Соколова - теоретическая фонетика англ

80 Chapter IV, Intonation

ticular purposes and is never merely decorative. Within any language into­ nation is systemic: different speakers tend to use the same patterns for the same purposes. If the speaker uses wrong intonation he can easily slip in accent or can even be misunderstood.

Intonation is a powerful means of human communication. It has a great value for expressing ideas and emotions and contributes to mutual understanding between people. One of the aims of communication is the exchange of information between people. The meaning of an English ut­ terance, i. e. the information it conveys to a listener, derives not only from the grammatical structure, the lexical composition and the sound pattern. It also derives from variations of intonation, in other words the prosodic parameters of the utterance.

Because of the complex nature of intonation and its high linguistic potential, there is no agreement among phoneticians about the functional aspect of intonation. The functions of intonation have been very differ­ ently described and classified. Thus, T. M. Nikolaeva (2004) names three functions: the functions of delimitation, integration and semantic func­ tion. N. V. Cheremisina (1982) singles out the following functions: com­ municative, distinctive (or phonological), culminative (accentual), inte­ grative, delimitating, expressive, aesthetic. According to A. Gimson (1981) intonation has two basic functions: accentual and non-accentual. The classification of P. Roach (2001) includes attitudinal, accentual, grammatical and discourse functions. D. Crystal (1995) distinguishes the following functions: emotional, grammatical, informational, textual, psy­ chological, indexical. J. C. Wells (2006) recognizes such functions as at­ titudinal, grammatical, focusing (accentual, informational), discourse (cohesive), psychological, indexicaL

It can be argued that since intonation is viewed as a powerful means of communication, its basic function is communicative. It follows from this that it is impossible to divorce any function of intonation from that of communication. No matter how many functions are named, all of them may be regarded as the realization of the communicative function.

The communicative function of intonation embraces all its numerous uses, which can be grouped in the following way: the use of intonation to distinguish meanings and the use of intonation to organize, or structure the oral text. The first can be described as the distinctive (phonological) function and the second - as the organizing function of intonation. In this chapter we shall also give an overview of pragmatic, rhetorical and social functions of intonation.

4.5.2. Distinctive function

To demonstrate how intonation performs the distinctive function we must view it on the phonological level. Phonology has a special branch, intonology, whose domain is larger units ofconnected speech: intonation groups, phrases and even phonetic passages. The same as in the case ofsegmental phonemes the phonological approach to intonation involves the analysis based on a sys­ tem ofoppositions. By oppositions here we mean minimal pairs of phrases of identical grammar structure and lexical composition, in which the difference in meaning is expressed by intonation only.

The descriptions of intonation show that phonological facts of intonation system are much more open to discussion than in the field of segmental pho­ nology. Descriptions differ according to the kind ofmeaning attributed to into­ nation and the significance attached to different parts ofthe tone-unit (intona­ tion pattern). J. O'Connor and G. Arnold claim that the major function of intonation is to express the speaker's attitude to the situation he is placed in, and they attach these meanings not to the pre-head, head and nucleus sepa­ rately, but to each of ten "tone-unit types" as they combine with each offour sentence types: statement, question, command and exclamation.

M. Halliday supposes that English intonation contrasts are grammatical. He argues that there is a neutral or unmarked tone choice and explains all other choices as meaningful by contrast. Thus, if one takes the statement "I

Rise-Fall with commitment. Unlike J. O'Connorand G. Arnold, M. Hal­ liday attributes separate significance to the pre-nuclear choices, again taking one choice as neutral and the others as meaningful by contrast.

D. Crystal presents an approach based on the view that "any explanation of intonational meaning cannot be arrived at by seeing the issues solely in their grammatical or attitudinal terms. " He ignores the significance of pre­ head and head choices and deals only with terminal tones.

There are other similar approaches which possess one feature in com­ mon: little attention is paid to the phonological significance ofpitch level and pitch range.

In this book intonation is viewed on the phonological level as a complex sys­ tem ofall the prosodic parameters and a powerful means ofcommunication.

