Invariant phonostylistic peculiarities
P
itch
patterns (tunes)
P
itch
patterns (tunes)
(pre-head) + High level Head + High (mid) Fall complete
(pre-head) + High level Head + High (mid) Fall incomplete
(pre-head) + Descending Broken Head + High / mid Fall complete
incomplete Fall + level Rise
(pre-head) + Falling (Sliding) Head + High Fall complete
(pre-head) + Heterogeneous Head + High (mid) Fall incomplete
(pre-head) + Fall with the initial rise emphatic
Rhythm –
rhythmic groups form recurrent alternation for most of the time
Rate (tempo) –
mostly normal and constant; slow rate is occasionally observed
Pauses –
definitely long between the phonopassages; a one-unit pause is frequent within an utterance; “rhetorical” silence is often observed to exert influence on the public
Loudness (voice volume) –
increased / louder than usual, shouting at the top of one’s voice at times
Tunes (melody contours)
Combined tunes
Utterances which are composed of more than one intonation group form a combined tune. Some utterances lend themselves to be subdivided more readily than others. Their partition is based both on physiological convenience and on the complexity of information being conveyed. The parts into which the utterance is split may be related as the main assertion and a prelude to it or an afterthought, or as more or less independent ideas.
As far as intonation division is concerned semantic reasons are overriding in importance.
The number of intonation groups in an utterance is also closely related to the type and form of speech.
Combined tunes may be classified into relations of equality (co-ordinative), b) inequality (subordinative) and c) mutual dependence.
Coordinative relations imply a relatively equal degree of semantic importance of the adjacent parts which is often combined with their relative independence.
Subordinative relations mean such a kind of relationship when one of the two parts is semantically dependent.
Mutual dependence implies the idea that both groups are equally important, yet neither of them can be isolated. Such utterances are peculiar for contrastive comparison and both groups are symmetrically balanced.
One of the specific features of coordinative groups is similarity of nuclear tones both in the direction of pitch change and the width of the pitch interval (tonal reduplication).
E.g. | - High Fall complete | High Fall complete
A relevant feature of co-ordinative sequences is also similarity of pre-nuclear pattern (head).
The decisive factor of subordination is inequality of the nuclear pitch intervals, i.e. the first interval is wider, than the second (or vice versa).
The impression of inequality of the adjacent patterns is made clearer when the difference in the nuclear intervals is supported by the difference in the width of the range of the whole group.
Subordinative intonation groups most frequently stand in post-position to the major units. An essential feature of preposed subordination is that the nuclear tones in the adjacent groups are of an opposite direction.
E.g. | - preposed subordination (Low Rise / High Fall with initial rise)
The most typical case of postposed subordination is an afterthought of minor importance added to a statement conveying the main idea.
E.g. | - postposed subordination (High Fall with initial rise | Low Fall incomplete)
Semantic interdependence (mutual dependence) is realized by combinations of sharply contrasted, diametrically opposite tones or by the reduplication. The nuclear syllable is shifted and “marked” in the obvious rhythmical parallelism of both parts.
E.g. | - Fall-Rise | Fall-Rise
b) compound tunes.
The point is that, some tunes expose several kinetic tones to give special semantic colouring to particular items of an intonation group. Such groups having more than one kinetic tone are called compound tunes (as opposed to simple tunes, with one kinetic tone on the nuclear syllable). It should be noted that expressiveness of speech is often the result of using more than one kinetic tone in an intonation group, since kinetic tones are by their nature more expressive and colourful than static. Although one or more of the prenuclear stressed syllables in a compound tune have some kind of pitch change (rising, falling, falling-rising) and the character of the pitch change is such as to be perceived by the listener and identified as a certain kinetic tone, yet the intonation group is not split into as many smaller groups as there are prenuclear kinetic tones. The commonest compound tunes are:
[ (□ □) + ] – High Rise + High Rise (narrow variety)
[ (□) + (□ □) ] – Low Rise + Low Fall (incomplete, complete)
[ (□ □) + (□ □ □) ] – Fall (with initial rise) + Fall-Rise
[ (□ □ □) + (□ □) ] – Fall-Rise + Fall (with the initial rise)
[ (□ □) + (□ □) ] – High Fall (complete) + Low Fall (incomplete)
[ (□ □) + + (□ □ □) ] – (Fall) High level incomplete + High level incomplete + Fall with the initial rise high level