6.3.2.Utterance stress.

Utterance stress- it is a special prominents given to one or more words in an utterance. The prominents is created in the same way as word stress. Not all the words are stressed in the utterance, only those which are important for the speaker at the moment.

The nucleus syllable is marked by a kinetic tone, which marks the most important word for the speaker in an utterance.

Ex. I want a blue hat. (hat, not shoose)

I want a blue hat. (blue, not red)

I want a blue hat. ( you must buy it for me)

I want a blue hat. ( I, not my sister)

Other important words in the utterances are marked by a static tone.

6.3.3.English rhythm.

Rhythm is a regular recurrence of a phenomenon in time. An intonation group consist of rhythmic groups. Most rhythmic groups consist of a stressed syllable and one or more unstressed ones or they are just a stressed syllable.

Rules of the English rhythm:

1)the stressed syllables in an intonation group follow each other at regular intervals of time.

2)the greater the number of unstressed syllables between the stress one, the faster they are pronounced.

3)Initial unstressed syllables are pronounced rapidly.

4)the initial rhythmic group may begin with proclitics, no initial rhythmic groups normally don’t have proclitics.

Ex. They are very happy.

You shouldn’t have done it.

6.3.4.Tempo of speech.

It is the rate at which utterances and other prosodic units are pronounced. The faster the tempo of speech the less important is what the speaker said.

Tempo can express the speakers attitude or emotion.

Ex. Fast tempo may express excitement and joy

Slow tempo shows calmness, relaxation, disinterest, reserved attitude.

6.3.5.Pauses.

Our speech is divided into unites by pauses. Pauses are:

Short-between 2 intonation groups in an utterance

Long- between 2 utterance

Extra-long – between 2 parts of the text or sometimes extra-long are used to produce a special effect.

Types of pauses:

1)silent pauses which are stops in phonation;

2)voiced pauses- like ai,mmm

3)pauses of perception.

There is actually no stop of phonation, but our mind expects a pause where the speaker sharply changes in the pitch level, in loudness or duration. Pauses effect the general tempo of the utterance.