Attributes of prosody
In the study of prosodic aspects of speech, it is usual to distinguish between auditory measures ( subjective impressions produced in the mind of the listener) and objective measures (physical properties of the sound wave and physiological characteristics of articulation that may be measured objectively). Auditory (subjective) and objective ( acoustic and articulatory) measures of prosody do not correspond in a linear way. Most studies of prosody have been based on auditory analysis using auditory scales. Auditorily, the major prosodic variables are: * pitch of the voice (varying between low and high) *length of sounds (varying between short and long) * loudness, or prominence (varying between soft and loud) * timbre or phonatory quality (quality of sound) Acoustically, these prosodic variables correspond closely to:Phonology
Prosodic features are suprasegmental, since they are properties of units of speech that are defined over groups of sounds rather than single segments. When talking about prosodic features, it is important to distinguish between the personal characteristics that belong to an individual's voice (for example, their habitual pitch range, intonation patterns, etc.) and the independently variable prosodic features that are used contrastively to communicate meaning (for example, the use of changes in pitch to indicate the difference between statements and questions). Personal characteristics that belong to an individual are not linguistically significant while prosodic features are. Prosody has been found across all languages and is described to be a natural component of language. The defining features of prosody that display the nuanced emotions of an individual differ across languages and cultures.Intonation
Some writers (e.g., O'Connor and Arnold) have described intonation entirely in terms of pitch, while others (e.g., Crystal) propose that "intonation" is a combination of several prosodic variables. English intonation is often said to be based on three aspects: * The division of speech into units * The highlighting of particular words and syllables * The choice of pitch movement (e.g., fall or rise) The choice of pitch movement and the highlighting of particular words to create different intonation patterns can be seen in the following English conversation: : "That's a cat?" : "Yup. That's a cat." : "A ''cat''? I thought it was a mountain lion!" The exchange above is an example of using intonation to highlight particular words and to employ rising and falling of pitch to change meaning. If read out loud, the pitch of the voice moves in different directions on the word "cat." In the first line, pitch goes up, indicating a question. In the second line, pitch falls, indicating a statementa confirmation of the first line in this case. Finally, in the third line, a complicated fall-rise pattern indicates incredulity. Each pitch/intonation pattern communicates a different meaning. An additional pitch-related variation is ''pitch range''; speakers are capable of speaking with a wide range of pitch (this is usually associated with excitement), while at other times with a narrow range. English makes use of changes in ''key''; shifting one's intonation into the higher or lower part of one's pitch range is believed to be meaningful in certain contexts.Stress
Stress functions as the means of making a syllable prominent. Stress may be studied in relation to individual words (named "word stress" or lexical stress) or in relation to larger units of speech (traditionally referred to as "sentence stress" but more appropriately named " prosodic stress"). Stressed syllables are made prominent by several variables. Stress is typically associated with the following: * pitch prominence (a pitch level that is different from that of neighboring syllables, or a pitch movement) * increased length (duration) * increased loudness (dynamics) * differences in timbre: in English and some other languages, stress is associated with aspects of vowel quality (whose acoustic correlate is the formant frequencies or spectrum of the vowel). Unstressed vowels tend to be centralized relative to stressed vowels, which are normally more peripheral in quality Some of these cues are more powerful or prominent than others. Alan Cruttenden, for example, writes "Perceptual experiments have clearly shown that, in English at any rate, the three features (pitch, length and loudness) form a scale of importance in bringing syllables into prominence, pitch being the most efficacious, and loudness the least so". When pitch prominence is the major factor, the resulting prominence is often called ''accent'' rather than stress. There is considerable variation from language to language concerning the role of stress in identifying words or in interpreting grammar and syntax.Tempo
Rhythm
Although rhythm is not a prosodic variable in the way that pitch or loudness are, it is usual to treat a language's characteristic rhythm as a part of its prosodic phonology. It has often been asserted that languages exhibit regularity in the timing of successive units of speech, a regularity referred to as isochrony, and that every language may be assigned one of three rhythmical types: stress-timed (where the durations of the intervals between stressed syllables is relatively constant), syllable-timed (where the durations of successive syllables are relatively constant) and mora-timed (where the durations of successive morae are relatively constant). As explained in the isochrony article, this claim has not been supported by scientific evidence.Pause
Voiced or unvoiced, the pause is a form of interruption to articulatory continuity such as an open or terminal juncture. Conversation analysis commonly notes pause length. Distinguishing auditory hesitation from silent pauses is one challenge. Contrasting junctures within and without word chunks can aid in identifying pauses. There are a variety of "filled" pause types. Formulaic language pause fillers include "Like", "Er" and "Um", and paralinguistic expressive respiratory pauses include the sigh and gasp. Although related to breathing, pauses may contain contrastive linguistic content, as in the periods between individual words in EnglishChunking
Pausing or its lack contributes to the perception of word groups, or chunks. Examples include theFunctions
Prosody has had a number of perceptually significant functions in English and other languages, contributing to the recognition and comprehension of speech.Grammar
It is believed that prosody assists listeners in parsing continuous speech and in the recognition of words, providing cues to syntactic structure, grammatical boundaries and sentence type. Boundaries between intonation units are often associated with grammatical or syntactic boundaries; these are marked by such prosodic features as pauses and slowing of tempo, as well as "pitch reset" where the speaker's pitch level returns to the level typical of the onset of a new intonation unit. In this way potential ambiguities may be resolved. For example, the sentence "They invited Bob and Bill and Al got rejected" is ambiguous when written, although addition of a writtenFocus
