Фоностилистика английского языка. Учебное пособие на модульной основе

53.What nuclear tone of final intonation groups is typical of declamatory style?

a)the Low Fall

b)the Fall-Rise

c)the Low Rise

d)the Rise-Fall

54.The speed of utterance in reading descriptive prose is determined as:

a)fast

b)moderate

c)normal

d)slow

55.Which of the following is related to the common sphere of use of publicistic style?

a)telephone conversations

b)radio announcements

c)university lectures

d)parliamentary debates

56.What intonation patterns are political speeches characterized by in the prenuclear part?

a)(Low Pre-Head +) Stepping or Rising Head

b)(Low Pre-Head +) Scandent Head

c)(Low Pre-Head +) Stepping or Falling Head

d)(Low Pre-Head +) Stepping or Mid-Level Head

57.By means of what is a political speech maker tying to gain maximum effect in his utterance?

a)hesitation phenomena

b)fluctuated sentence-stress

c)a glottal stop

d)a rhetorical silence

58.Conversational style of speech is characterized by the absence of stable pattern of… :

a)pauses

b)tempo and rhythm

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c)speed of utterance

d)final intonation groups

59.What is one of the most essential distinctive features of an informal spontaneous conversation?

a)the occurrence of falling tones

b)the occurrence of hesitations phenomena

c)the occurrence of scandent heads

d)the occurrence of short pauses

60.What is the most noticeable aspect of an informal conversation when speaking about vocabulary?

a)the usage of specialized terms

b)the usage of formal phraseology

c)the usage of vocabulary simple in structure

d)the usage of clichés

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SUPPLEMENT 1

Intonation and Non-Verbal Mans of Communication

In oral intercourse a great role is attached to non-verbal means of communication. When we communicate we choose appropriate language means to convey the message but at the same time our verbal message is accompanied by a non-verbal display. It‘s believed that 25% of communication is conveyed by non-verbal means. They include apparent behaviours such as facial expressions (facial warmth or pleasantness, smiling), eyes, touching, and tone of voice, as well as less obvious messages such as dress, posture and spatial distance between two or more people. These signals are called kinesic means. There is a special discipline – kinesics, which studies body movements, facial expressions and gestures. It was developed by anthropologist Ray L. Birdwhistell in the 1950s. He proposed the term kineme to describe a minimal unit of visual expression, in analogy to a phoneme which is a minimal unit of sound.

It is interesting to note that scientists put forward the hypothesis that whereas spoken language is normally used for communicating information about events external to the speakers, non-verbal codes are used to establish and maintain interpersonal relationships. It is considered more polite or nicer to communicate attitudes towards others non-verbally rather than verbally, for instance in order to avoid embarrassing situations.

It was defined that there are five primary functions of non-verbal bodily behaviour in human communication:

o To express emotions

o To express interpersonal attitudes

oTo accompany speech in managing the cues of interaction between speakers and listeners

o Self-presentation of one‘s personality o Rituals (greetings)

The non-verbal means:

 facial expressions

Our faces can demonstrate a wide range of expressions, especially when our speech is emotionally colored: e.g. the widening of the eyes means interest, the parting of the lips means excitement. A smile generally intensifies positive feelings. Asian cultures suppress facial expressions.

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 gestures

A gesture is a non-vocal bodily movement intended to express meaning. They may be articulated with the hands, arms or body, and also include movements of the head, face and eyes, such as winking, nodding, or rolling ones‘ eyes. Falling tone is often accompanied with a nod. But silence is indicated with finger crossing the lips.

Gestures can also be categorized as either speech-independent or speechrelated. Speech-independent gestures are dependent upon culturally accepted interpretation and have a direct verbal translation. A wave hello or a peace sign are examples of speech-independent gestures. Speech related gestures are used in parallel with verbal speech; this form of nonverbal communication is used to emphasize the message that is being communicated.

 postures

Posture can be used to determine a participant‘s degree of attention or involvement, the difference in status between communicators, and the level of fondness a person has for the other communicator. Posture is understood through such indicators as direction of lean, body orientation, arm position, and body openness.

Meanwhile, all these non-verbal means intensify information conveyed by intonation and are typical of certain cultures. But the problem is that most people are unaware of their own cultural patterns of nonverbal communication, thus, they are unprepared to deal with the patterns of other cultures. This is probably a major cause of misunderstanding between cultures as we interpret each other as rude, pushy, childlike, cold, etc., usually not for what is said, but how it is said, and how we act. That‘s why it‘s recommended to control your body language and to use it appropriately.

