Prosody

Elizabeth Couper-Kuhlen
Table of contents

The term prosody is current both in the fields of literature and of linguistics. In literary studies it is used to refer to the metrical analysis of verse, while in linguistics its denotation encompasses not only stress- and accent-related phenomena in language use, but also diverse types of melodic or pitch-related, and dynamic or loudness-related speech modulation. In addition, it is used for the temporal manipulation of syllables and segments – whether with respect to their duration (stretching and clipping) or with respect to their timing (rhythm and rate of speech). Prosodic features create auditory effects in spoken language above and beyond those which identify the sound segments themselves. They are in one sense distinct to speech, but of course also virtually present in many written forms of verbal communication.

Full-text access is restricted to subscribers. Log in to obtain additional credentials. For subscription information see Subscription & Price.

References

Allen, G.D. & S. Hawkins
1980 Phonological rhythm: Definition and development. In G.H. Yeni-Komshian, J.F. Kavanaugh & C.A. Ferguson (eds.) Child Phonology, Vol. 1: 227–25. Academic Presscademic Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Atkinson, M.J. & J. Heritage
(eds.) 1984 Structures of Social Action. Studies in Conversation Analysis. Cambridge University Press.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Auer, P.
1986 Kontextualisierung. Studium Linguistik 19: 22–47.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Auer, P. & A. Di Luzio
(eds.) 1992 The Contextualization of Language. John Benjamins.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Auer, P., E. Couper-Kuhlen & F. Müller
1999 Language in Time: The Rhythm and Tempo of Spoken Interaction. Oxford University Press.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bolinger, D.
1965 The atomization of meaning. Language 41: 555–573.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1961 Generality, gradience and the all or none. Mouton.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1972a Accent is predictable (if you’re a mind-reader). Language 48(3): 633–44.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1972b Around the edge of language: Intonation. In D. Bolinger (ed.) Intonation. Selected readings: 19–29. Penguin. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1986 Intonation and its Parts. Stanford University Press.  BoP Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brazil, D., M. Coulthard & C. Johns
1980 Discourse Intonation and Language Teaching. Longman.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chafe, W.
(ed.) 1980 The Pear Stories: Cognitive, Cultural, and Linguistic Aspects of Narrative Production. Ablex.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1993 Prosodic and functional units of language. In J.A. Edwards & M.D. Lampert (eds.): 33–43. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Couper-Kuhlen, E.
1983 Intonatorische Kohäsion: Eine makroprosodische Untersuchung. Zeitschrift für Linguistik und Literaturwissenschaft 49: 74–100. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1986 An Introduction to English Prosody. Edward Arnold & Max Niemeyer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1992 Contextualizing discourse: The prosody of interactive repair. In P. Auer & A. Di Luzio (eds.): 337–364.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1993 English Speech Rhythm: Form and function in everyday verbal interaction. John Benjamins.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1996a Intonation and clause combining in discourse: The case of ‘because’. Pragmatics 6: 389–426.  BoP Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1996b The prosody of repetition: On quoting and mimicry. In E. Couper-Kuhlen & M. Selting (eds.): 366–405. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2001 Interactional prosody: High onsets in reason-for-the-call turns. Language in Society 30(1): 29–53.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Couper-Kuhlen, E. & M. Selting
1996 Towards an interactional perspective on prosody and a prosodic perspective on interaction. In E. Couper-Kuhlen & M. Selting (eds.): 11–56. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(eds.) 1996 Prosody in Conversation. Interactional studies. Cambridge University Press.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Couper-Kuhlen, E. & S.A. Thompson
1999 On the concessive relation in conversational English. In F.-W. Neumann & S. Schuelting (eds.) Anglistentag 1998 Erfurt: 29–39. Wissenschaftlicher Verlag. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cruttenden, A.
1997 Intonation, 2nd edition. Cambridge University Press.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Crystal, D.
