Discourse Intonation Phonetics Brazil Part i

7/22/2019 Discourse Intonation Phonetics Brazil Part i

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FORM AND FUNCTION

PART I


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There are a number of assumptions to bear in

mind when we study discourse intonation:

Interpretation of value depends on speakers (S) and

hearers(H) interactions as they work out particular

meanings in particular contexts.

The premise that a view of language as discourse and

communication, where utterance depends crucially oninteractive function within the discourse.


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The Discoursive approach begins from thestandpoint of the speaker and his message-the information he wishes to convey.

This description recognises significant

intonation choices as being made within avery small number of systems.


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There are four systems. These systems contain a total of thirteen

choices, summarised in the following table:

SYSTEM CHOICES NUMBERPROMINENCE Prominent/non-

prominent syllables

2

TONE fall/ rise-fall

rise/ fall-rise

level

5

KEY High, Mid, Low 3

TERMINATION High. Mid, Low 3


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The intonational features that contribute toexpress the structure of the information:

Tonality -the organization of information into

decodable units. Tonicity- act of selection of prominence Tone- communicative value

Information

Social Role-relationship

Key-pitch height


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It is the stretch o f language that carr ies the

systemat ical ly opposed features o f inton at ion.(Brazil et al)

Instead of thinking of speech as a sequence of wordsas we are inclined to do when examining the writtenlanguega- we can think of it as a sequence of tone units.


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Each tone unit is a separate parcel of information whichwe present to the listener, and the way we arrange our

information in parcels is important if we are to be readily

understool.

Each tone unit has either one or two prominent

syllables, the onset(optional) and the tonic syllable

( essential constituent)

Prominent syllables are placed in such a way as to draw

the listenersattention to particular words.


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Examples:

// It was" too late // theydgone //

//The street was empty//


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The tone unit may be analized as follows:

(proclitic segment) tonic segment (enclitic segment)

// It was " too late //

// theyd gone //

//The street was emp ty//


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There are no prominent syllables in the procliticand enclitic segment.

Both of them are optional constitutents


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There are two types of tone unit:

minimal tone unit

extended tone unit


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E T U KEY TONETERMINATION

MTU TONEKEYTERMINATION

ONSET SYLLABLE TONIC SYLLABLE

PROMINENT SYLLABLES


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Prom inence is a property associated w ith a word by

vir tue of i ts fun ct ion as a const i tuent of a tone uni t(Brazil et al)

The distribution of prominence depends upon thespeakers decision i.e. it represents his assessment of

the relative information load carried by particular

elements in his discourse.

In other words, prominence reflects the speakers

judgement that the word in question contains

matterwhich , at this time and in this context, will be

informing.


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It is the feature that determines the begining andend of the tonic segment.

It is the incidence of prominence that fixes the

domain of the three variables: key-termination

and tone.


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Consider the following context of interaction: Two friends playing cards:

Q: What card did you play?

R: || The "queenof hearts ||

Here the function words the and of have no selective

function.


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Here we are making informal use of thenotion of paradigmatic dimension oflanguage organisation which with itscomplementary concept, the syntagmatic

dimension has been an important part of themodel-building apparatus of linguistics.

According to this we shall use the terms: Existential paradigm

General paradigm


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ace spades

(the) two of diamonds

queen hearts

king clubs


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The existential paradigm refers to that set ofpossibilities that a speaker can regard asactually available in a given situation.

The general paradigm which is inherent in thelanguage system.


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Q: What heart did you play?

R: ||The queenof hearts ||

Here the person asking the question makes it clear that

he/ she knows the suit.

Q: Which queen did you play?

R: ||The queen of hearts||

Here the speaker refers to something already known.

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Discourse Intonation Phonetics Brazil Part i