Prosody in discourse

Abstract

This chapter describes the discourse intonation framework and presents an overview of the four systems of discourse intonation within the framework. The four systems, namely prominence, tone, key and termination, and the associated choices, are illustrated with examples from a prosodically transcribed corpus of spoken English to show how they function in local contexts so as to add communicative value to what is said. Instead of rigidly tying particular lexical or grammatical elements to intonation, the discourse intonation framework argues that the use of intonation is context-sensitive and very much responsive to the communicative situation. While such intonational choices, consciously made by speakers, are not predetermined, they can nonetheless be predicted to some extent through the detailed systematic observation, identification and description of patterns. The study of the discourse intonation patterns observed in naturally occurring speech thus reveals to the analysts the intonational decisions that speakers have to make in real-time interactions on a moment-by-moment basis, which reflect the rich layers of pragmatic and situated meanings expressed in speech. Discourse intonation is therefore an indispensable area of research for a deeper understanding of meanings in spoken discourse. Areas of further research are discussed.