1969 Prosodic Systems and Intonation in English. Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1975 The English Tone of Voice. Edward Arnold.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Du Bois, J.W., S. Schuetze-Coburn, D. Paolino & S. Cumming
1992 Discourse Transcription. Santa Barbara Papers in Linguistics 4: 1–225. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Du Bois, J.W., S. Schuetze-Coburn, S. Cumming & D. Paolino
1993 Outline of discourse transcription. In J.A. Edwards & M.D. Lampert (eds.): 45–89. Lawrence Erlbaum. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Edwards, J.A. & M.D. Lampert
(eds.) 1993 Talking Data: Transcription and coding methods for language research. Lawrence Erlbaum. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Firth, J.R.
1957 Sounds and prosodies. In Papers in Linguistics 1934–1951. Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ford, C.E.
1993 Grammar in Interaction. Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2000 The treatment of contrasts in interaction. In E. Couper-Kuhlen & B. Kortmann (eds.) Cause, Condition, Contrast, Concession: Cognitive and discourse perspectives: 283–311. Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ford, C.E. & S.A. Thompson
1996 Interactional units in conversation: syntactic, intonational, and pragmatic resources for the management of turns. In E. Ochs, E.A. Schegloff, & S.A. Thompson (eds.): 134–184. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ford, C.E., B.A. Fox & S.A. Thompson
1996 Practices in the construction of turns: the ‘TCU’ revisited. Pragmatics 6: 427–454. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fox, B.
1987 Discourse Structure and Anaphora. Cambridge University Press.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fox, B.A., M. Hayashi & R. Jasperson
1996 Resources and repair: A cross-linguistic study of syntax and repair. In E. Ochs, E.A. Schegloff, & S.A. Thompson (eds.): 185–237. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fox, B.A. & R. Jasperson
1995 A syntactic exploration of repair in English conversation. In P.W. Davis (ed.) Alternative Linguistics. Descriptive and theoretical modes: 77–134. John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Freed, A.
1994 The form and function of questions in informal dyadic conversation. Journal of Pragmatics 21: 621–644.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Freese, J. & D.W. Maynard
1998 Prosodic features of bad news and good news in conversation. Language in Society 27: 195–219.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
French, P. & J.K. Local
1983 Turn-competitive incomings. Journal of Pragmatics 7: 17–38.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Garfinkel, H.
1967 Studies in Ethnomethodology. Prentice-Hall.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goldberg, J.A.
1978 Amplitude shift: A mechanism for the affiliation of utterances in conversational interaction. In J. Schenkein (ed.) Studies in the Organization of Conversational Interaction: 199–218. Academic Presscademic Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goodwin, C.
1995 Co-constructing meaning in conversations with an aphasic man. Research on Language and Social Interaction 28(3): 233–260.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Günthner, S.
1996 The prosodic contextualization of moral work: An analysis of reproaches in ‘why’-formats. In E. Couper-Kuhlen & M. Selting (eds.): 271–302. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gumperz, J.J.
1982 Discourse Strategies. Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Halliday, M.A.K.
1967 Intonation and Grammar in British English. The Hague. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1970 A Course in Spoken English: Intonation. Oxford University Press.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Heritage, J.
1984 A change-of-state token and aspects of its sequential placement. In M.J. Atkinson & J. Heritage (eds.): 299–345. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Heritage, J. & A.L. Roth
1995 Grammar and institution: questions and questioning in broadcast media. Research on Language and Social Interaction 28: 1–60.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jefferson, G.
1984 Notes on some orderliness of overlap onset. In V. D’urso & P. Leonardi (eds.) Discourse Analysis and Natural Rhetorics: 11–38. Cleup Editore. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1987 On exposed and embedded correction in conversation. In G. Button & J.R.E. Lee (eds.) Talk and Social Organization: 86–100. Multilingual. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kelly, J. & J. Local
1989 Doing Phonology. Manchester University Press.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Liberman, M. & I. Sag
