SUPRASEGMENTAL PARAMETERS VIEWED AS THE BASIS OF SPEAKING STYLES CLASSIFICATION

Abstract

The article attempts at defining one of the key concepts in phonetic studies known as speaking style which remains challenging and disputable at present. The paper focuses on the analysis of different approaches to interpret a linguistic value of this concept. The work puts forward grounds to classify speaking styles in the framework of experimental phonetic research. In this view speaking styles are classified into two big groups that reflect universal features of official and colloquial discourse. The proposed set of peaking styles is an attempt to the assays of contemporary phonetic studies into the synergy of stylistics, cognition, speech production and speech perception. The paper highlights the methodology of auditory research undertaken to attain the targets set. The auditory analysis is conducted at three stages involving different groups of interviewees summoned to solve a particular task. The experiment embraces an array of the auditory material that illustrates each substyle under consideration. The validity of the selected audio pieces is proven by perceptual analysis done by the group of native speakers. Besides, each stage of the experiment is grounded and described being illustrated by the examples of different sound segments that represent a particular speech style. The methodology and program of the experiment enable to single out and systemize suprasegmental units characteristic for a particular speech style.