Russian Intonation Research Articles

Анализ влияния просодических единиц и интонационных моделей персидского языка у иранских студентов на выражение ИК-7 в русском языке

Iranian students of Russian often experience problems with phonetics and pronunciation that hinder their listening comprehension. Pronunciation mistakes and native-language interference are the main problems Iranian students have to face while studying Russian. No textbooks in Iran introduce a comparative analysis of Russian and Persian phonetic systems. This research was an attempt to compare the intonation systems of both languages in order to help Iranian students to master Intonation Pattern No.7 and develop their communication skills in the Russian language. Oral speech of 17 Iranian students was processed phonetically and acoustically using PRAAT 6.2.10. This program used pitch and intensity filters to analyze Russian Intonation Pattern No. 7 and visualize speech sounds as graphs. Intonation is a set of prosodic means that segments and structures speech flow in accordance with the message intended. In both languages, intonation patterns convey meaning and express emotions. In this study, native intonation pool prevented the Iranian students from imitating Russian Intonation Pattern No. 7. This comparative acoustic analysis of Russian and Persian intonation systems will help Iranian students to prevent phonetic, rhythmic, and intonation errors in Russian. The results can be used by students, second-language teachers, speech therapists, and communication specialists.

Studying the Structure of the Sound of Russian Speech by Chinese and Ghanaian Students in a Digital Format: a Linguodidactic Aspect

The purpose of the research is to study the peculiarities of the structure of the sound of Russian speech by Chinese and Ghanaian students at different levels of study, based on experimental phonetic programs. The subject of the study is the intonational structure of the main communicative intentions: greeting, address, completion, incompletion, a question without an interrogative word, a question with the Russian conjunction «а» (“and”), a positive evaluation and surprise. The study contributes to the creation of an ethno-oriented methodology for teaching Russian intonation. The scientific novelty is in the analysis of the sound of the Russian speech of foreign students at the syntagma level in comparison with that of a native Russian speaker using the Praat and Lingvodoc programs. The results of the study consist in the visual representation of the peculiarities of the structure of the main communicative intentions in the Russian speech of Chinese and Ghanaians to predict and correct errors at the level of intonation.

The phonetic realization of Russian pitch accents in contrastive questions and enumeration contexts

This paper presents the results of a phonetic experiment that compares the acoustic features of rising pitch configurations used in contrastive questions and on non-last elements of a list in enumeration contexts in Russian. 23 native Russian speakers were instructed to read aloud pairs of stimuli with similar segmental structure embedded in larger texts. Significant differences were found between the two syntactic context conditions. In enumeration contexts, both local minima and maxima associated with the prominent syllable had a significantly earlier and more stable alignment, and the slope of the rise between the tonal targets was steeper. In addition, the effect of the speech rate on these acoustic features was tested. The effects of fast and slow reading turned out to be asymmetric. In line with the segmental anchoring hypothesis, no significant effect of fast speech rate on alignment and pitch range was found; only the effect on slope was significant. Conversely, while reading the texts intentionally slowly the participants consistently used melodies with later alignment of local minima and maxima and larger pitch range. On the one hand, these data can be indicative of the interchangeability of stylistically marked pitch accent postulated for the incompleteness contexts in traditional descriptions of Russian intonation. On the other hand, this interpretation cannot account for the fact that the rightward shift in alignment in slow tempo was also found in the contrastive question condition.

Linguodidactic framework of teaching russian intonation to a multinational audience in light of experimental data

The article deals with the linguodidactic framework of teaching Russian intonation to foreign students, in particular, the intonation of the general question which presents the most difficulty for students of different nationalities. The authors analyze an experiment aimed at identifying the difficulties in intoning the general question for speakers of tone and non-tone languages. During the experiment, the authors identify universal (core) intonational characteristics that manifest regardless of nation-specific (idiomatic) language features. Such features include not only the set of secondary melodic traits but also indicators of intensity and duration as well as formant features of nuclear syllables.

