Prosodic organisation of refusal utterances: their correct coding, decoding and actualisation in english dialogue speech

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Article

Prosodic organisation of refusal utterances: their correct coding, decoding and actualisation in English dialogue speech

Olha S. Sokyska, PhD in Phylology, National Technical University of Ukraine „Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute“

The article focuses on the specificity of correct coding and decoding of refusal utterances in English dialogue speech and their intonation patterns taking full account of the importance of a communicative context in which the utterances occur. The author states that the communicative context to be considered while perceiving the refusal intonation patterns includes the following complex of factors: the communicative situation (formal, informal), the relation of speaker's social status to the recipient's status (higher, equal, and lower), the explicit or implicit form of the refusal, the speaker's socio-cultural level (high. mid, low), emotional-and-pragmatic potential of the utterance (high, mid, low) as well as the class of reasons for the refusal utterances generation “I do not want to”, “I cannot”, “I can but I do not want to”, “I want but I cannot”). In this paper the author studies the suprasegmental level means contributing to correct coding and decoding of the utterance information and the speaker's emotional state and his/her pragmatic intention. 70 students of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute aged 18-21 took part in the experiment. The author reports the results of the study of difficulties experienced by learners while mastering intonation patterns of English refusal utterances. The results of the research prove that intonation plays the leading role in correct encoding and decoding of refusal utterances' meaning.

Key words: English pronunciation, refusal utterance, encoding / decoding, interpersonal communication, prosodic means, intonation pattern, practical phonetics.

Сокирська Ольга Сергіївна, кандидат філологічних наук, Національний технічний університет України «Київський політехнічний інститут ім. Ігоря Сікорського»

ПРОСОДИЧНА ОРГАНІЗАЦІЯ ВИСЛОВЛЕНЬ ВІДМОВИ: ЇХ КОРЕКТНЕ КОДУВАННЯ, ДЕКОДУВАННЯ ТА АКТУАЛІЗАЦІЯ В АНГЛІЙСЬКОМУ ДІАЛОГІЧНОМУ МОВЛЕННІ

Стаття спрямована на вивчення специфіки правильного кодування та декодування висловлень відмови в англійському діалогічному мовленні та їх інтонаційних моделей, враховуючи важливість комунікативного контексту, в якому вони актуалізуються. Автор зазначає, що комунікативний контекст, який слід розглядати під час сприйняття інтонаційних моделей відмови, включає наступний комплекс факторів: соціокультурний рівень мовця, емоційно-прагматичний потенціал висловлювання, а також клас причин породження висловлень відмови. У цій роботі автор вивчає надсегментний рівень засобів, що сприяє правильному кодуванню та декодуванню смислу висловлювання, емоційного стану мовця та його прагматичного наміру. Автор аналізу є результати дослідження труднощів, з якими стикаються учні під час засвоєння інтонаційних моделей англійських висловлень відмови. Результати дослідження доводять, що інтонація відіграє провідну роль у правильному кодуванні та декодуванні смислу висловлень відмови.

Ключові слова: англійська вимова, висловлення відмови, кодування / декодування, міжособистісна комунікація, просодичні засоби, інтонаційні моделі, практичні фонетика.

Intheprocessofconstantdevelopmentandbroadeningofinternationalcommunication, cultural and business interpersonal contacts, changingsocio-functional regularities of language an ddialogue speech, prominent scholars, inparticular phoneticians, inevitablycometothenecessitytostudythespecificityofencodinganddecodingofemotionalutterancesandtheirproperactualisationincommunicationduringspeechinteractionwiththerepresentativesofdifferentcultures. Estimatingtheproblemingeneral, itisworthmentioningthatsomeissuesofsocial, culturalandpsycho-physiologicalfeaturesofemotionalutterances' actualisationhavebeenoutlinedinthepapersfocusedontheresearchofspeechprosodyingeneral [2; 7; 8] andonstudyingdifferentemotionaltypesofutterances, refusalutterancesincludingaswellasontheproblemofteachingEnglishpronunciationtoUkrainianlearners [3].

ThefindingsofthementionedresearchsufficientlyprovethatcorrectactualizationandperceptionofdifferentemotionalutterancesisoneofthemostdifficultissuestomasterbyforeignlearnersofEnglish. Besides, thecommunicativecompetenceofnon-cooperativespeechactsistheleaststudiedaspectoftheforeignlanguageeducation. Inviewofthis, a profoundresearchofculturalandsociolinguisticaspectsofEnglishrefusalutterancesactualisationasoneofthefrequentlyoccurringtypesofemotionalutterances, relatedtonon-cooperativespeechacts, becomesundoubtedlyrelevant. Thetopicalityoftheproblemisalsoenhancedbythelackofthisaspectinforeignlanguageteaching, especiallyconsideringthepresent-dayrequirementtotrainstudentstomaintaincontactswiththerepresentativesofdifferentcountriesattheinternationallevelduringtheirstudiesandafteruniversitygraduation. Thissituationdemandsfromthemtheskillsofadequateunderstandingofthereceivedinformationandcorrectexpressionoftheutterancemeaning.

