If language is considered to be a means of communication – and thus, of making oneself understandable to one’s interlocutors – conceptualising language in the structuralist tradition, as a hierarchical system of units on different linguistic levels, paints an incomplete picture. While phonemes certainly serve as meaning-distinguishing units, morphemes carry lexical and grammatical meaning, and syntax provides a framework for encoding complex semantics, drawing solely on these means leaves plenty of room for ambiguities, interpretation, and misunderstandings, an issue ubiquitous for written interaction of any kind.
This class explores prosody – the “‘musical’ aspects of speech” such as intonation, loudness and voice quality – and how such vocal features contribute to the meaning of talk. We will be discussing a variety of prosodic cues, and investigate how specific prosodic choices shape our understanding of any given verbal utterance.
Szczepek Reed, Beatrice (2011). Analysing conversation: An introduction to prosody. Palgrave Macmillan.
While not a precondition for participation, participants will benefit from a basic knowledge of Conversation Analysis / Interactional Linguistics.
graded: presentation (30')ungraded: transcript with sample analysis
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