Teaching Russian Interrogative Intonation to Foreign Students

The article deals with teaching Russian intonation of interrogative sentences to foreign students. Mastering this complex aspect of the Russian language causes great difficulties, and Russian intonation is not studied at the origin countries of foreign students. That is why we propose to study interrogative intonation based on variable rows developed by E.A. Bryzgunova. The rows enable students to improve the intonation structure of interrogative sentences, as well as their communication skills.

Entonación de la oración declarativa rusa: metodología para enseñar a estudiantes extranjeros

The article deals with teaching Russian intonation of declarative sentences to foreign students. The emphasis is placed on the way teaching materials are presented. In particular, the variable rows for intonation patterns in declarative sentences have been developed, as well as the teaching of syntagmatic segmentation and intonation patterns in complex utterances. This method of working with foreigners is efficient for teaching foreign students the Russian declarative intonation which manifests in verbal communication and reading.

Intonation of spoken discourse: russian intonation corpus rinco (RINCO)

Intonation of spoken discourse: russian intonation corpus rinco (RINCO)

Why and How to Teach Intonation Speech Design to Fifth Graders?

The purpose of the author is to attract the attention of her colleagues to the problem of the loss of the diversity of intonation skills and abilities by modern children as compared to those possessed by the previous generations of Russian speakers, and to propose measures for improving the performance of intonation training. The article presents the conclusions made in the course of summarizing the results of several experimental studies on the use of the Russian intonation by children, on its comparison with their awareness of the English intonation and on teaching intonation design of utterances in Russian to fifth-graders.

ДИФФЕРЕНЦИРОВАННЫЙ ПОДХОД К ИЗУЧЕНИЮ ЭМОТИВНОЙ ФУНКЦИИ ИНТОНАЦИИ

The current paper has several aims: on the one hand, it is meant to determine the principles for selecting language material for experimental phonetic research of prosodic means to express emotions, on the other hand it applies the results of this study (i) to determine the place of emotive intonation patterns in the Russian intonation system, (ii) to provide enough ground for identifying 3 aspects of emotive function of intonation: communicative-emotive, emotive-differentiating and form-building. I argue that, first, the focus of the corresponding phonetic studies should be emotive utterances that present a separate utterance communicative type but not emotionally colored statements, interrogative or imperative sentences, and second, that there are definite principles to differentiate between them. The paper provides a detailed description of the experimental material used in this study of emotive utterances intonation including 134 text samples containing emotive utterances of 18 structural types pronounced by 11 native Russian speakers...

Телеутская, хакасская и русская интонационные системы: сравнительно-сопоставительный анализ

Телеутская, хакасская и русская интонационные системы: сравнительно-сопоставительный анализ

Well-Formedness Tunes of Russian Intonational Phrase

An intonational phrase in the Russian language often shows a different intonation tone in phonetic realization, despite having the same syntax structure and phonological structure. This paper examines the types of well-formedness tunes of an intonational phrase, which is a basic block of Russian intonation. The well-formedness tunes in an intonational phrase refers to a chain of two large phonological events, that is, a composition of pitch accent and binary tone. Pitch accent can make not only single tones, but also dual tones possible, as it can appear differently in tones as well as in the quality of controlling alignment with texts. The key question of this paper is how to use the explanation on intonational phrases described by the intonational phonology when applying to a specific Russian language and how the types of intonational phrase that are appropriate for the explanation of Russian intonation are composed. For classification of well-formedness tunes, this paper considered potential variables that determine the types of intonation and analyzed locution data by using the Praat program.