What kind of meanings can be distinguished by intonation? Intonation is capable of distinguishing the syntactic type of sentence, the attitudinal meaning and the actual meaning of the utterance.

a) Intonation is used to distinguish the syntactic, or communicative type of sentence, in other words, it can indicate whether the utterance is a state­ ment, a question, a command or an exclamation.

-7Isn't it ,wondeiful? (general question) -7 Isn't it 'wondeiful! (exclamation)

"'Will you 'stop Jalking?(command) "'Will you 'stop ialking? (request)

It can be seen from these examples that it is the change of the nuclear tone that leads to the change ofthe syntactic type ofsentence.

The following sentence can be pronounced in different ways.

It's a lovely day.

When pronounced with the Low Fall this sentence is a statement, pronounced with the High Fall it becomes an exclamation, when it is said with the Low Rise it is a question.

An important role ofintonation is to express attitudes ofthe speakers. It can convey a wide range ofattitudes, thus performing the attitudinal func­ tion. When people speak they can sound angry or happy, pleased or surprised, interested or indifferent, and so on. The same sentence can be pronounced in different ways and thus express a variety ofattitudinal meanings.

When can you do it? ,Now. (detached, reserved)

When did you finish? - 'Now. (involved)

You are to do it right now. - v Now? (astonished)

How omuch did you JJay for it? (cool, reserved)

How omuch did you 'payfor it? (lively, interested)

It is not only the nuclear tone but the pre-nuclear pattern as well head, the pre-head) that can differentiate the attitudinal meaning.

It was -7quite a 'good .lecture. (matter-of-fact, uninvolved)

It was vquite a 'good 'lecture. (impressed)

It should be noted that the changes in pitch are usually accompanied by changes in the rate ofutterance, loudness and voice quality.

When we speak about attitudes and emotions we mean both the attitude to what is said, to the listener, to the situation and the emotional state ofthe speaker. So it is a fairly complex phenomenon which may present particular

difficulties to foreign learners of English. Special attention should be given to using the appropriate intonation to convey attitudes.

c) Intonation can differentiate the actual meaning of the sentence. The change of meaning is achieved by the opposition of nuclear tones.

Have you read the book? Not ,once.

When pronounced with Low Fall it means that the speaker has not read the book.

Have you read the book? Not Vance.

When pronounced with Fall-Rise it means that the book has been read several times.

Similarly, the meaning is changed in the following phrases:

I "'don't 'want you to 'read ,anything. (You should avoid reading.) ["'don't 'want you to 'read vanything. (You should be more particular

about your choice of reading matter.)

The change ofmeaning can also be the result ofthe shift ofterminal tone.

He's a -7 French ,teacher. (He comes from France.)

He's a ,French teacher. (He teaches French.)

Figure 11

Distinctive Function of Intonation

intonation can differentiate

As you have seen from the examples given above it is the opposition ofter­ minal tones that can differentiate all kinds of meaning: the syntactic type of sentences, attitudinal meaning and the actual meaning of the sentence. The number of terminal tones which indicates the number ofintonation groups in an utterance is also relevant for the meaning. Different phrasing, or subdivision ofsentence into intonation groups, may result in differences in meaning.

For example, the sentence My sister, who lives in the South has just ar rived may be interpreted in two different ways.

sister who happens to live in the South... "

My sister who lives in the South Ihasjust arrived. II It means "That one of my sisters, who lives in the South... "

In a written text this difference in meaning is sometimes marked by punctuation, while in oral speech it is expressed by intonation.

As regards the other components of the intonation pattern (the pre­ head, the head) they differentiate only attitudinal meaning. Being pro­ nounced with the high pre-head, "Hello" sounds more friendly than when pronounced with the low pre-head:

Hel,lo! - -Hel,lo!

More commonly, however, different kinds of pre-heads, the same as pitch ranges and levels fulfil their distinctive function not alone but in com­ bination with other prosodic constituents.

-Very 'clever, .isn'the?

-That'squite 'interesting.

Finishing the overview ofthe distinctive function of intonation we must look at the relationship of intonation, syntactic structure and lexical com­ position in an utterance. Generally intonation is in balance with other lan­ guage means. For example questions express a certain amount of interest, which is normally conveyed both by their syntactical structure and inter­ rogative intonation. However, there are cases when intonation is in contra­ diction with the syntactic structure and lexical composition of the utter­ ance, neutralizing and compensating them. For example, a statement may sound questioning: He was late a,gain?

