With the developing of cybernetics and the constructing of teaching machines the importance of the acoustic aspect of intonation study will definitely grow. We are going now to concentrate on the three prosodic components of intonation, that is pitch, loudness and tempo and on the way they are realized in speech. Each syllable of the speech chain has a special pitch colouring. Some of the syllables have significant moves of tone up and down. Each syllable bears a definite amount of loudness. Pitch movements are inseparably connected with loudness. Together with the tempo of speech they form an intonation pattern which is the basic unit of intonation. An intonation pattern contains one nucleus and may contain other stressed or unstressed syllables normally preceding or following the nucleus. The boundaries of an intonation pattern may be marked by stops of phonation, that is temporal pauses. Intonation patterns serve to actualize syntagms in oral speech. It may be well to remind you here that the syntagm is a group of words which is semantically and syntactically complete. In phonetics actualized syntagms are called intonation groups'. Each intonation group may consist of one or more potential syntagms, e.g. the sentence "I think he is coming soon" has two potential syntagms: "I think" and "he is coming soon". In oral speech it is normally actualized as one intonation group. The intonation group is a stretch of speech which may have the length of the whole phrase1 But the phrase often contains more than one intonation group. The number of intonation groups depends on the length of the phrase and the degree of semantic importance or emphasis given to various parts of it, cf.: This bed was 'not 'slept xin. — tThis bed \ was not 'slept xixi. An additional terminal tone on "this bed" expresses an emphasis on "this bed" in contrast to other beds. Another example: ~*Last .summer | we went to 'stay with my 'sister in the Crimea. || — ~*Last .summer f we went to 'stay with my .sister | in the Crimea The phrases above might be pronounced with either two or three intonation groups which obviously affects the meaning. Now we shall dwell on each of the prosodic constituents of intonation and see how they actualize such language units as syntagms, sentences, syntactic wholes. Among the pitch parameters we shall concentrate on the three of them, i.e. the distinct variations in the direction of pitch, pitch level and pitch range. Though pitch changes are of primary linguistic significance they should be viewed together with the variations of loudness, the second component of intonation, since it is clearly not possible to separate pitch and loudness in creating the effect of accentuation. That is why our first task is to discuss the anatomy of pitch-and-stress structure of the intonation pattern. Not all stressed syllables are of equal importance. One of the syllables has the greater prominence than the others and forms the nucleus, or focal point of an intonation pattern. Formally the nucleus may be described as a strongly stressed syllable which is generally the last strongly accented syllable of an intonation pattern and which marks a significant change of pitch direction, that is where the pitch goes distinctly up or down. The nuclear tone is the most important part of the intonation pattern without which the latter cannot exist at all. On the other hand an intonation pattern may consist of one syllable which is its nucleus. According to R.Kingdon (66) the most important nuclear tones in English and the only ones we need to distinguish in teaching are: Low Fall — |No. High Fall — vNo. Low Rise — 'No. High Rise — ,No. Fall-Rise — vNo. The meanings of the nuclear tones are difficult to specify in general terms. Roughly speaking the falling tone of any level and range expresses "certainty", "completeness", "independence". Thus a straight-forward statement normally ends with a falling tone since it asserts a fact of which the speaker is certain. It has an air of finality, e.g. Where's John? — He "^hasn't vcome yet. What's the time? — It'sVnearly'five o'clock. A rising tone cf any level and range on the contrary expresses "uncertainty", "incompleteness" or "dependence". A general question, for instance, has a rising tone, as the speaker is uncertain of the truth of what he is asking about, e.g. I think I'll go now. — ~*Are you .ready? Michael is coming to London. — Is he 'coming .soon? Parenthetical and subsidiary information in a statement is also often spoken with a rising tone, or a mid-level tone, because this information is incomplete, being dependent for its full understanding on the main assertion, e.g. I'm not sure I can join you now. — If you > like \ we can go to the 'picnic vlater. Encouraging or polite denials, commands, invitations, greetings, farewells, etc. are generally spoken with a rising tone. What shall I do now? — ""Do go ,on. Could you join us? — "*Not .now. A falling-rising tone may combine the falling tone's meaning of "assertion", "certainty" with the rising tone's meaning of dependence, incompleteness. At the end of a phrase it often conveys a feeling of reservation; that is, it asserts something and at the same time suggests that there is something else to be said, e.g. Do you like pop-music? — 4Some,times. (but not in general) At the beginning or in the middle of a phrase it is a more forceful alternative to the rising tone, expressing the assertion of one point, together with the implication that another point is to follow: Those who 'work in the voffices | ought to take 'plenty of xexercise. The falling-rising tone, as its name suggests, consists of a fall in pitch followed by a rise. If the nucleus is the last syllable of the intonation group the fall and rise both take place on one syllable — the nuclear syllable. Otherwise the rise occurs in the remainder of the tone unit, cf.: Do you agree with him? — vYes. What can I do to mend matters? — You could apologize ,to her. Where the Rise of the Fall-Rise extends to a stressed syllable after the nucleus we signal the falling-rising tone by placing the fall on the nucleus and a rise on the later stressed syllable. This will make it easier for you and your pupils to follow the intonation contour in the text. You may know that in English there is often clear evidence of an intonation-group boundary, but no audible nuclear tone movement preceding. In such a circumstance two courses are open: either one may classify the phenomenon as a further kind of head or one may consider it to be the level nuclear tone. The weight of evidence seems to force the second solution, for the following reasons: 1. The final level tone is always more prominent than the others, e.g. I'm afraid I can't manage it. —In view of 'all the > circumstances) why not 'try a^gain? Also the syllable on which it occurs is lengthened substantially, and there is a clear rhythmic break between what precedes and what follows. 2. This tone nearly always occurs on the last lexical item (which is not obligatory in spontaneous speech) before a phonetic boundary and this is distributionally similar to a nuclear tone. In subordinate structures this tone may be replaced by a rising-type tone. In non-subordinate structures this tone has a particular range of meaning (boredom, sarcasm, etc.) which is very similar in force to other nuclear semantic functions. жүктеу/скачать 221,88 Kb. Достарыңызбен бөлісу:
|