Therefore, theaimofthepresentpaperistodefineandoutlinesomepeculiaritiesoftheformationofphoneticcommunicativecompetenceinforeignlanguagelearnersbymeansofanalysingtypicalprosodicpatternsofrefusalutterancesactualisedbythespeakersofdifferentsocio-culturallevelsinvariouscommunicativesituations.

ThehypothesisoftheresearchisbasedontheideathattheeffectivenessofrealisationofEnglishrefusalutterances' pragmaticsettingisreachedduetotheuseofsociallydeterminedvariantsoftheirintonationpatternswithineachclassofreasonsoftherefusalgeneration [4, p. 219] targetedat a certainrecipient. ToprovethehypothesisaswellastheeffectivenessofteachingEnglishintonationonthebasisofrefusalutterancesweinitiatedanexperimentalstudyconductedintheautumnsemesterof a 2019-2020 academicyearinIgorSikorskyKyivPolytechnicInstitute. Researchparticipantsincluded 70 studentsofIgorSikorskyKyivPolytechnicInstituteaged 18-21 (8 femalesand 62 males). Allgroupsofstudentsinvolvedintheexperimentwerepreviouslyassessed. Thelevelofphoneticcompetenceinallgroupswasratherheterogeneousbutsufficientenoughtoconductsuch a typeofexperiment.

Toperformtheexperiment, itwasnecessarytomaketheprevioustheoreticalresearchandsubstantiateitstheoreticalbackgroundinordertofacilitatetheachievementoftheresearchgoals. Theanalysisofexistinginlinguisticsdefinitionsofthenotionofutteranceandourattempttohighlightitsmaincharacteristicsallowedustoformulateitsfollowingdefinition: utterance is a thought materialized according to the laws of a definite language in the form of a sentence which in accordance with its functional aim and due to its semantic integrity conveys certain information [6, p.293]. Thegivendefinitionandconductedcomparisonandanalysisoftheknowninlinguisticsinterpretationsofrefusalsmadeitpossibletodefinethelinguisticstatusofrefusal utterance, accordingtowhichweviewitasa unit of speech, actualized in oral or written speech as a reaction to the speaker's query, that expresses a negative response to the request, demand, offer or suggestion, unwillingness to agree with something, to do, accept or allow something or the addressee's refusal from something offered or avoiding to perform an action [6,p. 293].

Toachievethegoalsoftheexperimentweappliedsuchmethodsastheanalysisoftheproblem (generalization, inductionanddeduction); theoreticalempiricalmethods (synthesis, modelling, classification, quantitativeandqualitativedataprocessingmethods) aswellasauditoryanalysisanddescriptivemethod.

Toconducttheexperiment, thestudentsweregivenhand-outswithdialoguescontainingrefusalutterancesgroupedaccordingtothefourclassesofreasonsofrefusal, namely: “I donotwantto”, “I cannot”, “I canbut I donotwantto”, “I wantbut I cannot” [4, p. 219]. Besides, wegroupedalltherefusalutterancesconsideringtheirleadinglinguisticfeatures: thecommunicativesituation (formal, informal), therelationofspeaker'ssocialstatustotherecipient'sstatus (higher, equal, andlower), theexplicitorimplicitformoftherefusal, whichareshownintables 1 and 2 [6]. AllthedialoguesaretakenfrommodernEnglishandAmericanliteratureandarevoicedbyBritishspeakersandprofessionalactors.

Atthefirststageoftheexperimentthestudentswereofferedtoreadthedialoguesanddefinetheemotional-and-pragmaticpotential (high, mid, low) oftherefusalutterancesonthebasisoftheirlexicalandgrammaticalfeatures. Apartfromthat, thestudentswereaskedtomarkwith a ticktheutteranceswhichtheyviewedastheutterancesofotheremotionaltypesbutwith a similarpragmaticorientation, liketheutterancesofnegation, disagreementetc. ratherthantherefusals.

