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Informational Educational Descriptive Monologue
Much has been said earlier about the differences between reading and speaking. Our goal here is to demonstrate them on the prosodic level by concrete examples. Now the text "May Week in Cambridge" was reproduced spontaneously by the same speaker in the form of a monologue. He did it in a rather formal manner and directed it to the same group of students. We may specify it as a certain specialized talk intuitively associated with the task set before the speaker — to give information on customs and traditions of university life in Britain. So it is clearly restricted to a particular informational function, thus the text presented seems to be most suitable for this informational style register and we consequently have cause to refer to it.
MAY WEEK AT CAMBRIDGE (Reproduced by Roy Paully)
→ As you probably ˋknow | the uni↘versities of 'Oxford and ˎCambridge | are the →two ˋoldest universities in ˋEngland || and be→ cause of > that, | because of their ˎage | they have → many traˎditions ⌇ which to ˎforeigners ⌇ might → appear to be very ˎstrange. || → One of these tra>ditions | is ˋMay Week in ˋCambridge. This is parˋticularly ˌstrange | as it ↘doesn't 'happen in ˌMay and is ↘ not in 'fact a ˌweek. || It ↘stretches 'over ˋtwo weeks, | the ↘7th and '8th weeks of the ˋterm. || There is ˋno 'real 'reason for ˋcalling it May ˌWeek | and per>haps ⌇ it is ˋheralding the 'coming of ˋMay | which is till ↘then 'being ig>nored ⌇ in ˋfavour of 'more ˋserious matters ⌇ like examiˋnations. There're → many different acˎtivities ⌇ which →go on during ˎMay ˌWeek | for the ↘most 'part there are 'many >plays | put on by indi↘vidual 'college soˌcieties, | ↘very often 'taking place outˎdoors ⌇ in → College ˋgardens. There are ˋalso ˋrowing races | with → crews of ˎeight ⌇ competing in 'bumping races. What I →mean ˎbumping races ⌇ is when the ˎaim is >to ⌇ >bump ⌇ →back of the 'boat ⌇ in ˎfront of you ⌇ on the → Cam ˎriver. Personally ⌇ I come from ˋOxford University, | so →l know ↑ far more about ˋOxford. || In >Oxford | we don't have a ˎMay ˌWeek, || We work until the end of the ˋeighth week | when ex-ami→nations ˋfinish and | it is not till ˎthen | that we → have our eˎquivalent of May Week | when →similar ˌthings take ˋplace. The purpose of the communication in the setting described explains the businesslike, dispassionate, detached, impartial voice timbre. Occasionally the speaker sounds interested, especially, when he speaks about his own experiences. Speaking about the delimitation of spoken texts it should be pointed out that it depends on the degree of spontaneity. The basic unit of a monological spoken text is also a phonopassage but its stretch is greatly varied, much greater than in reading. As in oral speech the rules of syntax are not strictly followed, passages are broken into utterances which do not often coincide with sentences. Pauses at the end of the phrase are commonly optional; hesitation pauses often break a syntagra into several intonational groups and occur both intentionally and non-inten-tionally. They may be filled and non-filled (silent): What I → mean ˎbumping races ⌇ is when the ˎaim is > to ⌇ >bump ⌇ → back of the ˋboat ⌇ in ˎfront of you ⌇ on the →Cam ˎ river. As the addressees are a comparatively small group of people the text on the whole is of normal loudness which is not greatly varied but for the decreases towards the end of the passage. The increase of loudness is evident at the start of the phonopassage and on its emphatic communicative centres. This may be also referred to levels and ranges. Various ranges and levels bind together several successive sequences, each having its own tone group, into a larger unit. The rate of utterances is remarkably varied. In the majority of cases it is normal, but increases towards allegro on less significant units and decreases towards lento on emphatic centres of the phrase or supraphrasal units. The length of pauses depends on the syntactical and semantic value, the maximum length being at the passage boundaries. This spoken monologue is characterized by non-systematic rhythmicality, subjective isochrony; the rhythmicality within the phonopassage is achieved by the alternation of all prosodic parameters. Semantic centres of all segments of speech are accentuated by the variation of all prosodic features. Terminal tones are final and categoric, the emphasis being achieved by the use of high (medium) abrupt falls, or several falls within one interpausal unit. Low rising and mid-level tones are common for initial or 195 non-final intonation groups to bind them together into a phrasal unit: In >Oxford | we don't have a ˎMay ˌWeek. Types of heads in pre-nuclear patterns are varied: level heads of one accentuated pre-nuclear syllable prevail, sometimes several partially accented syllables occur between them. Descending falling heads are also quite common, occasionally broken by the "accidental rise": ˋPersonally ⌇ I come from ˋOxford University, | so → I know ↑far more about