The Backyard of EFL Teaching: Issues Behind L1 Prosodic Interference in Russian English

Modern EFL teaching in Russia pays much attention to variations in the cultural schemata represented by students’ L1 and the target language, as well as behavioral patterns of their speakers. However, teaching practitioners scarcely address certain issues of Russian L1 prosodic interference that cause attitudinal confusion on the part of native English speakers. The study explores the wrong pragmatic effects created in English due to the transfer of Russian intonation contours and the reasons behind the failure of Russian EFL teachers to address the issue. Specifically, it investigates English speakers’ negative perceptions of Russian L1 intonation and examines Russian teachers’ practices and beliefs with regard to the place of intonation in a language classroom. The paper draws on findings from recent studies on effects of Russian L1 prosodic features in English and the results obtained from a survey conducted by the author among 29 Russian EFL teachers. The paper argues that whereas L1 intonation interference seriously affects learners’ cultural image, its role in EFL teaching is significantly undervalued as compared to that of grammar and vocabulary. It concludes by suggesting practical ways to facilitate intonation teaching in a Russian EFL classroom.

A Study on the Interpretation of Russian Intonation

A Study on the Interpretation of Russian Intonation

Russian intonation and the melody lines in Mussorgsky's song cycle, "The Nursery," with special reference to his earlier and later songs

Russian intonation and the melody lines in Mussorgsky's song cycle, "The Nursery," with special reference to his earlier and later songs

The Effect of Pitch Peak Alignment on Sentence Type Identification in Russian

This paper reports the results of an experimental phonetic study examining pitch peak alignment in production and perception of three-syllable one-word sentences with phonetic rising-falling pitch movement by speakers of Russian. The first part of the study (Experiment 1) utilizes 22 one-word three-syllable utterances read by five female speakers of Russian as a declarative, an exclamation, and an interrogative. Significant differences in the alignment of pitch peak across declaratives and exclamations on the one hand and interrogatives on the other hand are observed. The second experiment tests whether these pitch peak alignment differences are employed in speech perception. Experiment 2 is performed with a series of resynthesized three-syllable stimuli which differ by 14 locations of the pitch peak, two segmental bases used for resynthesis (declarative and interrogative) and two heights of the pitch peak (270 and 320Hz). The results of the experiment demonstrate that a shift in pitch peak alignment strongly affects listeners' perception of sentence type. The effects of pitch height and segmental base are also significant. Implications for Russian intonation system are discussed.

Dutch Contributions to the Thirteenth International Congress of Slavists, Ljubljana August 15-21, 2003: Linguistics by J. s> Schaeken P. Houtzagers J. Kalsbeek (review)

