Конспект по английскому языку на тему 'Передача разговорного тона'

Передача разговорного тона

Tempo of speaking.

Every has a normal tempo of speech. Sometimes a speaker speaks faster than at other times. We cannot judge the significance of the change is simply considered as a phenomenon by itself. Speed may be associated with urgency-the delivery of an important message in a hurry. In this case we might expect the speaker to be breathless, to speak in gasps, to simplify segments as much as possible, to speak in a raised voice range. Any sort of pressure of time on a speaker, the possibility of the telephone pips cutting off his call, the possibility of another speaker interrupting him, may cause a speaker to quicken his tempo. He speak more quickly in order to get all he has to say in a potentially limited amount of time. But rapidity of delivery may not simply indicate actual pressure of time. If speaker A want to suggest to speaker B that spend talking to B, he may quicken his speech, even glance at his watch, to suggest that he really must go and get of with all the things he has to do. Here A is using rapid speech as a sort of paralinguistic metaphor-to suggest that he is pressed for time (even though he is not) he quickens his speech.

Rapid speech may arise from situations that have nothing to do with pressure of time or desire to invoke pressure of time. For example if A has some distasteful message to convey to B he may wish to ' get it over as quickly as possible'. Just as we found we could not pin pitch variation down to any specific emotion or attitude. We will find however that there are some emotions at attitudes that seem to imply rapidity of speech.

Slow tempo cannot be associated with any specific set of attitudes. A speaker may speak slowly simply because he is thinking very carefully about what he is saying. Equally a speaker may speak slowly because he wishes to give the impression that he is thinking carefully about what he is saying. Many public figures speak slowly, well down in the voice range, with lots of stressed words, long-drawn-out tonic syllables and significant pauses:

We+ have COME+ to a POINT+ from which we may Not+ DROW+ BACK.

Speech of this sort may be described by adjectives like responsible, significant, heroic, ponderous or pretentious or pretentious according to the taste of the observer. For the moment we shall simply

1 normal unmarked

Say that for tempo

2 rapid or slow tempo is marked for attitude.

We have already observed many instances when rapidity or slowness of speech seems to co-occur with other variables. Let us however look briefly at one or two examples of slow and rapid speech:

1 I said slowly: "I think that we must part"

Time of Hope

2 "The United States Army…" began the Major-General with impressive slowness.

England Their England

3 "Miss Spenlow, if you please," said her father majestically.

David Copperfield

4 "I've been finding things in the Forest," said Tigger importantly.

The House at Pooh Corner

In 1 the speaker is addressing his wife after long and bitter consideration. He is 'breaking' the news gently to her. Bad news is conventionally 'broken gently', slowly, to the afflicted, the schoolmaster in David Copperfield slows him down as he is taken upstairs to be told of his mother's death: 'Don't hurry. David, 'said Mr. sharp. 'There's time enough, my boy, don't hurry.' (92). In 2.3 and 4 the slowness is combined with a feeling of personal importance and hence the necessary significance of what is being said.

Here are some examples which indicate rapid speech:

1 'But what did he say?' gasped Morris.

The wrong Box

2 She went on breathlessly: ' Then they are going to run off together!'

Return of the Native

3 'Never mind, 'I said crisply, ' I have my methods.'

The Inimitable Jeeves

4 'I dare say I'm unfair. But this is important, There are others who'd do it admirably.' I rapped our several names.

Time of Hope

5 'You're in Ormerode Towers,' snapped Miss Perugia Gaukrodger.

England Their England

In 1 we find another almost exclusively literary term gasped. Anyone who gasps utters what he is saying on one short tone group-there are also clear indications of 'breathy' voice quality, even indrawn breath. The same 'breathy' voice quality is found in 2 where we have an example3 of a message being delivered in great haste by someone who has run all the way to deliver. A speaker speak slowly or bats but his speech must be right.