What is Prosodic Phonology?

Prosodic phonology is a theory of the way in which the flow of speech is organized into a finite set of phonological units. It is also, however, a theory of interactions between phonology and the components of the grammar. In linguistic terms, prosody concerns those elements of speech that are not individual phonetic segments (vowels and consonants) but are properties of syllables and larger units of speech. These prosodic features are said to be suprasegmental, since they are properties of units of speech larger than the individual segment. This branch of linguistics has become increasingly important for understanding the full spectrum of human speech patterns.

Understanding Prosody

Prosody is typically believed to refer to the study of elements in a language (particularly in poetry but also in prose) that contribute to acoustic and rhythmic effects. Modern study of prosody has expanded greatly from its historical focus upon meter in verse to the totality of sound of a poem, in the words of poet Ezra Pound.

Prosody refers to the aspects of speech that are not restricted to sounds but to syllables or larger units of speech. Since these prosodic features apply to larger units than single segments, they are termed suprasegmental.

It is important to differentiate between the voice qualities that one routinely uses (e.g., pitch range) from the contrastive prosodic features whose role is to communicate meaning (e.g., pitch changes indicating questions). Although personal characteristics are not linguistically significant, prosodic features can signal various features of other speech.

• The speaker's emotional state.
• The type of communication being made
• Refers to irony or sarcasm.
• Emphasis, contrast, and focus.
• Other linguistic aspects beyond grammar and word choice.

Elements of Prosody

Intonation

Various linguists have defined Intonation in different ways. Some linguists describe intonation in terms of pitch alone. Others describe it in terms of various prosodic variables. Intonation in the English language involves three things:

• Breaking speech into smaller parts.
• The bolding of specific letters and sounds.
• Choosing whether to fall or to rise.

Furthermore, variation in pitch range is meaningful as well. For example, speaking with a wide pitch range often conveys excitement, but a narrow pitch range can convey boredom or fatigue. English uses “key” changes too. Particularly, in some cases, moving the pitch of a person’s intonation higher or lower will mean something.

Stress

Stress refers to the use of prominence when pronouncing syllables. It can also be studied as “word stress” or “lexical stress”. All stresses that occur in higher-than-word-size speech units are called “prosodic stress”. Stressed syllables are characterized by:

• The importance of pitch (change in pitch from one syllable to the other)
• Increased duration (length).
• Increased loudness (dynamics).
• Vowel pronunciation varies based on stress. Unstressed vowels become tense or relaxed based on the stressed vowel in that word.

Rhythm

The characteristic rhythm of a language, like its intonation and loudness, is usually considered part of its prosodic phonology, although it is not a prosodic variable. Languages have often been classified into rhythmic types:

• Stressed syllables are spread at equal intervals.
• Each syllable lasts around the same length in a syllable timed language.
• The timing of each mora is relatively constant.

But scientific evidence has not been particularly strong regarding these different types of isochrony.

Pause

The speech pauses are break-interruption to the way speech is produced. They include:

• Breaks in speech production
• Silent pauses (distinguishable from hesitations).
• Words people say in discourse without meaning.
• Pauses with meaning (sigh, gasp)

Even though pauses are connected to breaths, those pauses can also contain contrastive, linguistic content. In a famous example, English advertising voice-overs use periods between words for this purpose. It indicates that the amount of information in that space is high. So, in “Quality. Service. Value” – there is little expectation of hearing anything more.

 

Prosodic Feature	What it Does	Example(s)
Intonation	Changes pitch for meaning	“You’re coming.” (statement, falling pitch) vs. “You’re coming?” (question, rising pitch)
Stress	Emphasizes syllables or words	‘PREsent’ (noun: gift) vs. ‘preSENT’ (verb: to show); “I didn’t say he stole the money.”
Rhythm	Patterns of timing and emphasis	English: “The CAT sat on the MAT.” (stressed syllables spaced); French: “Je vais à la maison.”
Pause	Breaks in speech for meaning/effect	“Let’s eat, Grandma!” vs. “Let’s eat Grandma!”; “Quality. Service. Value.” (dramatic pauses)

 

Historical Development of Prosodic Analysis

In the late 1930s at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, John R. Firth (1890-1960) developed a distinctive approach to analysing phonological structures. Firth’s approach was never fully defined but nonetheless dominated phonological discussion and analytic practice in Britain into the early 1960s. His perspective was mainly shown through careful analysis of particular languages and not through broad theory.

Significance in Modern Linguistics

The word prosodic can mean either rhythmical or stress-based in phonology. It creates a connection with phonetics and organization above the word level and seeks to explain how speakers communicate meaning through patterns of intonation, stress, rhythm, and pause.

Prosodic phonology is important for linguists, language teachers, speech therapists and speech technology developers as it contains descriptive frameworks to analyse pitch, rhythm and intonation of language which convey meaning beyond the words.