Chapter IV, Part 1
1.
The spontaneous nature of real
conversation instils into its Grammar and Prosody some classes of events that
generally escape attention but would count as incongruities
if represented in written texts. I shall illustrate some of the more distinctive
classes here with transcribed data from the BNC. In a restart, a Pattern is begun more than once [897-99]. In a replay,
a whole Pattern re-occurs [900-02].
[897] I think there’s I
think there’s quite a few
[898]
if you, if you, if you want to get into it you might find
you want to do them all
[899]
You play two leagues, were they, were they two leagues? when I,
when I was
play-ing pool we played in the Tuesday league and the Thursday league
[900]
How many questions are you gonna have in it Dad? How many questions
are you gonna have in your quiz?
[901] I’m a bit torn cos I
in a way that’s what I ought to be doing even though the welfare
business in a way that’s wh that’s what I ought to be doing
[902] I didn’t send a
message, no I’m sure I didn’t send a message chasing them
In
a shift, a Pattern is begun but then abandoned for another [903-05]. In a cutoff, the Pattern is abandoned, and the speaker trails off or
gets interrupted [906-08].
[903] me and this other mate he’d a,
did a, I can, I can remember him saying something about
I’ll race yuh
[904] It’s just a very
good way of er teaching chi- I mean children will I mean that’s
the kind of experience
[905] got a couple of oak
trees, there in the corner you’ve got, ‘cos our fence you’ve
got that, my house is there right, road down like that
[906]
people have got a, yeah
[907]
you’re going to avoid chance like this and or whoever you
[908]
he’s got god knows what he hasn’t got wrong with him, but he has sort of
In a blend, competing Patterns get mixed [909-11].
In a repair, an undesired choice gets replaced by a desired one:
[912-14].
[909] I can’t avoid
not being at that governor’s meeting [avoid
being + not be]
[910] I couldn’t help from crying [help
crying + keep from crying]
[911]
you’ve
got
a
fencing
like
that
and
with
got
trees
all
around
it.
[with
trees
+
has
got
trees]
[912] I can take her up to Bristol er Cardiff next week
[913] we’d all sit down and do nothing while the old erm, the mod
people had obviously it
[914] had
the top been specially glazed ehm, ehm, what I mean, barred?
Some
speakers are egregiously prone to these events (from Bush Jr):11
[915]
This
is
a
—
any
strike’s
a
tough
—
tough
situation,
but
this
one
happens
to
come
at
a
— or a lockout is a tough situation, or no work is a tough situation — is to come at bad time.
[916]
I hope investors, you know — secondly, I hope investors hold investments for
periods of time — that I’ve always found the best investments are those that
you salt away based on economics.
[917]
There’s what they call ‘actionable intelligence’, to which our military
has responded on a quick basis is improving.
[918]
the person who runs FEMA [Federal Emergency Management Agency] is the first
voice, often times, of someone whose life has been turned upside down hears
from.
His
supporters react to Bush Jr like her ‘hearers’ to mad Ophelia: his ‘speech
is nothing, yet the unshaped use of it doth move the hearers to collection; they
aim at it, and botch the words up fit to their own thoughts’, which ‘make
one think there might be thought, though nothing sure, yet much unhappily’ (Hamlet
IV,
v,
7-12).
2.
Written Texts represent such incongruities only for explicit purposes, e.g.:
[919]
She hid her face from him. Mungo was embarrassed. ‘I…I’m…There’s no
need to…’ he stammered. There was a pause. (Forest
of the Night)
[920]
‘Do you want to go?’ ‘No. I mean, yes. No, I —’ his voice faltered.
Then broke. […] ‘Is it — about’ she hesitated. ‘Is it about — your
mother?’ (Diamond
Waterfall)
The
distinction doubtless abets the common complaint, elevated to official theory in
formalist linguistics, that ‘actual speech’ is ‘deviant’ (II.82). But we
might just as well complain that written conversations deviate from the spoken
reality.
3.
At all events, I feel uneasy about having to rely mostly on written
repre-sentations of speech in describing the Prosody of English. I should have
been much happier if I had been able to consult a large corpus of real
conversation with a detailed prosodic mark-up. I am also uneasy about having to
rely on the Prosody of my English, as distinct from the many
‘Englishes’ that sustain their own Prosodies. I hope that the issues raised
here, such as Stress and Pitch, are relevant to multiple varieties, but I can
certainly advance no general claims.
4.
The acoustic shape and flow conferred
upon spoken discourse by the voice, whether actually uttered in speaking and
hearing, or mentally perceived in writing and reading, can be termed Prosody;1
Its early study began in rhetoric [921].2
[921] Skill consists in employing the
voice for each emotion, [and the] speech rhythms for each subject-matter.