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SUPPLEMENT 2

Prosodic Peculiarities of Formal and Informal Speech

It would be convenient to describe the phonetic, and particularly, prosodic characteristics of each of the varieties of English in relative terms, which presuppose some frame of reference, a kind of prosodic norm to proceed from. It seems appropriate to regard the basic intonation contours as such a norm. The peculiarity of each of the styles might then be seen in two ways:

1)as statistical preference of some of the patterns in comparison with the others;

2)as modifications from the ‗normal‘ characteristics of the basic patterns. The norm is regarded as the invariant of the phonetic patterns circulating

in language-in-action at a given period of time. It is interesting to note that the norms represent to a certain extent the ideals of speech behaviour cherished by a language community; they do not always coincide with the actual speech behaviour used. Deviations from these phonetic patterns may be great but they never exceed the range of tolerance set by the invariant, otherwise an utterance may become unrecognizable or misleading, as in the case of a very strong foreign accent.

It should be made clear that the norm, too, can be defined from the point of view of style, as it also correlates with certain extra-linguistic factors. The basic prosodic patterns are most readily identifiable with two intermediate stylistic subvarieties: formal neutral and informal ordinary. Generally speaking, there is a considerable overlap between them, and they both can be taken as representing the ‗norm‘, while the two extreme, ‗polar‘ subvarieties – formal official and informal familiar – can be characterized in terms of distinctions between each other, on the one hand, and each other and the ‘norm’, on the other.

Some of the contrasts between the two polarities are intuitively felt: official, and, first of all, public speaking will obviously be louder and slower, more careful, distinct and tense in articulation than informal familiar speech. This seems to be a universal phonetic characteristic of the given stylistic varieties. What a foreign student actually needs in order to acquire the correct speaking habits is the knowledge of the specific relationships in speed and loudness between different elements of an utterance in the given language, English in this case.

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The fast speed of delivery in the informal conversational style and the relatively slow tempo of formal speaking are closely connected with the number of stresses in an utterance: in a slow delivery there is more time to stress all the words that can suitably take stresses, while in a rapid delivery the stresses are limited to those words that are really important, and the intervening groups of unstressed words consequently become longer. As a result, there is a noticeable difference in the rhythmic patterns utilized in the varieties of spoken English being compared.

In the descriptions of speech styles it is generally stated that the informality of a conversational situation is reflected, among others, in the fact that any kind of language may occur without its being linguistically inappropriate, whereas a formal situation will not allow of a similar intrusion. This observation is just as true about intonation: the entire range of prosodic means can be used, i.e., as David Crystal puts it, anything may occur in an informal conversation. However, as it is pointed out by the quoted author, this

‗anything‘ is restricted in two obvious ways which help us to identify the stylistic status of a text:

a)prosodic feature typical of some other stylistic variety must not extend over more than one supra phrasal unity;

b)a complex of prosodic features acting as stylistic markers of other language varieties is not incorporated in more than one phrase

simultaneously. It means that, let us say, tense and loud articulation which is characteristic of formal official style can hardly be expected in an informal situation over a stretch of speech covering more than one phrase.

At the same time informal speech reveals an opposite tendency: to make frequent use of only a small number of basic prosodic configurations. In other words, within any given stretch of utterance very little actually occurs. Typical examples of this second peculiarity are provided by a very high proportion of falling (descending) types of head and low variety of the falling tone in informal speech. They are especially common for monosyllabic response-utterances:

\No. \Yes. \Sure. \Right.

Alongside the tendency towards using simple falling tones one can observe a wide use of low rising and falling-rising tones in complete statements, which can be explained by the appropriateness of the attitudinal meaning of these tones

– the informal friendliness and politeness – for the situation. A common means of expressiveness in informal conversation is the use of complex tones and

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emphatic varieties of simple tones, the high prehead and types of head such as the sliding and the scandent heads for instance. In general, since there seem to be no restrictions on the range of emotions which might be displayed in an informal-familiar situation, the prosodic expression of emotion is similarly unrestricted, e.g.:

An important point about informal conversation is also a wide use of contrastive placement of nucleus and the frequency of pauses (silent or voiced) within an utterance for the purpose of expressing hesitation.

The speed of informal conversation is generally described as quite fast, but the tempo here is as changeable as one wishes it to be. It is characteristic that the speed of utterance may increase from normal to fast, slow to normal, or vice versa; it may be reduced towards the end of an utterance, or in relation to the adjacent utterance. However, it is not possible to give definite rules which would ascribe all the intonation patterns of a language to their appropriate stylistic usage; and, vice versa, to describe any of the styles in terms of specific (marked) phonetic features only. The latter make up only a part of the whole prosodic

‗portrait‘ of the text in any given style.

