INTONATION OF EXTERNAL TEXT AND INTERNAL TEXT

Abstract

The paper is devoted to the psycholinguistic analysis of text intonation during speech production and speech perception. The following statements are the theoretical background of research: 1) speech activity is mental activity, 2) both speech production and speech perception are active processes, 3) utterance sense depends on text sense, 4) according to N. Zhinkin external and internal text as well as text sense are crucial concepts. The results of multi-year acoustic analysis of oral monologic and dialogic speech are summarized. The speaker chooses intonation arrangement that is adequate not only to external text but also to internal text. The result of speech perception that is active mental process is an adequate comprehension of text sense that speaker wanted to express. Inadequate intonation arrangement of text sense might create considerable difficulties in oral speech perception process. The author argues that speech segmentation, the direction of pitch pattern, the movement of speech tempo and the specific type of stress, that is accentual phrasal stress, are representative of text sense, both external and internal. Key element for cognitive speech segmentation by speaker is existence of whole text intention and its sense segmentation. Inadequate sense-group segmentation might depend on communication breakdown or deficiency of intention to be understood such as control failure. Tune two instead of tune one is distinguished in oral monologic and dialogic speech. If we interpret the external text as a part of internal one, the new explanation of last word segmentation as well as accentual phrasal stress and also two accentual phrasal stresses in one phrase may be proposed. Refs 26.