(Aristotle, Rhetoric)
Prosody
has remained marginal in the more ‘formal’ approaches to the study of
language, as reviewed in Chapter II, which consigned speech to phonetics and
phonology; and
in the teaching and learning of English as a
native or foreign language, which have focused on ‘pronunciation.3
Like the Lexicogrammar,
Prosody owes its proper recognition to ‘functional’ models of language (cf.
III.4).4
5.
Prosody might be described along four continuous Parameters, which can
complement the more discrete Lexicogrammatical Parameters in III.C. Stress
ranges between stronger and weaker; Pitch ranges between higher
and lower; Volume ranges between louder and softer;
and Pace ranges between slower
and faster.5 A value on one Parameter may describe a
particular manner of speaking, perhaps to evoke the speaker’s condition or
intention, such as ‘high’ for
defiance [922], ‘low’ for condolence [923], ‘loud’ for boldness [924],
‘soft’ for disappoint-ment [925], ‘slow’ for reminiscence [926], and
‘fast’ for belligerence [927].
[922] ‘Deceit is not my fault!’ I cried
out in a savage, high voice. (Eyre)
[923]
‘It’s Phipps’, the constable said, in a low
voice. ‘He’s dead’ (English Crime)
[924]
She said loudly, to cover the noise
of her heart, ‘I’m not frightened.’ (Carrie’s War)
[925]
His voice faded away. […] ‘Oh’, he said softly.
‘So Rachel was right.’ (Edge)
[926]
‘I’ve read many stories of people taken but not returned’, the Bookman said
slowly, as if thinking of a distant memory. (Endill)
[927]
‘I am going through with that [inquiry]. Only’ — and there he spoke
a little faster — ‘I won’t let any man call me names outside this
court’. (Jim)
In
authentic speech, these four Parameters naturally interact with each other, and
more consistently than do the Lexicogrammatical Parameters (cf. Ch. III).
6.
Further, Stress in English occurs in at least three
degrees.6 Strong Stress, shown here with a raised Mark !,
is articulated with the most force, and so tends to be higher, louder, and
slower as well. Weak Stress, shown with a lowered and inverted mark ¡,
is articulated with less force. Unstressed,
shown with no mark, is articulated with the least force. admittedly, these three
levels of Stress are not abso-lute, but relative to each other within the speech
contour of a speaker, language variety, or utterance; we might say
‘stronger’, ‘weaker’, and ‘least Stress’. For demonstration, and always with the reservation that
Prosody is sensitive to individual interpretation, my own performance of two renowned opening lines from Shakespeare’s Henry
V [928] and Richard III [929] might run like this:
[928] ¡Oh,
for a ¡Muse of !Fire to as·¡cend the ¡bright·est
!heav·en
of in·!ven·tion
[929] ¡Now is the !win·ter of our ¡dis·con·!tent ¡made !glor·i·ous !sum·mer by this !sun of ¡York
Where relevant, the bounds between Syllables can be marked with a raised dot ·, though Stress can affect neighbouring Syllables as well. 7. Types of Stress can be further shown in their interactions with Pitch and Pace, using arrows as visual aids. Certain Stress, typical for Statements, has a slow fall and can be either Strong spoken with enthusiasm [930] or else Weak without it [931]. Uncertain Stress, used in some types of Questions, has a slow rise, either Strong for excited [932], or Weak for calm [933]. Both Certain and Uncertain may also have the stressed Syllable at a slower Pace than the unstressed ones.
Spiked Stress, typical of short, sharp Inter-jections
and Commands, has a fast fall [934].
For some speakers like myself, and in fairly isolated Stress positions, a subtle
and brief compensatory movement may occur, drawn as dotted arrows as distinct
from solid arrows
for the principal movements.
8. Minor variations with the slowest Pace include Deliberative Stress for ‘deliberating’ what to say, with a long fall and long rise [935-36]; and Evaluative Stress, when ‘evaluating’ what’s so good or bad, with a long rise and long fall [937-38].These two variations, which some speakers may consider overdone, are especially prone to spread across several Syllables.
9.
In English, a Word spoken by itself and having more than one Syllable shows
Stress on at least one [939]. With four or more Syllables, Strong Stress often
goes to one and Weak Stress to another [940]; or Syllables get compressed to make fewer, as in
!in·ter·est·ing =>
!in·trest·ing.
A Phrase can assign Strong Stress to a key item near the end, e.g., the Noun in
a Noun Phrase [941] or the Process Verb in a Verb Phrase [942], with only Weak
Stress elsewhere. Yet Strong Stress may fall later if the Phrase continues, such as with a Post-Modifier of
the Noun [943], or an Adverb of the Process Verb [944], whilst the Noun or Verb
just gets Weak Stress.
[939] ‘Was I very bad?’ ‘!Aw·ful’.