Intonation and stress work together to highlight important words or syllables for contrast and focus. This is sometimes referred to as the ''accentual function'' of prosody. A well-known example is the ambiguous sentence "I never said she stole my money", where there are seven meaning changes depending on which of the seven words is vocally highlighted.Discourse and pragmatic functions
Prosody helps convey many other pragmatic functions, including expressing attitudes (approval, uncertainty, dissatisfaction, and so on), flagging turn-taking intentions (to hold the floor, to yield the turn, to invite a backchannel like uh-huh, and so on), and marking topic structure (starting a new topic, closing a topic, interpolating a parenthetical remark, and so on), among others. For example, David Brazil and his associates studied how intonation can indicate whether information is new or already established; whether a speaker is dominant or not in a conversation; and when a speaker is inviting the listener to make a contribution to the conversation.Emotion
Prosody is also important in signalling emotions and attitudes. When this is involuntary (as when the voice is affected by anxiety or fear), the prosodic information is not linguistically significant. However, when the speaker varies their speech intentionally, for example to indicate sarcasm, this usually involves the use of prosodic features. The most useful prosodic feature in detecting sarcasm is a reduction in the mean fundamental frequency relative to other speech for humor, neutrality, or sincerity. While prosodic cues are important in indicating sarcasm, context clues and shared knowledge are also important. Emotional prosody was considered byCognitive, neural, developmental, and clinical aspects
Child language
Unique prosodic features have been noted in infant-directed speech (IDS) - also known as baby talk, child-directed speech (CDS), or "motherese". Adults, especially caregivers, speaking to young children tend to imitate childlike speech by using higher and more variable pitch, as well as an exaggerated stress. These prosodic characteristics are thought to assist children in acquiring phonemes, segmenting words, and recognizing phrasal boundaries. And though there is no evidence to indicate that infant-directed speech is necessary for language acquisition, these specific prosodic features have been observed in many different languages.Gleason, Jean Berko., and Nan Bernstein Ratner. "The Development of Language", 8th ed. Pearson, 2013.Aprosodia
An aprosodia is an acquired or developmental impairment in comprehending or generating the emotion conveyed in spoken language. Aprosody is often accompanied by the inability to properly utilize variations in speech, particularly with deficits in the ability to accurately modulate pitch, loudness, intonation, and rhythm of word formation. This is seen sometimes in autistic individuals. The three main types of aprosodia are: *Lexical prosody: aprosodia affecting certain stressed syllables. Studies have shown that in the brain, lexical-tone contrast evokes a stronger pre-attentive response in the right hemisphere than in the left hemisphere. With consonant contrast, the brain produced an opposite pattern, with a stronger pre-attentive response in the left hemisphere than in the right hemisphere. An example of lexical prosody would be "CONvert" versus "conVERT". *Phrasal prosody: aprosodia affecting certain stressed words. Deficits in the left hemisphere affect this linguistic rule. An example of phrasal prosody would be a "Hot DOG", a dog that’s hot, versus a "HOT dog", a frankfurter. *Clausal prosody: aprosodia affecting contrastive, emphatic, and focal stress. Deficits in the left hemisphere affect this linguistic rule. An example of clausal prosody would be, "the horses were racing from the BARN" versus "the HORSES were racing from the barn."Lexical prosody
Lexical prosody refers to the specific amplitudes, pitches, or lengths of vowels that are applied to specific syllables in words based on what the speaker wants to emphasize. The different stressors placed on individual syllables can change entire meanings of a word. Take one popular English word for example: * CONvert (noun: someone who has changed beliefs) * conVERT (verb: the act of changing) In English, lexical prosody is used for a few different reasons. As we have seen above, lexical prosody was used to change the form of a word from a noun to a verb. Another function of lexical prosody has to do with the grammatical role that a word plays within a sentence. Adjectives and nouns of a sentence are often stressed on the first syllables while verbs are often stressed on the second syllable. For example: * "Elizabeth felt an increase in her happiness after meeting Tom" Here, adults will emphasize the first syllable, "IN", as "increase" functions as an adjective. * "Tom will increase his workload" Here, adults will emphasize the second syllable, "CREASE", as "increase" functions as a verb. Another way that lexical prosody is used in the English language is in compound nouns such as "wishbone, mailbox, and blackbird" where the first compound is emphasized. Some suffixes can also affect the ways in which different words are stressed. Take "active" for example. Without the suffix, the lexical emphasis is on "AC". However, when we add the suffix -ity, the stress shifts to "TIV".Phrasal prosody
Phrasal prosody refers to the rhythm and tempo of phrases, often in an artistic setting such as music or poetry, but not always. The rhythm of the English language has four different elements: stress, time, pause, and pitch. Furthermore, "When stress is the basis of the metric pattern, we have poetry; when pitch is the pattern basis, we have rhythmic prose" (Weeks 11). Stress retraction is a popular example of phrasal prosody in everyday life. For example: * After eating sevenTEEN, PICKLES did not scare him * After eating SEVENteen PICKLES, he was afraid Contrastive stress is another everyday English example of phrasal prosody that helps us determine what parts of the sentence are important. Take these sentences for example: * A man went up the STAIRS Emphasizing that the STAIRS is how the man went up. * A MAN went up the stairs Emphasizing that it was a MAN who went up the stairs.Weeks, Ruth Mary.Brain regions involved
''Producing'' these nonverbal elements requires intact motor areas of the face, mouth, tongue, and throat. This area is associated with Brodmann areas 44 and 45 ( Broca's area) of the leftSee also
* English prosody * Paralanguage * Phonological hierarchy * Prosodic construction * Prosodic unit * Prosody (poetry) * Semantic prosody, or ''discourse prosody'' * Teaching prosodyReferences
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