Besides, it must be noted that phonetic features are not the only markers of the style of speech. Stylistic differentiation is also realized on the other language

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levels – grammatical and, especially, lexical. For example, formal neutral written style of speech (student‘s essays, summaries, reproductions) is characterized by the following features:

(a)Restrictions upon the vocabulary. Words and phrases labeled colloquial, familiar, vulgar, slang are excluded as inappropriate.

(b)Absence of abbreviations. Contracted verbal forms (I’m, we’re, he’d, etc.), colloquial abbreviations of words (ad, exam, vac), symbols like &, %; figures (e.g. There were 7 mistakes in your work) should not be used.

(c)Orderly grammatical structure. The ideas are arranged in a logical sequence, in measured syntactical structures. Paragraphs are more fully developed than in informal style.

(d)Impersonal treatment of the subject matter. The author usually tries to avoid the first person singular; sometimes it results in wider use of the passive voice.

Or compare, for instance, the wording of the following conversational formulae: Good-bye. Cheerio. See you. Bye-bye. It was nice seeing you.

Thank you. Thanks. Thank you very much, indeed.

Good morning. Hello. Hi! I‘m ever glad to see you.

Morning. Happy to see you. Nice to see you.

Of course, when lexical and grammatical stylistic markers are involved, the role of the phonetic means is not so conspicuous, but they are in no way irrelevant. It is the phonetic characteristics that the identification of oral speech varieties is primarily based upon.

SUPPLEMENT 3

POEMS OF BRITISH AND AMERICAN WRITERS

Sonnet 130 ♫

ˈMy ˙mistress‘ ˇeyes are “nothing like the „sun;

„Coral is “far ˌmore \red than her “lips‘ „red;

If „snow be „white,│‾why \then ‾ her breasts are „dun;

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If hairs be ˇwires,│ˈblack “wires ˌgrow on her \head.

¯I have „seen „roses „damask‘d, ˈred and „white, But no such roses see I in her \cheeks;

And in ˈsome „perfumes ˌis there more de„light Than in the „breath that from my ˆmistress ˌreeks. I ˆlove to ˙hear her „speak,│yet well I \know That music hath a “far ˌmore ˌpleasing ˌsound;

¯I \grant I never „saw a ˌgoddess „go;

ˈMy ˙mistress, when „she „walks \treads on the „ground;

¯And \yet,│ˈby \heaven,│ˈI ˙think my \love as >rare

As “any ˌshe│„belied with ˈfalse com\pare.

W. Shakespeare (1564-1616)

Sonnet 18 ♫

ˈShall I comˈpare „thee to a ˈsummer‘s >day?

ˈThou ˙art “more ˇlovely and ˈmore „temperate:

ˈRough >winds do ˈshake the ˈdarling ˈbuds of \May, And ˈsummer‘s \lease hath ˈall ˙too ˈshort a >date:

ˈSome‟time ˈtoo „hot the „eye ¦ of ˈheaven \shines, And ˈoften is his >gold ¦ comˈplexion >dimm‘d;

And ˈevery >fair ¦ from >fair ¦ ˈsometime de\clines,

By >chance or ˈnature‘s ˈchanging >course un\trimm‘d;

But ˌthy eˈternal \summer ˈshall ˙not >fade Nor ˈlose posˈsession of that ˈfair thou „owest;

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”Nor shall ˈDeath \brag thou ˈwander‘st in his \shade, When in eˈternal „lines to „time thou \growest;

So ˈlong as ˈmen can >breathe or >eyes can \see,

So ˈlong ˈlives \this│and >this ˈgives \life to \thee.

W. Shakespeare (1564-1616)

An extract from “Hamlet” ♫

To >be, | or \not to be | – ˈthat is the \question; ||

ˈWhether ‗tis ˈnobler in the ˇmind ¦ to ‗suffer |

The \slings and ˆarrows ¦ of outˈrageous \fortune |

Or to ˈtake ˆarms aˌgainst a "sea of ˇtroubles, |

And ˈby opˇposing, ˆend them? || To ˇdie, to ˆsleep | –

ˈNo ‗more; | and ˈby a ‗sleep ¦ to ˈsay we ‗end |

The ‗heartache and the "thousand ˈnatural \shocks That ˈflesh is \heir to || ‗Tis a ˈconsumˇmation Deˇvoutly ¦ to be ‗wish‘d. || To ˇdie, | to \sleep;

To ′sleep, | per chance to ‗dream. || ‗Ay, there‘s the ‗rub, |

For ˈin that ˙sleep of ˇdeath | ˈwhat ‗dreams may \come, When ˈwe have >shuffled \off ¦ this ˈmortal \coil, |

ˈMust >give us ¦ \pause.

W. Shakespeare (1564-1616)

The Tiger ♫

Tiger! Tiger! burning bright

In the forests of the night,

What immortal hand or eye

Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

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