On the Interdependence of Sounds and Prosodies in Communicative Functions

Sound segments have traditionally occupied a central place in phonetic science. Other sound aspects have been conceptualized in a broader, suprasegmental frame as prosodies, especially pitch, but also energy, voice quality, rhythm. This has resulted in the current dichotomous research paradigm of sounds and prosodies. This paper takes a new look at this division, as a useful initial heuristics separating threads that subsequently have to be interwoven in a tapestry of speech communication, which incorporates all forms of meaning, propositional, attitudinal and expressive. The central question to which this paper proposes a few answers is: “How are sounds and prosodies intertwined, mutually shaping each other, as a reflection of different communicative functions in speech interaction?” The paper proceeds from communicative function to phonetic form and presents English and German data from production as well as perception analysis in all three fields of meaning.

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