Scientific (academic) style

This intonational style occurs in different types of speaking: in academic informational lectures, reading aloud a piece of scientific prose, scientific talks and discussions at the conferences and seminars etc.

Attention here will be focused on a lecture on a scientific subject and reading aloud a piece of scientific prose. This type of speaking occurs in the written variety of language, in one-sided form of communication (monologue), in prepared, public, formal discourse.

AN ACADEMIC INFORMATIONAL LECTURE

The choice of intonational means is greatly influenced by the purpose of communication. In case of an academic informational lecture, the purpose of the speaker is to get the message of the lecture across to his audience, to attract attention of the audience and direct it to the message, to establish contact with the audience and maintain it throughout the lecture. In order to achieve the purpose the speaker uses a set of special intonational means.

The most common pre-nuclear pattern is (Low Pre-Head +) Stepping Head. The Stepping Head makes the intonation group sound weighty and has a greater persuasive effect than the Falling Head. Occasionally the High Head may occuras a less emphatic variant of the Stepping Head. As a result, the lecturer sounds categoric, considered, insistent and persuasive.

As for the terminal tones, the most conspicuous tunes are the High Fall and the Fall - Rise. They are used for logical emphasis and emphasis for contrast. Another peculiar feature is the use of a succession of several high falling tones what makes speech more expressive and helps the lecturer produce an impression that he is speaking about something that he is quite sure of.

Thus basic intonation patterns found here are as follows:

(Low Pre-Head +) (Stepping Head +) Low Fall (+ Tail)

(Low Pre-Head +) (Stepping Head +) High Fall (+ Tail)

(Low Pre-Head +) (Stepping Head +) Low Rise (+ Tail)

(Low Pre-Head +) (High/Medium Level Head +) Low Fall (+Tail)

(Low Pre-Head +) (High/Medium Level Head +) Low Rise (+Tail)

(Low Pre-Head +) (High/Medium Level Head +) Mid Level (+Tail)

E.g. …Of course, | it changed the way people lived. || In stead of growing their own food locally| they had to start going to shops and markets.|| Everything was centralized | and con trolled by others. || What is more | the general standard of health de clined drastically. || Diseases struck overcrowded areas | where people did not have so much as a pocket handkerchief plot | on which to grow their po tatoes and onions.|| And you have to re member | that doctors in those days | did not have the antibi otics and other medicines | which they have to day. || Look at the Royal In firmary | only a mile or so from here where we are now…

The speed of utterance or the tempo of speaking depends on the importance attached to different parts of the speech. More important parts are pronounced more slowly while less important passages are characterized by greater speed.

As far as loudness is concerned, it primarily depends on the size of the audience. If a lecturer delivers his speech in front of a fairly-sized audience, he basically speaks much louder than an informational style reader. Besides, the contrast of increased and normal loudness helps the lecturer to highlight certain important words and passages.

Pauses are not always semantically predictable. Some pauses made by the speaker may be explained by hesitation and denote forgetfulness and uncertainty (for example, word-searching). The most widely used hesitation phenomena are repetitions of words, filled pauses which may be vocalic /ә/ or / ә: /, consonantal /m/, and mixed / әm (ә: m)/.

READING ALOUD SCIENTIFIC PROSE

In the case of reading aloud scientific prose the most widely used pre-nuclear pattern is also (Low Pre-Head +) Stepping Head. Sometimes the broken Stepping Head is found when an accidental rise occurs on some important item. The Stepping Head may be replaced by the so-called heterogeneous head, i.e. a combination of two or several heads. For example, the Stepping Head may be combined with the Falling Head or the Stepping Head may be combined with the Sliding Head.

As far as terminal tones are concerned, final intonation groups are pronounced predominantly with the low or the high falling tone. Non-final intonation groups exhibit more variation. Besides the falling nuclear tone which ranks first, the Low Rise and the Mid Level also occur but they are less common. It should be noted that the falling nuclear tone in non-final groups in most cases does not reach the lowest possible pitch level. In addition to the simple tones the following compound tunes are found: the Fall-Rise and the Rise-Fall. Compound tunes make the oral representation of a written scientific text more expressive by bringing out the most important items in the utterance. Moreover, they provide intonational cohesion between different parts of a text.

E.g. In the last chapter | it was argued | that in order to be fully adequate | a theory of style | must be capable of application to both literary | and non-literary uses of language. || It was further main tained| that this dis tinction between uses, | even though in no sense an abso lute dis tinction, | is not a fac titious one, | and evidence was a dduced | to show that it is both real | and, → moreover, e ssential | to the study of sty listic theory and method.

The speed or tempo of utterance changes from normal to accelerated, but it is never too fast. The communicative centres (the principle points of information) are brought out by slowing down the speed of utterance, and less important parts are pronounced at greater speed than usual. Reading scientific prose is characterized by contrastive rhythmic patterns. Rhythmical organization of a text depends on the speed of utterance. Generally, slow speed entails regular rhythm, while in accelerated speech rhythm is less regular. Pauses are predominantly short, their placement is semantically and syntactically predictable. Hesitation pauses are to be avoided.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-14