Lecture 7. STYLE CHARACTERISTICS OF INTONATION
1. Informational Style
“An intonational style can be defined as a system of interrelated intonational means which is used in a social sphere and serves a definite aim of com munication"
[Соколова и др.: 216].
The choice of an intonational style is determined primarily by the purpose of com-munication and then by a number of other extralinguistic and social factors. The following into national styles are singled out:
Informational.
1. Academic (Scientific).
2.
Publicistic (Oratorial).
3.
Declamatory (Artistic).
4.
Conversational (Familiar).
5.
Intonational style mark ers are restricted to .certain kinds of situational contexts and above all to the speakers' aim in communication. Thus an intonational style is seen as some kind of ad ditive by which a basic content of thought may be modified.
The purpose of communica tion determines the types of information conveyed in oral texts. They may be intellectual, attitudinal (emotional, modal) and vo litional (desider-ative). Each of these types is realised by means of specific prosodic parameters.
These stylistically marked modifications of all the prosodic features represent the invariants of the style forming intonation patterns common to all the registers of the particular style.
The invariant of the intonation patterns circulating in certain fields of communica-tion at a given period of time may be treated as the norm or the ideal of speech behaviour for these particular spheres of communication.
Informational style is sometimes qualified as "formal", "neutral", since in an ideal setting, in its pure manifestation it is least of all influenced or correlated by extralinguistic factors. It is manifested in the written variety of an informational narrative read aloud.
The majority of these texts are of a purely descriptive character and are simply called de-scriptive narratives. The written speech, the reading, should not be subjected to the con-textual variables and the com monest and "ideal" situation for this register is the reading of such texts in class. They may be labelled as educational infor mational descriptive narratives.
As is widely known, spoken speech is less imperial, the spo ken variety of such texts expresses more personal concern and involvement. They may be presented in different forms: mono logues, dialogues, polylogues.
Press reporting and broadcasting, especially the reading of the news coverage over the radio is very close in its manner to this type of the style as the reader tends to
sound impartial when reporting routine news or weather forecasts, for example.
Informational style includes other spheres of communication: busi ness and legal intercourse, the reading of administrative docu ments and so on.
Types of style, i.e. certain spheres of discourse are called registers, the term being widely used abroad in a broader sense, often meant as style in general (see table 22).
Table 22 The Correlation Between the Informational Intonational Style Registers and
Speech Typology
Table 23 Spheres of Discourse in which the Informational Intonational Style Can Be
Heard in Relation to Forms of Communication and the Number of Participants Involved
The invariants of phonostylistic characteristics of informational educational descriptive texts reading and descriptive spontaneous monologue are presented in tables 24, 25.
Table 24 The Invariant of Phonostylistic Characteristics of Informational Educational
Descriptive Texts Reading
Timbre impartial, dispassionate, reserved, reso nant Delimitation
phonopassages — phrases — intonational groups; pauses are mostly at syntactical junctures, normally of medium length
but for the end of the passage
Style-marking prosodic features
Loudness normal (piano) throughout the text, varied at the phonopassage boundaries
Levels and ranges decrease of levels and ranges within the passage Rate normal (moderate) or slow, not variable
Pauses mostly syntactical of normal length, occa sional emphatic ones for the semantic accentuation
Rhythm systematic, properly organized isochronic, decentralized accentuation
Accentua-tion of semantic
centres
Terminal tones common use of final categoric falls; in non-final segments mid-level and low rising tones are often used Pre-nuclear patterns common use of falling and level heads or several falls within
one interpausal unit Contrast between
accented and unaccented segments
not great
Table 25 The Invariant of Phonostylistic Characteristics of Informational
Educational Descriptive Spontaneous Monologue
Timbre dispassionate, businesslike, reserved, occasionally interested
1 2 3
Delimi-tation
phonopassages – phrases – intonational groups; a number of hesitation and breath-taking pauses (filled and si lent) breaks phrases into a great number of intonational groups, de stroying their syntactical structure
Style-marking prosodic features
Loudness
normal (or piano); contrastive at the passage boundaries;
diminuendo (decrease) towards the end of it; increase of loudness on semantic centres
Levels and ranges
decrease of levels and ranges within the passage; various ranges and levels bind together several successive se quences into a larger unit
