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858083_0E259_otvety_na_bilety_po_teoreticheskoy

Social function

Our oral speech can give info to the listener about his gender, age, education, place – domain of prosody. Prosody is an important marker of personal or social identity: lawyers, preachers, newscasters, army sergeants are readily identified through their distinctive prosody. For example: I higher and wider pitch range accompanied by slower tempo with perfect timing is a sign of dominance, while a faster tempo and a narrow pitch range is a feature of submissiveness. It is also customary to demonstrate deference to higher rank and older age by varying one’s tempo and loudness, using specific, culturally accepted pitch patterns. Among the conventional formulae (‘Ladies and gentlemen…’) there are prosodic patterns of greetings, leave talks, thanks, apologies, etc. (Thanks, Dad. Morning. Give me a minute. No problem.) which all suit the common pattern fall + rise or fall + level, the obvious connotations being to keep contact with the listener.