27. The basic functions of the prosody of the utterance. Stylistic use of intonation.

The functions and meanings of prosody should be described with reference to the utterance as the basic communicative unit. The prosody of an utterance carries independent meanings of its own, regardless of the words and the grammatical structure of the utterance. The prosody of the utterance is polysemantic. Due to its structural complexity it can express a number of different meanings of interrogation, non-finality, uncertainty, non-categoric attitude, surprise. The prosody of the utterance performs a number of functions, the basic of which are constitutive, distinctive and identificatory. The constitutive function is to form utterances as communicative units. Prosody unifies words into utterances, thus giving the latter the final form without which they cannot exist. A succession of words arranged syntactically is not a communicative unit until a certain prosodic pattern is attached to it. In constituting an utterance prosody at the same time performs the segmentative and delimitative function. It segments connected discourse into utterances and intonation groups, and simultaneously delimits them one from another, showing relations between them. The distinctive function of prosodymanifests itself in several particular functions, depending on the meaning which is differentiated. The communicative —distinctive function is to differentiate the communicative types of utterances (statements, questions, exclamations, imperatives, and communicative subtypes) The modal — distinctive function of prosody manifests itself in differentiating modal meanings of utterances (such as certainty versus uncertainty, definiteness versus indefiniteness) and the speaker's attitudes. Stylistic — distinctive function of prosody manifests itself in that prosody differentiates pronunciation (phonetic) styles, determined by extralinguistic factors. The identificatory function of prosody is to provide a basis for the hearer's identification of the communicative and modal type of an utterance, its semantic and syntactical structure with the situation of the discourse.

28. Situational variation of Eng pronunciation. Phonostylistic investigations of speech. Functional and phonetic styles. The main extra linguistic style-differentiating factors. The problem of classification of phonetic styles.

There is sufficient evidence of the existence of phonetic styles. But further experimental investigation is needed to establish the most relevant phonetic features of the main styles of English pronunciation as well as of other languages. It will make it possible to produce a classification of styles based on phonetic principles, on the objective segmental and prosodic features of speech. The relations between phonetic styles and the orthoepic norm are complicated. The orthoepic norm is modified by extralinguistic factors and is characterized by all the phonetic features, specific for all its phonetic styles. Phonostylistic investigations of speech appear to provide valuable data not only for the linguist, but also for the sociologist. It is evident that in addition to the information we intend to convey, our speech reveals our cultural background and education. The problem of phonetic styles is of considerable importance to the teachers of foreign languages. When choosing the teaching standard it is necessary to determine not only the type of pronunciation, but also the style to be taught to foreigners. Besides, it is wise to differentiate the teaching of reading aloud from the teaching of oral conversation. Phonostylistic data should be made use of in developing the perceiving abilities of the learner. One has to provide the learner with necessary cues to differentiate the type of speech activity, the nature of interchange, the extent of formality of speech; the ability to perceive all those speech characteristics is very important in any communication act. Scholars distinguish a number of functional styles of the written language, such as belles-lettres style, publicists style, newspaper style, the style of official documents and that of scientific prose, which have clearly distinguishable lexical and syntactical peculiarities. Apart from a few scattered studies of oratorical and conversational styles, the styles of the spoken language are not as yet unanimously defined, though we are well aware of the phonetic differences between, say, a casual conversation and an official exchange of views. The analysis of the relationship between phonetic styles and functional styles of written English reveals that there is some connection between them. Besides that, there is evidently a correlation between phonetic and the so-called speech styles. Speech styles, just as phonetic styles, are conditioned by the circumstances of reality in which language functions, by the kind of situation the speaker happens to be in and by the aims of the speech situation the phonetic styles of spontaneous speech should be classified into official style, informal style or the style of everyday—life discourse, and familiar style. Each of these subgroups includes numerous varieties which are modified by extralinquistic factors. There is an obvious interconnection between phonetic and functional styles of the written language, on the one hand, and phonetic and speech styles, on the other. This makes the problem of classification of phonetic styles a very complicated one.

29-30. Phonetic style-forming means of English. Segmental/suprasegmental style-forming means. Until now it was considered that the phonetic style-forming means are the degree of assimilation, reduction and elision, all of which depend on the degree of carefulness of pronunciation. That means that nothing but changes in the sound structure and the syllabic structure of speech were taken into consideration, assimilation, reduction and elision are natural phonetic phenomena, which occur in any pronunciation style. These phenomena are caused by an unconscious economy of effort, known as 'the law of least effort' Elision, reduction and assimilation may, therefore, signal stylistic differences. Besides these segmental features, there are prosodic features which enable people to distinguish between different phonetic styles. Each speaker has a norm of loudness which he may depart from in different circumstances. His speech is generally characterized by a more or less regular usage of certain tones. Each speaker has a norm of speech tempo as well. Pauses also help to distinguish different varieties of speech. For example, the character of pauses shows striking differences between written English read aloud and informal conversation. Thus, it appears that each style of pronunciation is characterized by a re­latively high proportion of definite segmental and prosodic features which are not typical of other styles. Informality of conversational English is also created by unexpected introduction of dialect forms; elements of very formal language, slips of the tongue, hesitant drawls, uneven tempo, significant variations in loudness, paralinguistic features.