Rate variable, allegro on interpolations, lento on emphatic semantic centres
Pauses
varied, the length depends on the syntactical and semantic value of the seg ment, the maximum length being at the passage boundaries
Rhythm
non-systematic, subjective isochrony, centralized stress distribution, the rhythmicality within the phonopassage is achieved by the alternation of all prosodic features
Accentuation of semantic
centres
Terminal tones
common use of final categoric falls on semantic centres, non-final falls, mid-level and rising tones on non-final intonation group; the emphasis is achieved by the lose of high falls (very abrupt for a male voice)
Pre-nuclear patterns
varied, common use of level heads with one accentuated pre-nuclear syllable; descending falling heads are often bro ken by the
"accidental rise"
The contrast between accented and
unaccented segments
great, achieved by the centralized stress pattern, increase of loudness, levels and ranges on semantic centres, high categoric falls; emphatic stress on them and other variations of all pro sodic characteristics
Table 26 The Opposition of Phonostylistic Invariant Characteristics of
Informational Descriptive Monologue Phonostylistic
characteristics Varieties of the language
Reading Speaking
1 2 3
Timber impartial, dispassionate, reserved reso nant
dispassionate, businesslike, reserved, occasionally interested
Delimitation
phonopassages – phrases – intona tion groups; pauses are mostly at syn tactical junctures normally of medium length, but for the end of the passage
phonopassages – phrases – intonation groups; a number of hesitation and breath-taking pauses (filled and non-filled) breaks phrases into a great number of intonation groups, de stroying their syntactical structure
Other style-mar king prosodic featu res
Loudness
normal (piano) throughout the text, varied at the phonopassage boundaries
normal (piano), contrastive at the boundaries, decrease to wards the end of the passage; increase on semantic centres
Levels and ranges
decrease of levels and ranges within the passage
decrease of levels and ranges within the passage; various ranges and levels bind together several sequences into a lar ger unit
Rate normal (moderate) or slow, not variable
variable; allegro on interpolations, lento on emphatic centres
Pauses
not greatly varied, mostly syntactical, occasionally emphatic
varied; the length depends on the syntactical and semantic value of the segment, the maximum length being at the pas sage boundaries
Rhythm
systematic, properly organized, isochronic, decentralized accentuation
non-systematic, subjective isochrony, centralized stress distri-bution, the rhythmicality within the passage is achieved by the alternation of all prosodic features
Accentua-tion of seman tic centres
Terminal tones
common use of final categoric falls; in non-final segments mid-level and low rising tones are quite common
common use of final categoric falls on semantic centres, non-final falls, mid-level and rising tones in non-final intonation groups. The emphasis is achieved by the use of high falls (very abrupt for a male voice)
Pre-nuclear patterns
common use of falling and level heads or several falls within one interpausal unit
varied; common use of level heads with one accentuated pre-nuclear syllable; descending falling heads are broken by the "accidental rise"
The contrast between accented and
unaccented segments
not great
great, achieved by the centralized stress pattern; increase of loudness, levels and ranges on semantic centres; high categoric falls, emphatic stress on them and other variations of different prosodic characteristics
By comparing the invariant characteristics of the two varieties of the language (writ-ten and spoken) in this register by the systemat ic phonological opposition we can make the fol lowing conclusion:
Written (read aloud) and spoken texts belonging to the same intonational style have 1.
different prosodic realization.
In oral speech the means of the prosodic realization are more vivid, expressive and’
2.
varied, especially in voice timbre, loudness, tempo, length of pauses and rhythm.
The speaker often uses some hesitation phenomena (hesi tation pauses and 3.
temporizers) intentionally, which enables him to obtain the balance between formality and informality and es tablish contacts with the public.
The speaker uses various hesitation phenomena uninten tionally which enables him 4.
to gain the time in search for suitable expression or idea and thus not interrupt the flow of speech.
The speech is characterized by a greater number of intona tion groups, supraphrasal 5.
units and phonopassages. In spontane ous speech an intonation group doesn’t always coincide with a syntagm. Pauses at the end of the phrase are optional.
The reading is characterized by a decentralized stress dis tribution whereas speaking 6.
– by a centralized one.
Spontaneous speech is more contrastive, communicative centers are more vividly 7.
underlined; the emphasis is achieved by a wider range of terminal tones, greater degree of loudness and prominence of accented segments.
The reading is rhythmical, oral speech rhythm is non-sys tematic, unpredictable, 8.
variable (see table 26).