What is Prosodic Phonology?

It 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.

Prosody is the study of all the elements of language that contribute toward acoustic and rhythmic effects, chiefly in poetry but also in prose. Prosody was the study of metre and its uses in lyric, epic, and dramatic verse. In sophisticated modern criticism, however, the scope of prosodic study has been expanded until it now concerns itself with what the 20th-century poet Ezra Pound called “the articulation of the total sound of a poem.


Prosody and Linguistics

In linguistics, prosody is concerned with those elements of speech that are not individual phonetic segments (vowels and consonants) but are properties of syllables and larger units of speech. However, spoken language rarely consists of isolated speech sounds. Instead, vowels and consonants are combined to form larger units such as syllables, phrases, and sentences. These larger units can also be described in terms of their articulatory and acoustic properties. 

PROSODY also known as SUPRASEGMENTALS:

The examination of aspects of speech that extend beyond individual vowels and consonants is known as the study of suprasegmental or prosody. The term prosody is sometimes used as a synonym only for “intonation.” Intonation is only one instance of a range of phenomena properly known as “prosody,” which we use as a synonym for “suprasegmental,” intonation being part of it.

Prosodic features are said to be suprasegmental, since they are properties of units of speech larger than the individual segment. 

It is necessary to distinguish between the personal, background characteristics that belong to an individual's voice (for example, their habitual pitch range) and the independently variable prosodic features that are used contrastively to communicate meaning (for example, the use of changes in pitch to indicate the difference between statements and questions).

Personal characteristics are not linguistically significant. It is not possible to say with any accuracy which aspects of prosody are found in all languages and which are specific to a particular language or dialect.

Prosody may reflect various features of the speaker or the utterance: the emotional state of the speaker; the form of the utterance (statement, question, or command); the presence of irony or sarcasm; emphasis, contrast, and focus. 

It may otherwise reflect other elements of language that may not be encoded by grammar or by choice of vocabulary.

Elements of prosody

A- Intonation

Some writers (e.g. O'Connor and Arnold) have described intonation entirely in terms of pitch, while others (e.g. Crystal) propose that what is referred to as intonation is in fact an amalgam of several prosodic variables. The form of English intonation is often said to be based on three aspects:

- The division of speech into units

- The highlighting of particular words and syllables

- The choice of pitch movement (e.g. fall or rise)

An additional pitch-related variation is pitch range: speakers are capable of speaking with a wide range of pitch (this is usually associated with excitement), at other times with a narrow range. English has been said to make use of changes in key: shifting one's intonation into the higher or lower part of one's pitch range is believed to be meaningful in certain contexts.


B- Stress.

From the perceptual point of view, stress functions as the means of making a syllable prominent; stress may be studied in relation to individual words (named "word stress" or lexical stress) or in relation to larger units of speech (traditionally referred to as "sentence stress" but more appropriately named "prosodic stress"). Stressed syllables are made prominent by several variables, by themselves or in combination. Stress is typically associated with the following:

- pitch prominence, that is, a pitch level that is different from that of neighbouring syllables, or a pitch movement

- increased length (duration)

- increased loudness (dynamics) :

- Differences in timbre: in English and some other languages, stress is associated with aspects of vowel quality (whose acoustic correlate is the formant frequencies or spectrum of the vowel). Unstressed vowels tend to be centralized relative to stressed vowels, which are normally more peripheral in quality.


  c- Rhythm.

Rhythm: Although rhythm is not a prosodic variable in the way that pitch or loudness are, it is usual to treat a language's characteristic rhythm as a part of its prosodic phonology. It has often been asserted that languages exhibit regularity in the timing of successive units of speech, a regularity referred to as isochrony, and that every language may be assigned one of three rhythmical types: stress-timed (where the durations of the intervals between stressed syllables is relatively constant), syllable-timed (where the durations of successive syllables are relatively constant) and mora-timed (where the durations of successive morae are relatively constant). As explained in the isochrony article, this claim has not been supported by scientific evidence.


D- Pause

Voiced or unvoiced, the pause is a form of interruption to articulatory continuity such as an open or terminal juncture. Conversation analysis commonly notes pause length. Distinguishing auditory hesitation from silent pauses is one challenge. Contrasting junctures within and without word chunks can aid in identifying pauses.

There are a variety of "filled" pause types. Formulaic language pause fillers include "Like", "Er" and "Uhm", and paralinguistic expressive respiratory pauses include the sigh and gasp.

Although related to breathing, pauses may contain contrastive linguistic content, as in the periods between individual words in English advertising voice-over copy sometimes placed to denote high information content, e.g. "Quality. Service. Value."

Historical Development of Prosodic Analysis:

An approach to the analysis of phonological structure which differs in fundamental ways from virtually every other 20th century view was developed by John R. Firth (1890-1960) at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, beginning in the late 1930s. Though it was never well defined, Firth’s general position dominated discussion and analytic practice in Britain, at least with respect to phonology, through the early 1960s. Firth and his associates presented it largely in a number of detailed accounts of specific languages which were produced.

Zaid Anwar