1974 Prosodic form and discourse function. Chicago Linguistic Society 10: 416–427.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Local, J.
1996 Conversational phonetics: Some aspects of news receipts in everyday talk. In E. Couper-Kuhlen & M. Selting (eds.): 177–230. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Local, J., J. Kelly & W.H. Wells
1986 Towards a phonology of conversation: turn-taking in Tyneside English. Journal of Linguistics 22: 411–437. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lord, A.B.
1964 The Singer of Tales. Harvard University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ochs, E., E.A. Schegloff, & S.A. Thompson
(eds.) 1996 Interaction and Grammar. Cambridge University Press.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pike, K.L.
1945 The Intonation of American English. University of Michigan Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pomerantz, A.
1984 Agreeing and disagreeing with assessments: some features of preferred/dispreferred turm shapes. In J.M. Atkinson & J. Heritage (eds.): 57–101. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sacks, H., E. Schegloff & G. Jefferson
1974 A simplest systematics for the organization of turn-taking for conversation. Language 50: 696–735.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sag, I. & M. Liberman
1975 The intonational disambiguation of indirect speech acts. Chicago Linguistic Society 11: 487–497.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schegloff, E.A.
1988 Discourse as an interactional achievement II: An exercise in conversation analysis. In D. Tannen (ed.), Linguistics in Context: Connecting observation and understanding: 135–158. Ablex.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1990 On the organization of sequences as a source of “coherence” in talk-in-interaction. In B. Dorval (ed.) Conversational Organization and its Development: 51–77. Ablex. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1996 Turn organization: One intersection of grammar and interaction. In E. Ochs, E.A. Schegloff, & S.A. Thompson (eds.): 52–133.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1998 Reflections on studying prosody in talk-in-interaction. Language and Speech 41: 235–263. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schegloff, E., G. Jefferson & H. Sacks
1977 The preference for self-correction in the organization of repair in conversation. Language 53: 361–382.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schegloff, E.A. & H. Sacks
1984 Opening up closings. In J. Baugh & J. Sherzer (eds.) Language in Use. Readings in sociolinguistics: 69–99. Prentice-Hall.  BoP Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schuetze-Coburn, S., M. Shapley & E.G. Weber
1991 Units of intonation in discourse: A comparison of acoustic and auditory analyses. Language and Speech 34(3): 207–234. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Selting, M.
1996a On the interplay of syntax and prosody in the constitution of turn-constructional units and turns in conversation. Pragmatics 6(3): 357–388.  BoP Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1996b Prosody as an activity-type distinctive cue in conversation: the case of so-called ‘astonished’ questions in repair. In E. Couper-Kuhlen & M. Selting (eds.): 231–270. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Silverstein, M.
1976 Shifters, linguistic categories, and cultural description. In K. Basso & H.A. Selby (eds.) Meaning in Anthropology: 11–55. University of New Mexico Pressniversity of New Mexico Press.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tedlock, D.
1977 Toward an oral poetics. New Literary History 8: 507–519. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Trager, G.L.
1958 Paralanguage: A first approximation. Studies in Linguistics 13(1): 1–12. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Uhmann, S.
1992 On some forms and functions of speech rate changes in everyday conversation. In P. Auer & A.D. Luzio (eds.): 297–336. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wells, B. & S. Macfarlane
1998 Prosody as an interactional resource: Turn-projection and overlap. Language and Speech 41: 265–294. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Woodbury, A.C.
1985 The functions of rhetorical structure: A study of Central Alaskan Yupik Eskimo discourse. Language in Society 14: 153–190. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Yule, G.
1980 Speakers’ topics and major paratones. Lingua 52: 33–47.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
 
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 jbe-platform.quadraat-sans-bold jbe-platform.quadraat-sans-bold-dark jbe-platform.quadraat-sans-bold-light jbe-platform.quadraat-sans-bold prag Twitter_Logo_Blue