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General Analysis of the Pitch Component

The pitch component of prosody, or speech melody, commonly referred to as variations in the height of the voice during speech, is generally described in terms of pitch changes and levels.

A pitch level means a certain relative height within the speaker’s voice range. The notion of a level may be applied to a whole stretch of utterance. In this case it means the average height of the voice during the pronunciation of the given stretch. Pitch levels are also associated with syllables, rhythmic groups, intonation groups. The starting, mid and ending points of a unit may coincide in their height - and then the unit is said on a steady pitch. If the voice at the beginning of a unit is higher (or lower) than its end, there is an effect of a falling (or rising) pitch change. The height of the voice within a unit often changes in two directions: upward and then downward or vice versa - rise fall or fall rise, respectively. For example:

_______ ______ ______

Fine. _______ No. ______ No. ______

Pitch levels can be described in terms of three relevant zones within the speaker’s voice range:

_____________________

_____________________high

_____________________mid the speaker’s voice range

_____________________low

The low pitch level is associated with the low zone, the mid level is associated with the mid zone, and the high level – with the high zone. Each of the pitch zones can be further subdivided, the number of pitch levels increased as a result: fairly high and very high, rather low and very low, mid high and mid low.

_________________________

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _very high

_________________________fairly high

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ mid high the speaker’s voice range

_________________________mid low

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _rather low

_________________________very low

From the functional point of view the pitch level plays an important role in differentiating the degree of semantic prominence attached by the speaker to separate items in an utterance. It is also significant for conveying various shades of attitudinal meanings. For example: a) It’s so `boring being at home a‚lone all day. b) `Thank you, dear (enthusiastic). Thank you, dear (cool, reserved).

Static and Kinetic Tones

In the study of intonation, pitch, loudness and length are the most important factors. They work together to make certain syllables stand out among others. On the word level, the cooperation of pitch, loudness and stress is referred to as stress, or tone. On the utterance level, the same concepts are referred to as intonation.

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