ItisworthmentioningthattheresultsofsurveyscarriedoutbytherepresentativesofAllaKalyta'sexperimentalphoneticschool [3; 6] showthatthemainfactorinfluencingtheprosodicorganisationofEnglishdialoguespeechistheenergeticinteractionofemotionsexperiencedbythespeakerandhis/herpragmaticintentions. Intheworks [1; 2] aimedatthescientificresearchofthisphenomenonitwasproposedtodifferentiatetheutterancesaccordingtothelevelofemotional-and-pragmaticpotentialoftheiractualizationintothosewithlow, midorhighlevel.

Atthesecondstageoftheexperimentthestudentswereofferedtolistento 64 voicedfragmentsofthesamedialoguesfromBritishtextscontainingtherefusalutterancesandmakenotesinquestionnaireonwhethertheyviewthesedialoguesasrefusalsornotandafterlisteningdefinetheemotional-andpragmaticpotentialoftheutterance.

Table 1 - The example of the questionnaire for defining the emotional-and-pragmatic potential and the type of refusal utterance related to class of reasons “I do not want to”

Table 2 - The example of the questionnaire for defining the emotional-and-pragmatic potential and the type of refusal utterances related to class of reasons “I want but I cannot”

Thethirdstagewas a practicalone. Theteacherofferedthestudentstochoosethecardswithsomedialoguesanalysedbythelearnersatpreviousstagesoftheexperiment. Thestudentshadtoactoutthesedialoguesinpairs. Theteachercontrolledtheirspeakingandcorrectedpronunciationmistakes, ifany. Thestudentswereinstructedtoimitatetheintonationcontouroftherecordedutterance, itswordstressaswellaspractisepronunciationofsoundsandsyllables.

Thefinalstageoftheexperimentwasdevotedtoquantitativeandqualitativedataprocessingandtheanalysisoftheresultsoftheexperimentwiththehelpofmathematicalstatisticsmethods. Forassessingtheresultsweinvitedphoneticiansandnativespeakers. Aftertheexperimentwasfinished, theteacherprovidedthestudentswiththeirresultswhichallowedthemtoreflectontheworkdone, theirmistakesandpossiblewaysoftheircorrection. Afterthediscussionthestudentsgavetheirfeedbacktotheteacher.

Thedataobtainedas a resultofquantitativeandqualitativeanalysisoftheexperimentprovedtheeffectivenessoftheusedteachingandscientificmethodsinformingphoneticcompetence. A comparativeanalysisoftheresultsshowed a positivedynamicsinacquiringphoneticcompetencebythestudentsfromtheexperimentalgroupduringallthestagesoftheexperiment. Thestudentsdemonstrated a goodleveloflexical, grammatical, phonetic, socio-culturalandpragmaticcompetencesasisshownintable 3.

Table 3 - The differences between learners results at the first and second stages of the experiment

Asisshownfromthetable, duringthereadingstageoftheexperiment 71-74% ofthestudentsbelongingtotheexperimentalgroupcouldinterprettherefusalutterancesanditsemotional-and-pragmaticpotentialcorrectly, while 26-29% failedtodecodeitproperly. Incontrasttothis, listeningtotheexperimentaldialoguesgavethepossibilitytounderstandtheexperimentalmaterialcorrectlyto 91-93% ofthestudents. Thisprovesthatintonationanditscomponentsplay a veryimportantroleincorrectcodinganddecodingofinformationwhichleadstoitsfurthercorrectactualizationthatwaspractisedduringthethirdstageofourexperiment.

The number of correct answers greatly depended on such linguistic features as the relation of the speaker's social status to the recipient's one (higher, equal, lower) and the speaker's socio-cultural level which, as it was emphasised to students, is determined by the degree of the speaker's language competence, a set of acquired knowledge and skills, means and techniques of communicative behaviour, ability to adequately encode / decode information in its correlation with the specific situation and goals of communication [6, p. 294].

Itisworthmentioningthatthedialogueswhichcausedthedifficultieswithcorrectdecodingofrefusalsweremainlyactualisedimplicitlybythespeakersof a highsocio-culturallevel. Itcanbeillustratedbythefollowingexampleoftheutterancebelongingtotheclassofreasons “I canbut I donotwantto”:

"This is the concierge, monsieur. I apologize for this intrusion, but you have a visitor. He insists it is urgent.”

"I'm sorry” Langdon said, “but I'm very tired and - "Mais, monsieur”, the concierge pressed, lowering his voice to an urgent whisper. "Your guest is an important man.”

"If you would be so kind,” Langdon said, doing his best to remain polite, “could you take the man's name and number, and tell him I'll try to call him before I leave Paris on Tuesday? Thank you ” [9, p. 6].