ˋOxford. As the monologue is quite spontaneous the contrast between accented and non-accented segments is great; also the centralized type of stress helps to underline the semantic centres: This is particularly ˌstrange | as it ↘doesn't 'happen in ˌMay | and is not in 'fact a ˋweek. Now the auditory analysis of various informational descriptive monologues and the works of phonetic-style researchers (20, 23, 30) allow us to conclude that this description may be applied to the majority of spoken monologues produced within the register and may be treated as the invariant of the prosodic characteristics of the informational descriptive spoken monologue. Table 4 The Invariant of Phonostylistic Characteristics of Informational Educational Descriptive Spontaneous Monologue Timbre dispassionate, businesslike, reserved, occasionally interested 1 2 Delimitation phonopassages — phrases — intonational groups; a number of hesitation and breath-taking pauses (filled and silent) breaks phrases into a great number of intonational groups, destroying their syntactical structure 196 1 2 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 sequences 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 segment, 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 use 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 broken 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 prosodic characteristics 197 Our task now is to compare the invariant characteristics of the two varieties of the language in this register by the systematic phonological opposition. The results of the comparison are shown in table 5, p. 199—200. "We are now ready to generalize our results and make the following conclusion: 1. Written (read aloud) and spoken texts belonging to the same intonational style have different prosodic realization. 2. In oral speech the means of the prosodic realization are more vivid, expressive and varied, especially in voice timbre, loudness, tempo, length of pauses and rhythm. 3. The speaker often uses some hesitation phenomena (hesitation pauses and temporizers) intentionally, which enables him to obtain the balance between formality and informality and establish contacts with the public. 4. The speaker uses various hesitation phenomena unintentionally which enables him to gain the time in search for suitable expression or idea and thus not interrupt the flow of speech. 5. The speech is characterized by a greater number of intonation groups, supraphrasal units and phonopassages. In spontaneous speech an intonation group doesn't always coincide with a syntagm. Pauses at the end of the phrase are optional. 6. The reading is characterized by a decentralized stress distribution whereas speaking — by a centralized one. 7. Spontaneous speech is more contrastive, communicative centres are more vividly underlined; the emphasis is achieved by a wider range of terminal tones, greater degree of loudness and prominence of accented segments. 8. The reading is rhythmical, oral speech rhythm is non-systematic, unpredictable, variable. 198 Table 5 The opposition of phonosylistic invariant characteristics of informational descriptive monologue Phonostylistic characteristics Varieties of the language Reading Speaking 1 2 3 Timber impartial, dispassionate, reserved resonant dispassionate, businesslike, reserved, occasionally interested Delimitation phonopassages — phrases — intonation groups; pauses are mostly at syntactical 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, destroying their syntactical structure Other style- marking prosodic features Loudness normal (piano) throughout the text, varied at the phonopassage boundaries normal (piano), contrastive at the boundaries, decrease towards 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 larger 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 passage boundaries Rhythm systematic, properly organized, isochronic, decentralized accentuation non-systematic, subjective isochrony, centralized stress distribution, the rhythmicality within the passage is achieved by the alternation of all prosodic features 199 Table 5, cont’d 1 2 3 Accentuation of semantic 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) centres 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 "acidental 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 200 Now by way of conclusion we would advise future teachers of English to drift from the traditional, non-stylistic approach to the language teaching in their future practical work and pay special attention to the differences between the two varieties of the language. Informational Dialogues Our next step in the analytic procedural style description will be the text handled by two speakers in a rather formal manner. But, before doing this, we would like to describe here different types of dialogues. Firstly we must mention that dialogues of all types are very widely used forms of speech and because of the great flexibility of their usage there is a wide range of contrasts. Consequently there exists no general agreement among phoneticians on what is meant by