(Ruddigore)
[940] EN·¡VI·RON·!MENT·AL·ISTS. Friends of the Earth propose green taxes (Autocar)
[941] An ex·¡treme·ly
at·¡tract·ive !plant.
(Aquarium Plants)
[942] Until she was sixteen they had been ¡con·stantl·y !mov·ing
(Healing Fire)
[943] I particularly noticed one
¡young
¡wom·an of ¡hum·ble
!dress
(Sketch Book)
[944]
Moran rose and ¡went
out·!side.
(Amongst Women)
Longer
Sentences with longer Words can accordingly show an elaborate pattern of
stressed and unstressed Syllables, as in [945].
[945]
!Am·nes·ty ¡In·ter!na·tion·al is ¡in·de!pend·ent of all !gov·ern·ments,
po·¡lit·i·cal
!fac·tions,
¡i·de·!ol·o·gies,
¡ec·o·!nom·ic !in·ter·ests and re·¡lig·ious !creeds. (Amnesty)
10.
The principal unit of organisation for Prosody is not the Clause, as in the
Lexicogrammar, but the Tone Group7
spoken as an integrated sequence, usually assigning one Strong Stress near the
end, and being set off by perceptible pausing in the Pace, however slight,
before and after it. The Utterance is
spoken as an integrated sequence that constitutes a contribution to a discourse
— the spoken counterpart of the written Sentence (cf. II.125). Just as a
Sentence may consist of a single Clause, an Utterance may consist of a single
Tone Group, as in [946]; or of several, as in [947]. I signal a Pause with an upright line
| for a shorter one and two || for a longer one,
again relying on my individual interpretation.
[946] ‘You re·!fuse?’
||
‘Of course I re·!fuse.’
||
‘I think you are extremely !fool·ish.’
||’In-·
!deed!’
(Piccadilly)
[947]
Well,
| here’s a boy that’s been a regular !fel·low —
|
raised
in A·!mer·i·ca
—
|
done
work
on a !news·pap·er
—
| suddenly taken off to !Eng·land
(Piccadilly)
Making
a Tone Group coincide with a Clause, as in [948], is a handy strategy to match
Prosody with Lexicogrammar. But coinciding with a Non-Clause, as in [949], can
serve strategic functions too, such as conveying Emotions (cf. IV.5).
[948] Today’s my only !chance.
||
Aunt
Caroline has gone a·!way.
||
Father
will be busy in the !gar·den (Damsel)
[949]
‘I am the receiver of confessions.’ ‘Oh !my!
||
Yes,
|
high
!church.
||
!Why, |
in the name of !God!’ (Wingless Bird)
11.
A whole Tone Group or Utterance manifests a prosodic
contour.8 Its most characteristic feature in English is
the fluent rhythm arising from the distribution of Stresses separated by
unstressed Syllables whose Pace is accelerated as they become more numerous —
usually one, two, or three, as in [950-51] (VI.24).9
[950] !Bless·ed is ¡he
that !read·eth,
|
and ¡they that ¡hear the !words of this !proph·e·cy,
|
and
¡keep those ¡things which are !writ·ten there·!in:
|
for the !time is at !hand. (Revel-ation 1:3)
[951]
It is a !truth ¡u·ni·!ver·sal·ly
ac·!knowl·edged,
| that a !sin·gle
¡man in pos·¡ses·sion of a ¡good !for·tune
¡must
be in ¡want of a !wife.
(Pride)
If
all Syllables were paced the same, the effect would be disfluent and mechanical.
12. The dominant Pitch contours in English are either falling from the first Stress in the Tone Group down to the End [952]; or rising steadily from the Front up to the End [953].10 A falling Pitch contour can carry along the falling Certain Stress, whereas a rising contour can carry along the rising Uncertain Stress (IV.4). In return, a steady contour requires fitting the falling or rising Stresses to the Pitch level at various places. So in a falling contour, an earlier Strong Stress will get higher Pitch than a later one [952], whilst in a rising contour, just the reverse occurs [953]. These Stresses, displayed here for clarity as short arrows just above the longer contour arrows, can remain distinctive with a louder Volume and a slower Pace.
13. Graphic displays of Prosody in fine detail are hindered by a trade-off: the more precise and elaborate the display, the more unwieldy it is to produce or interpret, and the more it will be influenced by individual differences in spoken performances, speech habits, language varieties, etc. Just displaying all four Parameters of Pitch, Stress, Volume, and Pace needs a graphic like [954] for Strider’s threat to the hobbits in The Lord of the Rings. I am assuming three Tone Groups with a short rising Pitch on the opening unstressed Syllables and then a longer falling Pitch starting from the first point of Stress and arriving at a Strong Stress for End Weight. The first two Tone Groups move toward louder Volume and slower Pace; the final one is quite slow and unites falling Pitch with increasing Volume.
And of course the same sequence could still be uttered with other Prosodies.
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IV, Part 2