No matter what kind of language we look at, it will be obvious that each one has its own character and musical representation (Ruskin, 1880: 3). In other words, we are talking about language prosody which is comprised of intonation, tone, prominence and rhythm (Crystal, 1969). The focus of this research is dedicated to intonation, to be exact discourse intonation. The reason for this choice is justified by the true believe that context influences the speaker’s intonation. With the help of intonation speakers can show how their utterances are interconnected and how it refers to the discourse in general.
There are several approaches towards the intonation analysis. For instance, grammatical analysis — developed by M. Halliday or contour analysis shared by J. O’Connor, L. Armstrong, G. Palmer, et. al. However, in this paper the intonation analysis is going to be based on the theory presented by D. Brazil (1975, 1985) as discourse is in the centre of attention.
According to M. Coulthard and D. Brazil, discourse intonation consists of tone units which are “the building blocks out of which all spoken communication is constructed” (Brazil, 1994: 3; Coulthard, 1985). In its turn each tone unit is comprised of prominence, tone (nuclear), key (low/middle/high pitch) and termination – each of which adds a different type of information to each tone unit.
Analysis
It is important to know that how we speak — the manner — is as essential as the words we choose to express our ideas. Bearing this in mind, we may conclude that intonation can easily convey linguistic message and that intonation has several functions. According to Roach (1991) and Thompson (1995) discourse intonation functions can be subdivided into 4 categories. They are linguistic-form based, attitudinal, accentual and conversation management related (Clennel, 1997; Wennerstrom, 1994).
Библиографический список
1. Brazil D. 1975. Discourse Intonation. / D.Brazil, M. Coulthard, C.Johns.-London,. – 515p.2. Brazil D. 1985. The Communicative Value of Intonation in English. Discourse Analysis monograph. No. 8. Birmingham, – 318p.
3. Brazil, D. 1994. Pronunciation for Advanced Learners of English. Student’s Book. CUP.
4. Clennel, C. 1997. Raising the pedagogic status of discourse intonation teaching. ELT Journal 51(2): 117-125.
5. Coulthard, M. 1985. Intonation. An Introduction to Discourse Analysis. M. Coulthard. London, Longman.
6. Crystal, David. 1969. Prosodic Systems and Intonation in English. Cambridge University Press.
7. Dalton, C., Seidlhofer, B. 1994. Pronunciation. Oxford, Oxford University Press.
8. Jenkins, J. 1998. Which pronunciation norms and models for English as an International Language? ELT Journal 52(2): 119-126.
9. O'Connor, J.D. 1973. Intonation of Colloquial English / J.D O'Connor, G.F. Arnold. –2nd ed. – London: Longmans, – 288 p.
10. Roach, P. 1991. English Phonetics and Phonology: a practical course. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
11. Ruskin, J. 1880. Elements of English prosody. George Allen, Sunnyside, Orbington, Kent. https://www.sas.upenn.edu/~cavitch/pdf-library/Ruskin_Elements.pdf
12. Eddy, A. 2016. Russian English as a Variety. Moscow State University University of Michigan, Flint Publisher: CUP, pp. 7-120.
13. Spaii, G., Hermes, D. 1993. A visual display for the teaching of intonation. CALICO Journal, v. 10, n. 3.
14. Thompson, S. 1995. “Teaching intonation on questions.” ELT Journal 49(3): 235-245.
15. Wennerstrom, A. 1994. “Intonational Meaning in English Discourse: A Study of Non- Native Speakers.” Applied Linguistics 15(4): 399-420.
Resources:
1. Bowler, B. and Cunningham, S. 1999. New Headway Pronunciation Course (Intermediate). Oxford, Oxford University Press.
2. Bowler, B. and Cunningham, S. 1999. New Headway Pronunciation Course (Upper- intermediate). Oxford, Oxford University Press.