There are cases when intonation neutralizes or compensates the lexical content ofthe utterance as it happens, for instance, in the command -;.Phone him at .once, please, when the meaning of the word please is neutralized by intonation.

-;.How 'very ,nice. Due to intonation this utterance sounds negative in contrast to the syntactic structure and the wording.

Lack of balance between intonation and word content, or intonation and grammatical structure of the utterance may serve to create special speech effects, irony, for example:

Very >clever, Jsn'the? -;.1hat's 'quite .interesting.

There are cases when groups of intonation patterns may be treated as synonyms. It happens when fine shades of meaning in different situations modify the basic meaning they express. The basic meaning of any falling tone in statements is finality. Low Fall and High Fall both expressing final­ ity have their own particular semantic shades. Pronounced with Low Fall a statement will sound detached and reserved. High Fall together with final­ ity may express concern, involvement:

4.5.3. Organizing function

As it was already mentioned, intonation serves to structure the text. On the one hand, it delimitates the text into smaller units, on the other hand, it ties together smaller units into bigger ones. These two processes take place simultaneously.

When we speak about delimitation (or segmentation) we mean that into­ nation can divide the text into phonopassages (or dialogue blocks), phrases, intonation groups. In spoken English the smallest piece of information is associated with an intonation group, that is, a unit ofintonation containing a nuclear tone. There is no eXact match between punctuation in writing and intonation groups in speech. Segmentation ofspeech into intonation groups depends on a number of factors, such as the length of syntactical units, the intention of the speaker to give emphasis to particular parts ofthe message, the degree of formality ofdiscourse, the tempo of speech and others. A sin­ gle phrase may contain just one intonation group, but when its length goes beyond a certain point, it is difficult not to split it into two or more chunks of information.

The man told us we could park it here. I

The man told us Iwe could park it at the railway station. II

The man told us Iwe could park the car Iin front ofthe pub Iin the street over there. II

As we have already mentioned, the number of intonation groups in an utterance may affect its meaning. Compare:

86 Chapter IV. Intonation

"'Jane 'putthe 'bookon the .table. Jane I"'putthe 'book on the .table. II

SO, together with nuclear tones pauses perform the function of de­ limitation, dividing the text into smaller units.

Intonation also serves to combine smaller units and organize them into bigger ones: intonation groups - phrases phonopassages texts.

Intonation shows what things belong more closely together than others. It also shows what is subordinate to what. Thus, intonation con­ nects textual units with other textual units and contributes to the cohe­ sion of the spoken text, thus performing the integrative function. Admit­ tedly, integration and delimitation are not formal things, these processes are the realization of the information content of the text.

Now, we will consider in more detail the role of intonation in con­ veying the information content of an utterance. Intonation highlights the most important information in an utterance, which helps to distinguish which information is new and which information is known to the lis­ tener.

The information in a message is divided into new (the rheme) and given (the theme). Given information is something that, as the speaker assumes, the listener already knows. New information is something that the speaker thinks the listener does not know. Here is an example:

What did John say to you? He was talking to ,Mary Inot to ,me.

In the response "he was talking" is given information. It should be mentioned that "given information" can be retrieved not only from the verbal context (something that was already mentioned or referred to) or the situation. It is also associated with the knowledge that the speaker and the listener share. For example, if both participants know that several people are expected to come, the phrase "The doctor has come" will be pronounced with the nuclear tone on the word "doctor", though no verbal context preceded it. So the context here is to be taken in a very broad sense.

New information is the most important part of the message. It is con­ centrated in the information centre, which may consist of a single word or be spread over a number of words. The nuclear tone marks the nucleus of the information centre, 1. e. the information focus.

Jack went to Paris. II

I'dlike a new DVD. II

Notice that the decision as to whether some information is retrievable or not has to be made by the speaker on the basis ofwhat he thinks the addressee can take for granted from the situation, etc. The speaker must, in framing the utterance, make many assumptions, and he does this rapidly and to a large degree unconsciously. He then arranges his intonation groups and assigns nu­ clear tones accordingly. But in any particular situation, the speaker'sassump­ tions run the risk ofbeing wrong: what he takes to be retrievable information may not in fact be retrievable for the addressee. In this case there is a break­ down of communication, and the listener will probably seek clarification:

I'dlike a new DVD.

