Discourse intonation and word order in English (basing on the experimental-phonetic analyses of the discourse in English)

Abstract

The article deals with the study of the importance of the intonation and the word order of discourse either in the oral or in the written discourse. The article highlights the fact that the discourse intonation and the word order are observed to be very important in the formation of the discourse. Besides, the types of the discourse have also been analyzed in the article. The special attention is drawn to the usage of the discourse intonation via intonation contours such as the melodicy, intensivity and the time parameters of the discourse intonation. The essence of the cognitive approach is to approach the text as a unit of communication, the result of speech in the hierarchy of the components of the discourse, combined with the pragmatic intention of the author within a certain communicative situation. The study of the text-generating function of prosody is related to the relationship between semantics and intonation, which is one of the current issues in the field of intonation. Until recently, the study of the semantic functions of intonation was carried out by studying the intonation structure of isolated sentences, but today researchers studying intonation are trying to study the prosodic features of discourse composed of a set of sentences. In the research work, the activity of intonation in the structure of discourse was studied from a pragmatic point of view. By the pragmatic function of intonation, we mean the movement of intonation tools in the process of integrating the meaning of a text. The main way to realize the pragmatic function of intonation is the prosodic organization of the text into units. It is noteworthy to mention that syntax is taken as a unit of text in the article. The article highlights the theoretical significance of the research. It expresses the study of the sound of the discourse. The role of prosodic means in the expression of the content (frequency, melodicy, rhythm) has been touched upon in the article as well. The scientific novelty of the article is observed in carrying out the investigation of the intonation features of discourse patterns in English on the basis of the linguistic materials relating to the very language system. Basing on the experiments of the language materials, the discourse intonation and the word order are believed to demonstrate the speakers’ moment-by-moment context-referenced choices.