Lecture 7 Functional Aspect of Prosody Plan

Lecture 7 Functional Aspect of Prosody

Plan 1. Meanings and Functions of Prosody 2. Bilingualism and Prosodic Interference 3. Features of Russian English Phonetic and Prosodic Interference

List of Terms n n n the constitutive function of prosody the distinctive function of prosody the identificatory (recognitive) function of prosody bilingualism interference

The functions and meanings of prosody should be described with reference to the utterance as the basic communicative unit. The prosody of an utterance (intonation) carries independent meanings of its own, regardless of the words and the grammatical structure of an utterance.

The prosody of an utterance is polysemantic due to its structural complexity. It can express a number of different meanings (e. g. non-finality, surprise, etc. ). The inherent meanings of prosody which are of a general character are specified and concretized when interacting with the grammatical and lexical meanings of an utterance. There may be cases of correlation and harmony between them as well as cases of disbalance and disharmony (e. g. “It may be ¸so” – the F-R tone is in harmony with the modal verb; “It may be so” – the F tone makes the statement sound categoric).

The Constitutive Function of Prosody (unifies words into utterances, the main communicative units) In constituting an utterance prosody at the same time performs the segmentative and delimitative function (segments connected discourse into utterances and intonation groups, simultaneously delimits utterances and intonation groups one from another showing relations between them and signals the semantic nucleus and other semantically important words of an utterance or an intonation group).

The Distinctive Function of Prosody (manifests itself in several particular functions depending on the meaning which is differentiated): * communicative-distinctive (prosody differentiates the communicative types of utterances, statements, questions, exclamations, imperatives e. g. Fire (statement) Fire (question) * modal (attitudinal)-distinctive (prosody differentiates modal meanings of utterances and the speaker`s attitudes e. g. ٧ Thank you (friendly attitude)

* culminative(logical)-distinctive (prosody differentiates the location of the semantic nuclei of utterances and other semantically important words; prosody indicates the “theme rheme” organization of an utterance e. g. The 'teacher (theme) has come (rheme) The teacher (rheme) has come (theme) * syntactical-distinctive (prosody differentiates syntactical types of sentences and syntactical relations in sentences e. g. Smiling (attribute)Tom ǁ entered the room Smiling (adverbial modifier of manner)ǁ Tom entered the room

* stylistic-distinctive (prosody differentiates pronunciation (phonetic) styles, determined by extra linguistic factors) The Identificatory Function of Prosody (prosody provides a basis for the hearer's identification of the communicative and modal type of an utterance, its semantic and syntactical structure with the situation of the discourse)

The practice of alternate use of two languages is called bilingualism. Bilingualism may be acquired "naturally" and "artificially", as a result of foreign language learning (the so called "classroom" bilingualism). The major manifestation of bilingualism is interference. Language interference is a process and a result of the interaction and mutual influence of the language systems being in contact. Interference takes place on all the levels of language (phonetic, grammatical and lexical). On the phonetic level there are two types of interference: phonemic and prosodic.

Features of Russian-English Phonemic Interference absence of aspiration of voiceless stops n palatalization of consonants n devoicing of final voiced consonants n the use of the alveolar variant of post alveolar sound [r] n the replacement of sound [w] by sounds [в] n ignorance of cases of assimilation n the wrong use of the durational variants of long vowels n

Features of Russian-English Prosodic Interference n n n violation of the rhythmic tendency the shifting of the nuclear stress to the left wrong accentuation of words slow tempo of speech unstressed sounds are not always reduced the use of inappropriate intonation patterns

List of Literature 1. 2. 3. Борисова, Л. В. Теоретическая фонетика английского языка: учеб. пособ. для ин тов и фак. иностр. яз. / Л. В. Борисова, А. А. Метлюк; под ред. Л. В. Борисовой. – Минск: Выш. шк. , 1980. – 144 с. Леонтьева, С. Ф. Теоретическая фонетика современного английского языка: учеб. для студентов педагогических вузов и университетов / С. Ф. Леонтьева. – М. : Издательство «Менеджер» , 2004. – 336 с. Соколова, М. А. Теоретическая фонетика английского языка: учеб. для студ. высш. учеб. заведений / М. А. Соколова, К. Г. Гинтовт, И. С. Тихонова, Р. М. Тихонова. – М. : Гуманитар. Изд. Центр ВЛАДОС, 2004. – 289 с.

Summing-up Insert the necessary words. 1. … is the main prosodic communicative unit which is characterized by semantic unity expressed by all the language means: lexical, grammatical, prosodic. 2. … is the smallest prosodic unit. It has no meaning of its own, but it is significant for constituting hierarchical ly higher prosodic units.

3. … divide the speech continuum into units of different length and size. 4. The practice of alternate use of two languages is called …. 5. … is a process and a result of the interaction and mutual influence of the language systems being in contact.