The position ofthe nuclear tone on the last notional word ofthe intona­ tion group (end-focus position) is viewed as the basic, neutral, unmarked.

In actual speech the rheme and the nuclear tone may be placed differ­ ently. Such position of the nuclear tone is called marked.

Did Jack go to Paris? - No, Mark went to Paris.

The nuclear tone is shifted when the speaker wants to give focus to a particular part ofthe intonation group, usually to contrast it with something already mentioned, or understood in the context. In the marked position the nuclear tone is sometimes called contrastive focus or logical sentence stress. Compare the placement of the nuclear tone in the following dia­ logues:

Where was he born? - He was born in London.

Did your brother study in London? - No, he was born in London.

Any part ofspeech (even pronouns, prepositions, auxiliaries) may carry new information and be in the focus position.

It's not vour book, it's ours.

The book is not on the table, it's in the tab/e.

Whlch syllable ofthe word is stressed, ifit has more than one syllable, is determined by ordinary conventions of word stress: to'morrow, 'picture, ,demon'stration.

An important conclusion to be made here is that intonation plays a very important role in structuring the discourse: it organizes words into a mean­ ingful phrase, it ties phrases together within a text, showing in the process where divisions come, which things are more important, what is subordi­ nate to what and so on. In other words, intonation signals how phrases go

88 Chapter IV Intonation

together in a spoken discourse. At the same time intonation reflects the in­ fluence of the context, both verbal and extralinguistic, on the speech real­ ization.

Let us consider the sentence "It was an unusually rainy day". At the be­ ginning ofa story the last three words would be particularly important, they form the semantic centre with the nucleus on the word "day". The first three words playa minor part. The listener would get a pretty clear picture of the story's setting if the first three words were not heard because of some outside noise and the last three were heard clearly. If the last three words which form the semantic centre were lost there would be virtually no infor­ mation gained at all.

The same sentences may be said in response to the question "What sort ofday was it?" In this case the word "day" in the reply would lose some ofits force because the person who asks the question already possesses the neces­ sary information. In this situation there are only two important words

and they would be sufficient as a complete answer to the question. The nucleus will be on the word "rainy". In reply to the ques­ tion "Did it rain yesterday?" the single word "unusually" would bear the major part of the information, would be, in this sense, more important than all the others and consequently would be the nucleus of the intonation pat­ tern.

The word "was" has little value in the previous examples, but ifthe sen­ tence were said as a contradiction in the reply to "It wasn'ta rainy day yes­ terday, was it?", then "was" would be the most important word of all and indeed, the reply might simply be ((It was" ,omitting the following words as no longer worth saying. In this phrase the word "was" is the nucleus of the semantic centre.

These variations of intonation achieved by shifting the position of the terminal tone show how the opposition ofthe distribution of terminal tones fulfils integrating function. Together with delimitation, integration can be viewed as the basic aspect of discourse.

In the next section we will view the functions ofintonation with refer­ ence to discourse.

4.5.4. Intonation in discourse

We have so far confined our description ofthe functional aspect ofinto­ nation to phrases, now we want to look at the functions of intonation with reference to discourse.

In recent years there has been an increasing interest of linguists in analyzing "the way sentences work in sequence to produce coherent stretches oflanguage" (D. Crystal, 2007). Linguistic disciplines that deal with these problems are called text linguistics and discourse analysis. Some scholars apply the term "discourse" to spoken language, while the term "text" is used to describe the structure of written language. However, since our primary concern is the functional aspect of intonation in oral speech we are not going to specify the particular meaning of the terms and look at the prosodic organization of oral discourse, or text.

The study of oral discourse, i. e. structures extending beyond the sen­ tence, demonstrates that intonation is ofcentral importance for the mean­ ing and interpretation of spoken language.

