INTONATION ORGANIZATION OF COMPLIMENT AND FLATTERY SPEECH ACTS IN ENGLISH FILM DISCOURSE

Abstract

The article focuses on intonation characteristics of compliment and flattery speech acts in English-language film discourse. Since the intonation-prosodic arrangement of the discourse is determined by its pragmatic intention, the article dwells on the illocutionary aims of the addressees of compliment and flattery speech acts. The main illocutionary aims of compliment speech act are seen as the intention to please, or encourage the addressee, the intention to release one’s emotions, the intention to express gratitude to the addressee for certain actions of his, and the intention to calm down and encourage the addressee, to save his “face”. The main illocutionary aims perceived by flatterers are the desire to disguise flattery as a sincere praise or compliment; the intention to gain benefit and the intention to force the addressee into taking actions, seen as beneficial for the speaker. The carried out auditory and electroacoustic analyses of the intonation of compliments and flattery enabled the author to identify certain common tendences in terms of melodical contour: both speech acts are characterized by the predominant use of falling nuclear tone and falling tone movement. Compliments are framed with The Descending Stepping Head or The Ascending Head, while flattery is characterized by a greater variability of pre-nuclear patterns than compliments: apart from The Descending Stepping Head, The Ascending Head, The Level Head and The Sliding Head are used. Compliments are also characterized by a high pitch level. The pitch of flattering utterances is more varied: it is qualified as high in half of the phrases, medium or low in the rest of the phrases. The pitch level of compliment phrases is medium in male speech and narrow in female speech. Phrases of flattery are pronounced on a high pitch level. The voice range of flattering phrases is medium, which makes the speaker sound smarmy and wheedling. The loudness of both compliment and flattery is increased, and the pace is slowed down, except for women who utter compliments: they speak faster.