VIII. THE RHYTHMIC STRUCTURE OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

English intonation can’t be described without reference to speech rhythm. Prosodic components (pitch, loudness, tempo) and speech rhythm work interdependently and some linguists even consider rhythm to be one of the components of intonation.

In general rhythm involves some event happening at regular intervals of time. Properties of speech rhythm are common with and conditioned by our biological rhythms, such as heartbeat and breathing. Speech rhythm is traditionally defined as recurrence of stressed syllables at more or less equal intervals of time in speech.

English as well as Russian, German, Arabic and other languages is considered to be a stress-timed language. It means that stressed syllables tend to occur at relatively regular intervals irrespectively of the number of unstressed syllables separating them. Though the amount of time given on each syllable varies, the total time of uttering each rhythmical unit is practically unchanged. To the Russian learners English seems to sound very rhythmical while Russian rhythm is more smooth and flexible. It is due to the fact that English is an analytical language with a lot of monosyllabic words, which are unstressed. French, Spanish, Japanese and some other languages have syllable-timed rhythm: in these languages all syllables, whether stressed or unstressed, tend to occur at regular time-intervals and the time between stressed syllables will be shorter or longer depending on the number of unstressed syllables separating them.

The basic rhythmic unit in both groups of languages is a speech segment which contains a stressed syllable and a number of unstressed ones. The most frequent type of an English rhythmic group includes 2-4 syllables, one of which is stressed. The division into rhythmic groups greatly depends on the language group. In most Germanic languages (English, German, Danish, etc.) the enclitic tendency prevails: in a stress group unstressed syllables are grouped with a preceding stressed syllable, so the rhythmic group starts with a stressed syllable and includes all following unstressed syllables up to (but not including) the following stressed syllable:

ˈTake me to the ┊ˈ seaside re┊ˈsort|

In slow formal speech the semantic tendency may prevail: the unstressed syllables are drawn to the stressed syllable of the same word or the lexical unit according to their semantic connection:

ˈTake me┊ to the ˈ seaside ┊reˈsort|

In Roman languages (French, Italian, Spanish, etc.) the proclitic tendency is more obvious: unstressed syllables are grouped with a following stressed syllable.

In speech the rhythmic effect is obtained by all the prosodic parameters (pitch, loudness and tempo). The beginning of the rhythmic unit is usually marked by maximal pitch level and loudness and relatively slow rate, while the end is accompanied by a relative drop of pitch and loudness and the increase of the rate; but each time these parameters come on a different level, on a larger scale and in a new variety of interrelationship.

The more organized the speech is, the more rhythmical it appears. Poetry is the most extreme example of this. Prose read aloud or delivered in the form of a public speech or a lecture is more rhythmical than colloquial speech. On the other hand rhythm is also individual. Absolutely regular rhythmic speech produces the effect of monotony, so people usually vary the degree of rhythmicality of their speech: sometimes they speak very rhythmically (this is typical of some styles of public speaking or in reading poetry) while at other times they may speak arrhythmically (without any rhythm) if they are nervous or hesitant.

So we can see that rhythm is an important speech phenomenon which has a functional value. First of all rhythm serves to organize elements in speech: it unites smaller units (intonation groups, phrases) into larger ones and at the same time it separates large units into smaller ones. This function is called integrative and delimitative. Rhythmically organized speech is easily perceived and has a definite effect on a person. Thus rhythm performs its aesthetic function. On the linguistic level the pragmatic value of speech rhythm is realized in its volitional function. Rhythm is also capable of expressing different degrees of emotional effect on the listener.

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