Probably one of the most important functions of intonation is tying the major parts together within the phrase and tying phrases together within the text showing in the process what things belong more closely together than others, where the divisions come, what is subordinate to what, and whether one is telling, asking, commanding or exclaiming. In other words, in the previous sections we considered aspects of meaning in isolation, but now we shall focus on how meanings may be put together and presented in an oral discourse.

It is demonstrated in recent phonetic investigations that intonation plays a very important role in the semantic organization of textual units. Here is a brief account of how intonation contributes to structuring an oral monologue.

.Firstly, intonation is a cue to boundaries between discourse segments. This boundary is perceived due to the pitch parameters and pauses. Gener­ ally the beginning of a topical textual unit is marked by a high onset, in other words, the pitch range in the initial syntagm is comparatively wide and it gradually becomes narrower at the end of the textual unit. There is a marked change ofpitch at the boundaries between textual units which may be accom­ panied by a rather long pause and sometimes a change of loudness.

In the example presented below (an extract from a lecture) the begin­ nings of textual units are in bold print:

The origin ofthis lecture Imay perhaps be Ia purely British problem. II And I hope this will emerge perhaps Iin the course ofdiscussion afterwards, II but it is concerned with the role ofliterature, Ireading and discussing literature Iin the teachingofforeign languages. III

The first point Ithat J need to make Iis that modem languages Ithe study of foreign languages in England Iwas established at university level relatively late. III

Besides marking boundaries intonation is an important means of bind­ ing textual units together thus creating cohesion of spoken discourse. It is generally acknowledged that sentences in a text do not occur at random, there is a mutual dependence ofelements that form the text. Intonation acts as an indicator of semantic relationships of both between and inside textual units. By the placement of the nuclear tone, or accentuation, it is shown which lexical items carry new information. So the elements of the text which convey important information are marked by prosody, while others remain unmarked which contributes to expressing and developing the in­ formation content oftextual units and whole texts.

Intonation can show which phonopassages are more important in terms of information they convey. Their prosodic organization is generally char­ acterized by higher key, wider pitch range, greater loudness as compared to the phonopassages which convey additional or less important information. The following extract from a talk given by a student of Cambridge is an il­ lustration of how intonation actualizes the information content of textual units: the lexical items carrying new information are in bold print, phrases conveying low-key information are underlined.

Television Iis really stillIthe dominantform ofentertainment in England. II And you know Ithere are 5 channels: IRRC 1, 12, IlTV, IChannel 4 Iand re­ cently Channel 5 has started out. II Rut in my opinion 1the RRC Iis still Iyou know Ithe best channell to put it plainly'. II It:~ very well respected abroad and

at home. II It gives very good news coverage Iit produces great dramas Iorher types oLprogrammes. III

A" regards the prosodic organization ofdialogues, or conversational in­ teraction there are two aspects to be taken into account here: the role of intonation in organizing dialogues and the role ofprosody in structuring the interaction itself (turn taking, interruptions and so on).

We shall start with the organization of connections between phrases, with considering how one idea leads on to another. Intonation is one of

the means that fulfils this connection, performing the integrating func­ tion.

Obviously, in a spoken discourse a phrase does not exist in isolation, it is closely connected to other phrases, especially to the one preceding it. So a phrase exists in a certain verbal context and is relevant to this context. Let's look at the following dialogue:

A:Where is John?

B:He is in the house.

In this dialogue phrase A is the context for phrase B, while B is a re­ sponse to A and thus is relevant to A as a response to a special question. Relevance is the phenomenon that enables humans to converse. It is clear that if we take phrase B in isolation its meaning will be obscure. So rele­ vance exists only ifthere is a context.

If we take an utterance like "John" in isolation, we cannot say much about its structure or meaning. But as soon as we make it relevant to a con­ text, both the structure and meaning become clear.

Who is in the house? John.

We can that it is an elliptical sentence and the meaning is"John is in the house"'. The same phrase will have a different structure and meaning in a different context:

Who did they see? John.

The full form of response is "They saw John", a phrase in which the sequence "John" is now an object. So the two utterances "John" appear identical in isolation, but different contexts allow us to see their differ­ ence.