938 SEER, 82, 4, 2004 Schaeken, J., Houtzagers, P. and Kalsbeek,J. (eds). DutchContributions tothe 7hirteenth International Congress of Slavists,Ljubljana AugustI5-2I, 2003: Linguistics.Studies in Slavic and General Linguistics, 30. Rodopi, AmsterdamandNew York,2003. Tables.Notes. Bibliographies. i oo.0oo: $I I9.00. THIs book contains thirteen papers on a wide-ranging list of topics. The collection is not entirely representativeof Dutch Slavic studies, in that there are no representatives of formal ('generative') theoretical linguistics, but nevertheless one gets an impression of a small but very lively and active community of Slavic linguists and philologists, centred mainly at the universities of Amsterdam and Leiden. Only three papers are in Slavic languages (twoin Russian, one in Polish).Apartfrom two Germanpapersand one Frenchthe rest are in English, an indication that English of necessityhas become the lingua francafor Slavistics. Andreas Nievergelt and Jos Schaeken describe what may be the earliest Slavic written record (the word hreho,'sin', scratched onto an early ninthcentury manuscript).William Veder discusses a putatively eleventh-century textual compilation claiming religious and hence political authority over all the Slavs for the princedom of Rus'. He argues that the text must have been authorized by Jaroslav the Wise. Rick Derksen discussesthe PIE origins and the development of initial *ji/ju. FrederikKortlandt is represented by two contributions.The firstis a surveyof dialect diversityin the earliestforms of South Slavic (mainly on the basis of sound patterns),but including a potted history of Common Slavic. The second is effectively a referee's report on a paper by MorrisHalle on Slavic accentuationpublishedin Lingua in 200 I, in which Kortlandt argues that the paper should have been rejected. Pepijn Hendriks provides a note on Stang's Law and the Moscow School of Accentology. He warns the reader that his paper will be incomprehensibleto anyone not conversantwith the work of the Moscow School, and he is right. Willem Vermeer's contribution on the progressivepalatalization is a kind of biographical history of the debate, complete with a genuine biographical appendix in which the 'bad guys' and the 'good guys' are singled out in very clear terms.Veryentertaining. The otherpapersdealwith synchroniclinguistics.CorneliaKeijsper'spaper is called 'Notes on intonation and voice in Modern Russian'. 'Voice' here means passives, middles, reflexives, impersonals and so on, and she makes intriguing observations about these constructions. Intonation means something like 'phrasal accent', it seems, though I had difficultyfollowing those sections. Now, argument structureand intonation/accent are indeed linked but the five completely differenttopics in this paper are not. Most peculiar. Anna Peeters-Podgaevskajauses Cognitive Grammar to argue that Russian 'v' is used for locations that can be thought of as containers and 'na' for locations that are like flat surfaces. Although there are some interesting, somewhat hidden, observations about very specific covert lexico-semantic categories, the reasoning seems completely circular where exceptions and borderline cases are concerned. This is the sort of paper that gets Cognitive Grammara bad name amongst theoreticians.Andries Bruenis'scontribution REVIEWS 939 is the longest of the book (62 pages). It is a stream of consciousness diatribe about how Slavists have got Slavic aspect wrong because we don't admit categories such as the frequentative. The paper has no discernible sections, leave alone section headings and as far as I can see is a melange of interesting insight,glaringabsurdityand off-the-wallinvention. The remaining papers I found somewhat more instructive and satisfying. Adrian Barentsen provides a detailed survey of constructionswe can loosely label 'iSt person imperative' in Russian. Wim Honselaar argues for a novel discourse function of 'resumptive'for Russian es'c'e used as a conversational particle. Cecilia Ode presents not a researcharticlebut an advertisementfor an interestingproject aimed at providing a transcriptionsystem for Russian intonation (ToRi) based on the ToBi system pioneered for English by Mary Beckman and colleagues. I very much look forwardto seeing the fruitsof this work. Han Steenwijkprovides a subtle, semantically oriented analysis of the Lower Sorbian supine with verbs of motion (or in semantically related constructions), while Hanna Toby traces the development of the use of the preposition odin Cassubian(Kaszubszczyznia)as a German calque, carefully covering allthe anglesby systematicallyexcluding any cases thatmightbe due to internaldevelopment. Overall, this is a very mixed volume...

Dictionary of Literary Biography. Volume 285: Russian Writers since 1980 by M. Balina M. Lipovetsky (review)

