17.The tonal subsystem(pitch component)of prosody.The pitch parameters.

The pitch component of intonation, or speech melody is the variations in the pitch of the voice which take place with voiced sounds.

To describe the melody of an utterance it is necessary to determine the relevant pitch levels, pitch ranges, directions and rate of pitch movement in the terminal zone and pre-terminal part of each of its intonation groups. The pitch level of the whole utterance (or intonation group) is determined by the pitch of its highest-pitched syllable. The pitch range of an utterance is the interval between its highest-pitched syllable and its lowest-pitched syllable. According to circumstances the speaker changes his voice range. The rate of pitch variations may be different depending on the time, during which these variations take place, and on the range of the variations. The falling tone, for instance, is steeper when it is pronounced within a shorter period of time, its range being the same. Differences in the rate of pitch variations are semantically important. When the rate of the fall is fast, the falling tone sounds more categoric and definite than when the rate of the fall is slow.

18.The pitch component of prosody. The tone. Types of heads and pre-heads. The pitch characteristics of the tail.

The basic unit used to describe the pitch component is the tone(subdivided into kinetic and static).Static tones may have different pitch level of the voice — the high static tone, the mid static tone, the low static tone. The differentiation of kinetic tones as high falling and low falling, high rising and low rising. The most important from the functional point of view is the terminal tone of an utterance. The terminal tone is the most important functional element of the prosodic structure of the utterance. It conveys certain meanings of its own which make the whole utterance more concrete and precise. The meanings of the falling tone, for example, are definiteness, completeness, finality, certainty. The meanings of the rising tone are those of indefiniteness, incompleteness, non-finality, uncertainty. The falling-rising tone carries the meaning of reservation, implication, contrast. Significant pitch modifications can also be observed in the head, another structural element of an utterance. The head is viewed as one melodic shape, one part of the pitch contour of the utterance. It acts as a unit independent of the nucleus. The functions of the head are to express relations between its constituent units- rhythmic groups and to convey modal-stylistic meanings. The pre-head is normally pronounced on the low or mid pitch level. If it is pronounced on a pitch somewhat higher than the normal pitch or somewhat lower the utterance acquires emphasis and emotional connotations. The pitch characteristics of the tail depend on the kind of nuclear tone. The tail is descending when it continues the fall of the nucleus. The tail is ascending when it is part of the rising or falling-rising terminal tones. So the tail is not an independent element of the utterance. It should be treated as a constituent element of the terminal tone.

19.The accentual subsys-m of prosody(utterance stress).The functional types of utterance stress, its functions.Peculiarities of utterance stress in diff. lang-ges.

The special prominence given to one or more words in an utterance is called utterance stress. Stress is part of the phonetic structure of the word. Stresses in an utterance fulfill the same three functions as other components of prosody: constitutive, distinctive and identificatory. In their constitutive function stresses form the utterance by integrating words . They form the accentual structure of the utterance, which is the basis of its rhythm and part of its prosodic structure. The distinctive function of stresses manifests itself in differentiating utterances as to their meaning, which is conditioned by the position and type of stress. In its identificatory function utterance stress provides a basis for the hearer's identification of the important parts of the utterance and for his understanding of the content. The subsystem of utterance stress in English includes three basic functional types: nuclear stress, non-nuclear full stress and partial stress.The main difference between these three types of stress is the difference in how the syllables that bear them are marked. The nuclear syllable is in most cases marked by a kinetic tone and is perceived as the most prominent. Non—nuclear fully stressed syllables are more often marked by static tones. Both are pitch prominent, both initiate tones. Partially stressed syllables are not pitch prominent, they do not initiate tones and their pitch characteristics depend on the pitch pattern of the preceding fully stressed syllables. The accentual structure of an utterance is conditioned to a certain extent by the stress patterns of its words. Word stress and utterance stress are in close relation. Whenever utterance stress occurs it will normally fall on a syllable which also has word stress. The word and the utterance may have the same accentual patterns

20.The prosodic subsys-m of rhythm.Syllable-timed and stress-timed rhythm. Rhythmic structures.

Rhythm has been defined as regularity or periodicity in the occurrence of a particular phenomenon in an utterance. Languages differ in their rhythm mainly because of this phenomenon. In some languages the recurring phenomena are stresses, in others — syllables. So languages may be characterized either by stress-timed or syllable-timed rhythm. English is considered to be mostly a language with stress-timed rhythm. Though occasionally it may display syllable-imed character as well. Stress-timed rhythm presupposes that utterance stress serves as a basis for the rhythmical organization of speech and that stresses segment the speech continuum into units of more or less equal length. These are accentual, or rhythmic units. Rhythmic units form a certain hierarchy, since stresses, on which they are based, are not equal in their prominence, position and function. The most prominent, as a rule, and functionally more important is the nuclear stress. Rhythmic units are nothing but elements of rhythm. Rhythm as regularity of occurrence of stressed syllables manifests itself in hierarchically higher prosodic units -intonation groups and utterances. Prosodic characteristics of rhythmic units are determined by their position and function in an intonation group or in an utterance. The prosodic structure of the nuclear rhythmic unit differs from that of the onset rhythmic unit, the rhythmic unit within the head (scale) is different in its prosodic features from that of the tail and so on. There may be different rhythmic patterns in a language depending on the number and types of stresses in an utterance as well as on the degree of prosodic contrasts between its stressed and unstressed syllables. In the English language prosodic contrasts between stressed and unstressed syllables are sharper than, for example, in Russian and Byelorussian. But in the English rhythmicality system these contrasts vary as well. Stress and rhythm are the areas of the greatest number of deviations from the prosodic norm of the non-native language of the bilingual speaker.In English utterances pronounced by Russian and Byelorussian speakers the following features of interference can be observed:1.The occurrence of a greater number of stresses and the resulting distortions of the rhythmic patterns of English.2.The shifting of the nuclear stress to the left, towards the beginning of the utterance. 3.Exaggerated prominence of the nuclear syllable4.Exaggerated prominence of the stressed syllables in the pre-nuclear part of the utterance 5.Distortions in perceptible isochrony of rhythmic units under the influence of the syllable-timed tendency of Byelorussian rhythm.