Prosody, Philosophy, Mentality and Psychology : British vs. American Suprasegmentals
| Authors | |
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| Year of publication | 2020 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | According to Meier (2010), the main differences between British vs. American prosodic language behavioursare: –Br voice: carries less; Am voice: carries more –Br: tempo generally faster and quieter in volume, Am: tempo generally slower and louder in volume –Br: volume increases during utterance; Am: volume decreases during utterance –Br: fewer items stressed; Am: more items stressed –Br: devotion to consonants; Am: devotion to vowels –Br: wider pitch range; Am: narrower pitch range –Br: pitch used for emphasis; Am: volume used for emphasis. Research questions: Is this really so? If proven, does this utilization of prosody reflect the respective national mentality, philosophy of life and individual speakers’ psychology? How do non-native speakers enter in the game? Do they automatically transfer the prosodic habits of their own mother tongue into speaking English? What are teaching implications? If this conference seeks to break the boundaries, what kind of interdisciplinary study suprasegmental (prosodic) features, spoken British vs.American English, mentalities have to be carried out involving phoneticians, sociolinguists, psycholinguists and psychologists to have all these questions answered? |