In which spheres of communication is informational style used? What are its main prosodic characteristics?

Informationl style is characteristic of classroom teaching, press reporting, business communication, broadcasting. The speaker’s aim is to convey information. Generally there is not much personal involvement. You remember the texts “Television”, “National Character” and others. Typical intonation patterns used are Falling and Level Heads (often Mid level) + Low Falls and Low Rises and Mid level tone. The pitch level tends to be medium or low, pitch range – medium or narrow. The tempo is not greatly varied, besides syntactical pauses hesitation pauses are used in informational speaking. Loudness is normal.

 

 

In which spheres of academic is informational style used? What are its main prosodic characteristics?

Academic style is used in lectures, scientific reports, talks at the conferences, in academic discussions. The speaker’s aim is to convey information and to get it across to the listeners, to instruct, to persuade. The most common are High Head and Falling Head. High Falls, Fall-Rises and complex nuclear tones (Rise-Fall-Rise) are often used. The levels are high or medium, the ranges broad or medium. Short intonation groups predominate. The tempo is greatly varied. There are a lot of emphatic pauses. Loudness is generally rather high.

 

RP as a pronunciation standard and teaching norm

RP is the national standart of the English language spoken in Great Britain. It used to be “accepted in the best society” and taught and spoken at public schools. Only 3-5% of the population of England speak RP.

 

Types of RP:

• national RP

• refined, conservative (Oxford English, King’s English)

• general, mainstream (BBC)

• advanced

• regional RP

• Estuary English (near RP)

• other RP regional accent

 

New tendencies in pronunciation in Britain

 

31.

General American

In the United States of America the regional types of the American variant of the English language are: 1) the Eastern type; 2) the Southern type; 3) the General American type (Northern, Midwestern, Western).

In the USA the most wide-spread type is General American. Like RP in Great Britain GA in America is the social standard: it is regionally neutral, it is used by radio and TV, in scientific and business discourse, it is spoken by educated Americans. Since RP and GA are the most widely accepted types of pronunciation the learners of English should know the principal differences between them.

Consonants

[r] is more sonorous in GA than in RP. When preceded by [t, d, θ, ʃ], [r] is pronounced with an audible (слышный) friction. GA [r] is pronounced not only initially but also before a consonant and in the word final position, eg: [farm, sister].

[l] is predominately dark. Glottal stop.

[ju] may change into 1) fronted [u] in tune, duty; 2) [tʃ, dʒ] in due, tune.

[t] is highly variable in AE: 1) a voiced [t] is used in intervocalic position before an unstressed vowel (butter); preceding a syllabic [l] (beetle); between a non-syllabic [l] and an unstressed vowel (salted); between [n] and an unstressed vowel (twenty); between unaccented vowels (if it is convenient). [t] is not voiced initially and terminally. 2) In careless speech [t] and [d] may be lost as in eighth, width, lists and after [n] and before an unstressed vowel as in want to, centre. 3) [t] is dropped when it is immediately preceding a syllabic [n] or [l] as in kitten [ki?n], bottle [bo?l].

The initial wh is pronounced like [hw] in the words where, when etc.

[ʃ] is vocalized in final unstressed syllables ending in –ion, -ia as in version, Asia.

A common characteristic of GA is the so-called “American twang (гнусавость)”, which is nasalizing of a vowel before a nasal consonant which results from the lowering of the soft palate, while the vowel is being spoken as in candy [kãndi], fine [fãin].

 

[m], [n] may be omitted followed by [f], [v] as in some vines [savainz]. Sometimes syllabic [ŋ] is substuted for [n] or [en] as in taken [teikŋ], chicken.

Vowels

1. No opposition between historically long and historically short.

2. [i] may be obscured as in fill, river.

3. [æ] – long, mostly nasalized, may turn into [e] as in marry, carry. [æ] may be used instead of [a:] as in ask, past, dance.

4. [ɔ] instead of [ɔː] as in law, quality.

5. In GA the distinction between monophthongs and diphthongs is not very consistent.

6. [ɑ] instead of [o] as in doll, hop, rob.

The accentual structure

The major differences in the accentual structure between RP and GA are mainly with the use of the tertiary stress (post-tonic, unstressed syllables are weak).

The tertiary stress in GA falls on the suffixes –ary, -ery, -ory, -mony, -arily, -ative, -on etc.: ‘dictio,nary, ‘terri,tory, ad’minis,trative.

In RP compounds with 2 primary stresses are more common than in GA (New ‘York). Tertiary stress differences comprise compound place names ending in –borough, -bury, -chester, -ham, -moor etc. (‘Birming,ham). Tertiary stress differences also comprise words with the second component –berry, -body, -land, -penny etc. (‘any,body).

 

Intonation

Preterminal pitch contour in RP is gradually descending stepping, in GA it is mid-level or mid-wavy-level. The unstressed syllables in GA fall to a lower pitch. American English intonation produces an impression of level or monotonous melody.

The GA general questions take a falling tone.