21. The tonal subsystem of utterance prosody and units of its analysis. Pitch

The pitch component of intonation or speech melody is the variations in the pitch of the voice which take place with voiced sounds. It is present in every word (inherent prominence) and in the whole sentence, because it serves to delimit sentences into sense groups, or intonation groups. The delimitative (con­stitutive) function of melody is performed by pitch variations jointly with pausation, be­cause each sentence is divided into intonation groups (on the auditory and acoustic level) or into sense groups (on the semantic level).

To describe the melody of an utterance it is necessary to determine the relevant pitch levels, pitch ranges, directions and rate of pitch movement in each intonation group.

The pitch I e v e I of the whole utterance (or intonation group) is de­termined by the pitch of its highest—pitched syllable. It shows the degree of semantic importance the speaker attaches to the utterance (or intonation group) in comparison with any other utterance (or intonation group), and also the speaker's attitude and emotions.

The number of linguistically relevant pitch levels in English has not been definitely established yet: in the works of different phoneticians it varies from three to seven. In unemphatic speech most phoneticians distinguish 3 pitch levels: low, mid and high. These levels are relative and are produced on different registers depending on the individual peculiarities of the voice.

The pitch range of an utterance is the interval between its highest-pitched syllable and its lowest—pitched syllable. According to cir­cumstances the speaker changes his voice range. It may be widened and nar­rowed to express emphasis or the speaker's attitudes and emotions. For example, if "Very good" is pronounced with a narrow (high) range it sounds less enthusiastic. Pronounced with a tow narrow range it sounds sincere, but not emotional. If said with a wide range it sounds both sincere and enthusiastic.

Most phoneticians distinguish three pitch ranges - wide, mid and nar­row.

The rate of pitch variations may be different depending on the time, during which these variations take place, and on the range of the variations. Differences in the rate of pitch variations are semantically important. When the rate of the fall is fast, the falling tone sounds more categoric and definite than when the rate of the fall is slow.

The basic unit used to describe the pitch component is the ton e. De­pending on whether the pitch of the voice varies or remains unvaried tones are subdivided into kinetic and static. Static tones may have dif­ferent pitch level of the voice — the high static tone, the mid static tone, the low static tone. The differentiation of kinetic tones as high falling and low falling, high rising and low rising, etc. is also based on the differentiation of the pitch level of their initial and final points.

As to the direction of pitch movement, kinetic tones are subdivided into simple and complex. Simple tones are unidirectional: the falling and the rising tones. Complex tones are bidirectional: the falling—rising tone, the rising-falling tone, and the rising-falling-rising tone.