Prosodic Patterns in English Conversation

A comprehensive overview of how we use prosody to do things in conversation, such as persuade, suggest, flatter, take turns and reach agreement.

Nigel G. Ward (Author)

9781316633618, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 14 March 2019

262 pages, 108 b/w illus. 8 tables
22.8 x 15.3 x 1.5 cm, 0.38 kg

'Nigel G. Ward's book presents a novel approach to a long elusive question: what are the acoustic correlates of prosody that align with communicative functions? By taking a data mining approach, acoustic features long thought to be correlates of prosodic categories and long speculated as contributing in complex ways, can be examined together. While research has been hampered by the lack of consensus defining discrete communicative functions, Ward takes a defiantly speculative approach in the interpretation of his very concrete statistical associations, paving the way for the discipline to use his methods experimentally.' Nanette Veilleux, Simmons University, Boston

Language is more than words: it includes the prosodic features and patterns that we use, subconsciously, to frame meanings and achieve our goals in our interaction with others. Here, Nigel G. Ward explains how we do this, going beyond intonation to show how pitch, timing, intensity and voicing properties combine to form meaningful temporal configurations: prosodic constructions. Bringing together new findings and hitherto-scattered observations from phonetic and pragmatic studies, this book describes over twenty common prosodic patterns in English conversation. Using examples from real conversations, it illustrates how prosodic constructions serve essential functions such as inviting, showing approval, taking turns, organizing ideas, reaching agreement, and evoking action. Prosody helps us establish rapport and nurture relationships, but subtle differences in prosody across languages and subcultures can be damagingly misunderstood. The findings presented here will enable both native speakers of English and learners to listen more sensitively and communicate more effectively.

1. Introduction
2. Bookended narrow pitch regions
3. Downstep constructions
4. Creaky voice and its functions
5. Perspectives on prosody
6. Late pitch peak and its functions
7. Expressing positive assessments
8. Superposition
9. A big-data approach
10. From patterns to meanings
11. Turn-taking constructions
12. Topic management constructions
13. Stance-related constructions
14. The rest of English prosody
15. Envoi.

Subject Areas: Translation & interpretation [CFP], Grammar, syntax & morphology [CFK], Phonetics, phonology [CFH], Semantics, discourse analysis, etc [CFG], Sociolinguistics [CFB], Linguistics [CF]