Analysing the role of intonation in discourse we must consider both the verbal context and the speech situation. The example given above il­ lustrates the connection between the information structure, L e. the placement of the nucleus, with the verbal context and the speech situa-

So the study of intonation in discourse is based on detailed analysis of the context, both the immediate verbal context and broader context of speech interaction.

When we view intonation in relation to discourse special attention is given to the relevant factors which determine the choice of intonation in particular context. Generally two areas are considered in this respect: the use ofintonation to focus the attention of the listener on the most impor­ tant elements of the message and the use of intonation to regulate the conversational behaviour (A. Cruttenden, P. Roach, A. Wichmann).

As regards the first area, it was already mentioned that in speech in­ teraction the placement of the nuclear tone depends on the verbal con­ text, i. e. on what has already been said. Compare the position of the nuclear tone in the following short conversations.

How does the story start?

"It was an unusually dark night... "

I could have given a quick account ofthe history IIcould have said what it was like to be a student here a hundred years ago II could have told you about the great museums Iand libraries Iand college chapels.

Besides conveying information intonation is used to impress, affect the listeners and thus it performs the pragmatic or rhetorical function.

Summing up, we can say that intonation plays a very important role in making communication effective.

Discussing the use of intonation in discourse we should mention an­ other important function, which is referred to as social, or indexical. Intonation is a marker of personal and social identity. According to D. Crystal, lawyers, preachers, sports commentators, teachers are readily identified through their distinctive prosody (D. Crystal, 1995). Intona­ tion can be an indicator of the social status of an individual and his or her social role.

In particular speech situations intonation can express the dominance of one of the participants. He might use wider pitch range, slower tem­ po, use the rising tone instead of fall-rise as a referring tone and so on.

You were supposed to have done it by the twentyfourth.

-The twenty-tSixth, IOthink.

-The twenty sixth ofMay? Surely not.

It is important to note here that discourse can take many forms, deter­ mined by the situation in which it takes place, the participants and their relationships. Intonation is subject to variation depending on the extralin­ guistic situation. These recurrent variations are described in terms ofpho­ netic styles. Intonation can perform the stylistic function, which will be described in Chapter V.

4.6. Rhythm

4.6.1. Speech rhythm. Definition. JYpology

The description of English intonation and the phonetic aspect of con­ nected speech is incomplete without some reference to speech rhythm. Rhythm is viewed as a kind offramework of speech organization.

In a broad sense rhythm is understood as periodicity in time and space. The notion of rhythm implies that something occurs at regular intervals of

time. It can be observed in the succession ofseasons, heart beating, breath­ ing, in music, dancing and other forms ofart.

Speech rhythm is traditionally defined as a regular occurrence ofstressed syllables in a speech continuum. Speech rhythm is also described in terms of acceleration and slowing down, of relaxation and intensification, length and brevity, similar and dissimilar elements. The type ofrhythm depends on the language. Languages are divided into two groups: syllable-timed, like French, Spanish, Italian, Greek and others, and stress-timed, such as Eng­ lish, German, Dutch, Russian and other languages.

In syllable-timed languages an approximately equal amount of time is given to each syllable, regardless of it being stressed or unstressed. In other words, "all syllables, whether stressed or unstressed, occur at regular time intervals and the time between stressed syllables will be shorter or longer in proportion to the number ofunstressed syllables" (P. Roach, 2001). In these languages there is practically no reduction of unstressed vowels.

stress-timed languages stressed syllables tend to occur at relatively equal intervals of time, According to the stress-timed theory time intervals between stressed syllables are approximately the same irrespective of the number ofunstressed syllables between them, which is generally described as a tendency to isochrony. In such languages rhythm is based on a larger unit than syllable. This rhythmic unit is called the foot or the rhythmic group. The stressed syllables in the rhythmic group form peaks of prominence.

As it was already mentioned, the duration ofrhythmic groups is consid­ ered to be equal. However, this principle which is accepted by most phone­ ticians has not been experimentally verified (A Cruttenden, P. Roach, A Gimson). Despite the insufficiency of acoustic data, the perception of stress-timing in English is evident. This effect is particularly noticeable due to the reduction and elision of vowels in unstressed syllables. Also due to the changes in length, pitch, loudness and vowel quality in the stressed syllables they are perceived as prominent in contrast to the unstressed syllables, which creates the abrupt, spiky effect of English rhythm.

