Declamatory style

This intonational style is also called by some as "artistic or stage". This is a highly emotional and expressive intonational style. Attitudinal function of intonation is of primary impor­tance here and serves to appeal to the mind, will and feelings of the listener.

Declamatory style can be heard on the stage, on the screen, in a TV studio or in a classroom during verse speaking and prose readings and recitations. Two varieties of this style will be discussed here: reading aloud a piece of descriptive prose (the author’s speech) and the author’s reproduction of actual conversation (the speech of the characters or a dialogic text).

READING DESCRIPTIVE PROSE

The intonation of reading descriptive prose has many features in common with that of reading scientific prose. In both styles the same set of intonational means is used, but the frequency of their occurrence is different.

In the pre-nuclear part the Low Pre-Head may be combined with the Stepping Head, the Broken Stepping Head, the heterogeneous head or a descending sequence of syllables interrupted by several falls. However, the use of the heterogeneous head is more frequent in reading scientific texts, whereas the occurrence of the other three types is greater in reading literary descriptive texts.

The nuclear tone in final intonation groups is generally the Low Fall or, less frequently, the High Fall. This is due to the fact that the prevailing sentence type both in scientific and the descriptive prose is the declarative sentence which is usually uttered with the falling tone. The principal nuclear tones in non-final intonation groups are the Low Fall, the High Fall and the Fall-Rise. The simple tones are more frequent in descriptive texts, while the compound tunes are more typical of scientific texts. The Low Rise, the Rise-Fall and the Mid-Level are rarely used as a means of intra-phrasal coordination in reading descriptive prose; the Low Fall, especially the one that does not reach the lowest possible level, is preferable here.

The speed of reading descriptive prose is relatively slow. Accordingly, the rhythm of descriptive texts is properly organized. Pauses are semantically and syntactically predicted. They may be different in length, though long pauses are more common here, which makes it different from reading scientific texts.

The following text may serve as an example of reading descriptive prose:

“My earliest memories ¦ are of paper. || I can see my grandmother ¦ sitting at the table she used for a desk, | a dining-table ¦ made to seat twelve, | with her scrapbook be fore her ¦ and the scissors ¦ in ·her hand. || She called it ·her re search. || For years ¦ three newspapers ¦ came into that house ¦ every day | and each week ¦ half a ·dozen maga zines ¦ and peri odicals.|| (From “The Cooper Peacock” by R.Rendell)

READING ALOUD A DIALOGICAL TEXT

Reading aloud a dialogical text represents the speech of the characters in drama, novel or story. This type of reading differs significantly from reading a descriptive text in the matter of intonation.

Intonation patterns used for reading dialogic texts resemble the ones employed in the natural speech. However, it should be borne in mind that reproduction of a conversation in prose is not natural dialogic speaking; it is only stylization of this kind of speech. Stylization of colloquial intonation means that only the most striking elements of what might be heard in actual conversation are made use of.

The intonation of the natural conversational speech is described under the heading ‘Conversational (or Familiar) Style. Here only some basic information about reading dialogic texts is given.

As far as the pre-nuclear pattern is concerned, it should be noted that the Low and High Pre-Head may be combined with any variety of descending, ascending or levelheads. In the terminal tone both simple and compound tunes are widely used. Special mention should be made of the falling-rising tone which has a greater frequency of occurrence in reading dialogic texts than in actual conversation. The pitch-level in most utterances is generally high and the range is wide, unless the conversational situation and the speaker’s purpose require something different.

The overall speed of utterance in reading is normal or reduced as compared with natural speech, and as result the rhythm is moreeven and regular. Pauses are either connecting or disjunctive, thereby internal boundaries placement is always semantically or syntactically predictable. Hesitation pauses do not occur, unless they are deliberately used for stylization purposes.

In order to select intonation patterns for an utterance, it is necessary to take into consideration the author’s or the playwright’s remarks about how the text should be read. While reading aloud a dialogical text the reader should also think about the social background of the characters, the atmosphere and environment, in which the conversation takes place.

Here is an example of reading aloud a dialogic literary text:

- My dear Mr. Bennet, ¦ have you heard ¦ that Netherfield ·Park is to be let at last?

- I have not.

- But it is. Do you not ·want to ·know who has taken it?

- You want to tell me, ¦ and I have no ob·jections to hearing it.

- Why, my dear, ¦ Mrs. Long says ¦ that Netherfield is ·taken ¦ by a young man of large ^fortune;| that he came ·down on Monday¦ to see the ·place, | and was so much de lighted with it; ¦ that he is to take pos·session be·fore ^Michaelmas.

(From “Pride and Prejudice” by J.Austen)

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