Inthegivenexample, animplicitrefusalisutteredin a formalsituationbythespeakerwhohas a highersocio-culturallevelinrelationtotheaddressee. Theemotional-and-pragmaticpotentialisdefinedastheoneof a middlelevel. Mostofthestudentscopedwiththetaskandqualifiedtheutteranceastherefusalduringthefirststageoftheexperimentwiththehelpofitslexicalandgrammaticalmeans. Thelisteningstagejustifiedtheresultsobtainedatthepreviousstagesinceontheprosodicleveltheutteranceisactualizedwithin a middlevoicerange, hasnospecialrisesorhighfalls, thetempoismoderateandsmooth, pausesarequiteshort. Thesearetheveryprosodicmeansthatdesignatetherefusalastheonebelongingtotheclassofreasons “I canbut I donotwantto”.

Thenextexampleillustratestherefusalutteranceincludedintotheclassofreasons “I cannot” andactualisedbythespeakerofthemidsocio-culturallevelintheinformalcommunicativesituation:

`Jacob,' he said, imploringly. `Old Jacob Marley, tell me more. Speak comfort to me, Jacob.'

`I have none to give, ' the Ghost replied. `It comes from other regions, Ebenezer Scrooge, and is conveyed by other ministers, to other kinds of men. Nor can I tell you what I would. A very little more is all permitted to me. I cannot rest, I cannot stay, I cannot linger anywhere. My spirit never walked beyond out counting-house-mark me!- in life my spirit never roved beyond the narrow limits of our money-changing hole; and weary journeys lie before me'[10, p. 22].

Thisutteranceisanexampleofanimplicitrefusalactualisedintheinformalsituationbythespeakerofthesamesocialstatusastherecipient's. Duetothelexicalandgrammaticalmeansoftheutterance, itwasinterpretedbythestudentsduringthefirststageoftheexperimentastherefusalhavingthemiddlelevelofitsemotional-and-pragmaticpotential. However, thecontextofthisdialoguecauseddifficultiesforstudentstointerpretthisutteranceastherefusal. Abouthalfofanexperimentalgroupofstudentsdefineditasnon-cooperativespeechactwhichisclosetotherefusalduetoitspragmaticsettingbuttheydidnotmarkitastherefusal.

Takingabovementionedintoconsideration, wecanassumethatallclassesofrefusalutteranceshave a specificprosodicorganisationservingas a crucialelementoftheiroralactualisationandastheintensifierofthespeaker'spragmaticintention, whichincombinationwithotherlanguagemeansinfluencesthesender'sgenerationandrecipient'sperceptionoftheutterance'smeaning. Thisspecificityisviewedinourresearchonthebasisofthesubstantiatedmodel (Sokyrska, 2013a), representingthemechanismofencodinganddecodingtherefusalutterances' meaninginEnglishdialoguespeech. Thismodelshowsthattheprocessofcorrectgenerationandperceptionoftheutterancemeaningoccurssimultaneouslyandlargelydependsonthecorrectlanguagemeanschosenbythespeakeraswellastheaddressee'sabilitytoperceivetheirmeaningswhichisimpossiblewithoutthepresenceoftheoverlapareaofinterlocutors' cultures.

Theexperimentconductedinthisresearchwasdeterminedbytheneedtoadvancethephoneticcommunicativecompetence, improvetheabilitytoencodeanddecodetheaddresser'sinformationandteachthestudentsofIgorSikorskyKyivPolytechnicInstitutetocorrectlyactualisethemeaningofdifferentclassesofrefusalsasthefrequenttypesofemotionalutterancesinEnglishdialoguespeechwhicharewidelyusedininterpersonalcommunicationandwhosecorrectinterpretationcandirectlyinfluencebusinessandculturalinternationalcontacts.

Thecomparativeanalysisoftheutteranceshaving a similarlexicalandgrammaticalstructureshowedthatprosodicmeansperformtheleadingroleincontributiontocorrectencodinganddecodingoftheutteranceinformation. Thus, theresultsofthisresearchcanbeusefulforteachingPracticalEnglishPhonetics.

ThedataobtainedintheresultofthestudyandimplementationoftheofferedapproachintoteachingEnglishpronunciationallowedussystematiseandanalysetypicalerrorsanddifficultiesexperiencedbythestudentswhileworkingonEnglishintonation. Thereflectionsmadeontheworkdonehelpedunderstandhowtodiagnose, correctandovercomepronunciationmistakesinfuturetraininginclassorworkingindependently.

WehopethattheideasadvancedinthispapercanbeintegratedintopracticalclassesandwillbeusefulforelaborationofpracticalguidelinesonteachingEnglishintonationofrefusalutterancesandencouragefurtherstudiesoftheroleofintonationincorrectencodinganddecodingoftheutteranceprosodicfeaturescontributingtomoreeffectiveacquisitionofcommunicativecompetence.

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