28. Phonostylistics. Phonostylistic approach to the description of phonetic phenomena

When language is used in speech phonetic units undergo various changes. These variations of phonetic units are the result of numerous factors which are referred to as extralinguistic, because they lie outside the system of the language. The primary concern of phoneticians is the way phonetic units function in various social situations or extralinguistic situations. We can also look at it this way: it is the extralinguistic situation that influences our choice of language means, phonetic means in particular.

The subject matter of phonostylistics is the way phonetic units (both segmental and suprasegmental) are used in a particular extralinguistic situation.

Purpose (aim) is the most important factor that guides the communication. The purpose is the task that is achieved in the course of communication. Here are some possible purposes: to exchange information, to instruct, to entertain.

Participants. This factor can bring about numerous variations in pronunciation, which are determined both by individual and social characteristics of the speakers and the character of their relationship. We must consider the social status of the speaker, the social group or class he/she belongs to. Such characteristics of the speaker as age, gender, educational and professional background are reflected in his/her pronunciation.

The third component of the extralinguistic situation is the scene (setting). Scenes can be described in the following terms: public – non-public (private), formal-informal, monologuing – dialoguing – poliloguing. The channel of communication should also be taken into consideration: face-to-face interaction – telephone communication, mass media communication.

29. Extralinguistic situation and its components

Extralinguistic situation can be described in terms of three components i.e. purpose, participants and setting. These components distinguish situations as context in which speech interaction takes place. A speech situation can be defined by the co-occurrence of the following elements: two or more participants related to each other in a particular way, having a particular aim of communication, communicating about a particular topic in a particular way.

Purpose can be described as the motor which sets the chassis of participants and setting going. It directs the activities of the participants throughout the situation to complete a task. Such purpose can be viewed in terms of general activity type plus a specific subject matter. It should be noted that activity types doesn’t identify directly the purpose in a situation. It only specifies the range of possible purpose that participants will orient towards in activity.

By participants we mean people involved in communication. Speech is a marker of various characteristics of people, both individual and social.(age, sex, social status) In other words, the way people speak reflects their background.

Setting or scene can be defined by several features. The first of them is a physical orientation of participants, which is to some extent determined by the activity they are engaged in. It is quite obvious that a public speech and face-to-face interaction are bound to be different in phonetic terms.