this or that type of a dialogue and the results of the research carried out into this form of speech have been yet rather sporadic in their comments. They provide us with a great deal to discuss at all levels of analysis (13, 30, 53). Evidently the type of a dialogue may be primarily distinguished through its phonology. Very close examination of experimental data of many researchers shows that certain prosodic characteristics of considerable importance diagnose different types of dialogues. "A clear central area of distinctiveness can be defined, but there are a number of very uncertain marginal issues which reflect the way in which conversation blends imperceptibly into discussion and talking shop" (54, p. 116). The following factors seem to be basical for the description in the dialogue monologue dichotomy: 1. the subject matter of a talk, its randomness, 2. the inexplicitness of the speech, 3. the incompleteness of utterances, 4. the redundance of vocal expression. This gives us the reason to distinguish several types of dialogues: 1. specialized informative talks on serious and intellectual subject matters (such as educational, psychological, political, etc.), 2. discussions on serious and weighty problems, 3. debates, 4. everyday conversations, telephone talks among them. 201 Evidently, the major markers of these types will be on the prosodic level. We do not wish to suggest that any clear lines of stylistic demarcation have been drawn in this classification, it is unlikely that there is a distinct boundary between the varieties. Now we shall focus our attention on the first type as these dialogues are within the sphere of the informational style discourse and other types can wait until later description. We would like to mention here that conversation will be opposed to the informational talks later in the course as there is a great departure between them on all the levels of linguistic analysis. Also these talks should be distinguished from discussions in terms of the degree of seriousness of the subject matter and the formality of the occasion and probably non-segmental prosodic correlations should be taken into account. It is quite obvious, however, that there are certain things common to all dialogue talks as opposed to monologues and we would like to describe them here. Firstly, a dialogue is a coordinated simultaneous speech act of two participants or rather a speaker and a listener. Thus the factuous contact is conveyed. It is essential that in any successful conversation "give-and-take" between the sender and receiver should be maintained. The attention-getting function is established by putting all sorts of questions, agreement question tags to show the interest and guide the course of the talk towards a given theme and also by using all sorts of response and non-response words and utterances both of verbal and non-verbal character. This factuous communion may be so close that the speakers often talk simultaneously. There might be also permanent recapitulations upon the request of the listener. The utterances on the part of both participants tend to be incomplete since the context makes perfectly plain to them what was being intended thus making redundant its vocal expression. Hesitation phenomena are of primary significance in determining acceptability or otherwise of conveyers. Hesitancy is strongly influenced by periods of creative thinking and word searching. Voiceless hesitation is also very frequent, it tends to occur relatively randomly, not just at places of major grammatical junctions, which is more the pattern of written English read 202 aloud. Voiced hesitation consists of hesitant drawls, verbal and non-verbal fillers such as er, ehm, mm. Any kind of dialogue is also joined up by means of non-verbal communication — facial expressions (a raised eyebrow, a glance towards the partner, etc.), gestures, body movements and noises such as whistles, artificial clearing of the throat, snorts, sniffs, laughs and other paralinguistic features of significance. On the lexical and grammatical level there is a high proportion of errors which seem not to bother the speakers. Interpolations are commonly interjectional in character, their function is primarily to indicate that attention is being maintained. We should also mention here all sorts of introductions, afterthoughts, high proportion of parenthetical words which even increases in a more serious type of conversation. Dialogues are commonly characterized by a large number of loosely coordinated clauses, the coordination being structurally ambiguous, a series of loosely coordinated sentence-like structures. The phonostylistic analysis of the helpful sample of the dialogue-talk of the informational character will allow us to draw the conclusions of the prosodic distinctive features, marking this variety of dialogues. The talk is about two oldest universities of Britain — Oxford and Cambridge. This is a mono-thematic talk, though the speakers display some obvious differences of opinion on the subject matter.
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