4.6.2. Rhythmic group as the basic unit of rhythm

The basic unit of rhythm is the rhythmic group (the foot, the phonetic word), which can be defined as a speech segment containing a stressed syl­ lable and unstressed syllables attached to it. The stressed syllable is the nu­ cleus of the rhythmic group. The unstressed syllables preceding the stressed syllable with which they are grouped are called proclitics, those following the stressed syllable are called enclitics.

There are two alternative views among phoneticians concerning the grouping of stressed and unstressed syllables. According to the first point of view the grouping is based on the semantic principle: the unstressed sylla­ bles tend to be drawn either to the stressed syllable of the same word or to the lexical unit with which they are semantically connected:.

They decided Ito go Ito the country Ifor the weekend.

According to the other point ofview the unstressed syllables tend to join the preceding stressed syllable. This theory is called enclitic. According to the enclitic principle the same phrase will be divided into rhythmic groups in the following way:

They decided to Igo to the Icountry/or the Iweekend.

The enclitic tendency is considered to be more typical of-English, though experimental data show that the type of division into rhythmic groups depends on the tempo and style of speech. The enclitic tendency is observed in rapid colloquial speech, while in careful slow speech the se­ mantic tendency prevails. .

It is generally acknowledged that the rhythmic group is the basic unit of rhythm. It functions as such in all types of texts. But the description of rhythm is not limited to the rhythmic group. According to A. M. Antipova (1984), the rhythmic structure of speech continuum is a hierarchy of rhyth­ mic units of different levels. Rhythmicality created by interrelation of lexi­ cal, syntactic and prosodic means, marks every text segment: rhythmic groups, intonation groups, phrases and phonopassages.

4.6.3. Rhythm in different types of discourse

An important factor which regulates speech rhythm is the style of speech. Thus, rhythm has a great rhetorical potential in public speaking. Admittedly, it possesses great aesthetic value in literary texts, especially in poetry. As far as spontaneous conversation is concerned, its rhythmic orga­

nization will be very different and may even produce the effect of arhyth­ micality. P. Roach comments on such variations in English speech rhythm in the following way: " ...in speaking English we vary in how rhythmically we speak: sometimes we speak very rhythmically (this is typical of some styles of public speaking), while at other times we speak arythmically (that is, without rhythm) - for example, when we are hesitant or nervous. Stress­ timed rhythm is thus perhaps characteristic of one style of speaking, not of English speech as a whole; one always speaks with some degree of rhythmi­ cality, but the degree will vary between a minimum value (arythmical) and a maximum (completely stress-timed rhythm)" (P. Roach, 2001). It is true to say that any style of speech has some kind of rhythm, but the character and degree of rhythmicality differ in different styles.

Admittedly, maximum rhythmicality is observed in poetry. In verse the effect of rhythmicality is created by a hierarchy of rhythmic units. The basic rhythmic units in metric verse are: the foot, the line, the stanza. The foot is formed by the stressed syllable and the unstressed syllables that precede or follow it. The line contains one or more intonation groups with an equal number offeet in them. On the prosodic level the rhythm in a line is secured by the similar number of syllables, their temporal similarity, descending melody contour, tone and intensity maximum at the beginning, tone and intensity minimum at the end and a final pause. These parameters make the

a stable rhythmic unit. The stanza has a fixed number of lines. Obviously, the effect of poetic rhythm is not created by prosody alone.

There is a number of devices which contribute to this effect: rhyme, asso­ nance (repetition of similar vowels), alliteration (repetition of similar con­ sonants)' repetition, syntactic parallelism and so on.

Earth has not anything to show more fair. Dull would he be ofsoul who couldpass by A sight so touching in its majesty:

This city now doth, like a garment, wear The beauty o/the morning; silent, bare,

Ships, towers, domes, theatres and temples lie Open unto the fields, and to the sky,

All bright and glittering in the smokeless air. (w. Wordsworth)

Poets control the rhythmical patterns they use, because rhythm is a powerful means of creating poetic images. In the following extracts from two classical poems this intention of the authors is perfectly clear: