INSTITUTO DE EDUCACIN SUPERIOR DOCENTE Y TCNICA N 9-001 GENERAL JOS DE SAN MARTN PROFESORADO DE INGLS UNIDAD CURRICULAR: FONTICA

Y FONOLOGA INGLESA II LINGUISTIC AND PARALINGUISTIC FEATURES Language seems to face in two directions, for the fundamental function of every language is to link meaning to expression, that is, to provide verbal expression for thought and feeling. But there is far more to the successful use of language than the link between thought and expression. Language has a third face, which is crucial in the interpretation of utterances. That face is context. It is only in a particular context that the meaning of an expression can convey a speakers intended message and be correctly interpreted by their listener/addressee. Expression encompasses words, phrases, clauses, sentences, as well as phonemes tied up in syllables and clauses, and tone groups, including intonation and stress. Meaning refers to the senses and references used by the speaker to build up their message. These two aspects that have just been mentioned can be considered utterly linguistic. Finally, context refers to the social situation in which the expression is uttered, it includes what the speaker has already mentioned in their linguistic context, and it relies on generally shared knowledge between speaker and listener. As we can see, expressing a thought or feeling entails more than just words. The most common vehicle of linguistic communication is the voice, and speech is thus a primary mode of human language, with some advantages over other modes. Because it does not need to be viewed, speech can also do its work effectively in darkness and in light, as well as around corners. Even when hands and eyes are occupied in any kind of manual activity, speech is free to report, ask for and give directions, explain, promise, warn and flirt. Speaking has still other advantages. The human voice is complex and has many other channels to convey meaning. It has variable volume, pitch, rhythm and speed. It is capable of wide-ranging modulation as well. Besides a set of sounds, speech takes advantage of those sounds and their sequencing into larger units (syllables, words, clauses, sentences). Writing has certain advantages over speech. For one thing, although writing takes generally longer to produce than speech, it can be read more quickly. Leaving aside recorded speech, writing endures longer than speech and, in many cases, it has a greater geographical reach. A message can be left on a piece of paper for someone to read after its author has left. The same cannot be said for a spoken utterance. When we think of communication, we tend to isolate the linguistic phenomena as being the only relevant phenomena for the expression of a message, including speech and writing. But all human behaviour is relevant

to understanding human communication. And so language is to be studied in all its components, including those who would not be considered purely linguistic, but paralinguistic, that is, they go with the language used for the expression of a thought or feeling, but they represent something else, an extra that is used to reinforce the meaning that is intended to be conveyed. Professor David Crystal says that like any other events in nature, no body movement or expression is without meaning in the context in which it appears. Visible body activity -such as body posture, movements, facial expression or gestures, body distance or proximity, eye contact or lack of itsystematically influences the behaviour of other members of any particular social group. So, body movements could be considered a social system for the expression of certain meanings. So, when an act of human communication takes place, the total personal and environmental physical setting, apart from the linguistic data, has to be analysed. It has already been implied in the present text that the spoken message is enriched by the different channels the voice makes use of to convey meaning. Those channels have been called prosodic features. Prosodic features are those features of linguistic structure that have been integrated with other linguistic structures, and which function as expressive devices of such. Professor David Crystal has defined them as the sets of mutually defining phonological features which have an essentially variable relationship to the segmental (phonemes) aspect of a message as opposed to those features (vowels, consonants, syllables, etc) which have a direct and identifying relationship. These prosodic features contrast auditorily in terms of pitch, loudness, duration, and silence, either singly or in combination, and they expound contrasts in meaning of an attitudinal, grammatical or social kind. The PROSODIC SYSTEMS that are recognised are: pitch direction, pitch range, loudness, tempo, rhythmicality, pause and intonation (which is seen as a combination of some of the mentioned systems). The description of Prosodic Features/Systems comprises the NONSEGMENTAL component of a phonological analysis. How can we define the different Prosodic Features/Systems? PITCH: it is the aspect of auditory sensation in terms of which sounds may be ordered on a scale, running from low (grave) to high (acute). LOUDNESS: it is the auditory impression of the amount of energy present in sounds. It is clear that individuals differ from each other in the natural loudness level of their normal speaking voice. LENGTH/DURATION: it is an aspect of auditory sensation in terms of which sounds or sound sequences can be ordered on a scale, running from short to long. It thus refers to the perceived length of a sound, utterance, or

silence. A change in length would eventually imply a change in speed or rhythm of the unit. STRESS: it is a property of syllables which makes them stand out as more noticeable than others; it seems likely that stressed syllables are produced with greater effort than unstressed ones. RHYTHM: it is the pattern/succession of stressed and unstressed syllables in an utterance. PAUSE: it is a relatively brief silence or other speech phenomenon producing a similar impression. TEMPO: it is the linguistic use of speech rate or speed. Every speaker knows how to speak at different rates. Theres evidence to suggest that we do use such variations contrastively to convey something about our attitudes and emotions. INTONATION: in a restricted sense, intonation means the variations in the pitch of the voice used to convey or alter the meaning of an utterance.

How do you think this would affect the meaning of an utterance? Could you suggest examples that would illustrate the ideas mentioned above?

Summarising the importance of the prosodic features, Professor David Crystal says: Prosody provides speech with its rhythmical heartbeat, governs the temperature of an interaction, and makes manifest the languages grammatical skeleton.