REVIEWS 939 is the longest of the book (62 pages). It is a stream of consciousness diatribe about how Slavists have got Slavic aspect wrong because we don't admit categories such as the frequentative. The paper has no discernible sections, leave alone section headings and as far as I can see is a melange of interesting insight,glaringabsurdityand off-the-wallinvention. The remaining papers I found somewhat more instructive and satisfying. Adrian Barentsen provides a detailed survey of constructionswe can loosely label 'iSt person imperative' in Russian. Wim Honselaar argues for a novel discourse function of 'resumptive'for Russian es'c'e used as a conversational particle. Cecilia Ode presents not a researcharticlebut an advertisementfor an interestingproject aimed at providing a transcriptionsystem for Russian intonation (ToRi) based on the ToBi system pioneered for English by Mary Beckman and colleagues. I very much look forwardto seeing the fruitsof this work. Han Steenwijkprovides a subtle, semantically oriented analysis of the Lower Sorbian supine with verbs of motion (or in semantically related constructions), while Hanna Toby traces the development of the use of the preposition odin Cassubian(Kaszubszczyznia)as a German calque, carefully covering allthe anglesby systematicallyexcluding any cases thatmightbe due to internaldevelopment. Overall, this is a very mixed volume. Some of the papers are well-written and carefully researched. Some definitely do not conform to the scholarly standardsof presentationthat I am used to. However, Slavistsin variousfields will find in this volume articles that are sometimes entertaining, sometimes thought-provokingand sometimes informative. Department ofLanguage andLinguistics ANDREW SPENCER University ofEssex Balina, M. and Lipovetsky,M. (eds).Dictiona?y ofLiteragy Biography. Volume 285: RussianWriters SinceI980. A BruccoliClarkLaymanBook. Gale, Detroit, MI, 2004. xxvii + 456 pp. Illustrations. Notes. References. Further reading. Cumulativeindex. $205.00. INTERVIEWED in January 2004, ProfessorMark Lipovetskyexpressed a twofold wish: for a Russian-based project similar to the American Dictionary of Literary Biography and, given the appearance of many new names in Russian writing over the last decade, for a I990S volume in the existing series, with schoolteachers and university professors, undergraduates and high-school studentsas the targetreadership.Both theseprojectsareproblematic, the first for the usualfinancialreasons,the second because such an undertakingwould in many respects go out of date even between submission of the text and publication. Russian literature entered the Dictionary (firstvolume 1978) at a late stage (I 995), with three of the sevenvolumes on thissubjectappearingin thepresent century. Like those of their non-Russian predecessors, the titles indicate periods or genres but, apart from a short introduction, are given over to entries on individual authors. At present the priority for commissioning has clearly been to give initial coverage of the canon: Early Modern writers; 940 SEER, 82, 4, 2004 literaturein the age of Pushkinand Gogol';Realism;Tolstoi and Dostoevskii; prose between the World Wars. There is, happily, the promise of more to come the SilverAge is an obviouscandidate.The decisionto tackleRussian literaturefrom I980, a date not of the editors' choosing, is an earnest of the publisher's desire to keep abreast of the latest in world literature.Although most Dictionay subjects are the safely dead of North American and West European literature, the roll-call of those alive and writing is sometimes achingly trendy British participants include Philip Hensher, Joanna Trollope, Marina Warner,Tom Paulin,James Kirkup.With them, as would be the case with the subjectsof Lipovetsky'shypothetical I990S volume and is the case with No. 285, the problem of inbuilt obsolescence rears its head, offeringhostagesto fortunein the obituary-styleevaluation of authors'overall achievement, speculation about the direction in which they are headed, and pronouncements on their work by the writersthemselves (mutabilityincarnate ). Inevitable reassessmentwill all too soon invalidate a certain amount of the commentaryelement in the entries. Nonetheless, this publication is all the more welcome for its being the first in the field to have attempted to take stockof the present situationin Russian literature, in English, with such a wide range of contributors. As befits a dictionary,it is the factualmatterwhich is of paramountimportanceand here the contributorshave acquittedthemselves splendidly.Biographicalinformation , fullerthan in many othersources,is not limited to providingbackground to the texts, althoughthe inclusionof detailssuchas names of writers'children might be thought over-meticulous. Movements, circles, influences are helpfullyinvokedas aidsto understandingan author...

The Emotive Impact of Foreign Intonation: An Experiment in Switching English and Russian Intonation

This study explores subjects' responses in terms of emotion and attitude to native and foreign intonation patterns across four major sentence types. The goal of the experiment was to ascertain whether there would be a significant change in the judgment of a selection of ten emotions and attitudes with a change of intonation, while keeping other phonetic factors constant. Two languages and two groups of native speakers, English and Russian, were chosen for the experiments. The pattern of interactions from the analyses of variance for each of the ten measures indicates that English and Russian speaking subjects show a similar tripartite grouping of nine of the emotions/attitudes into Positive, Negative, and Passive types. One variable, namely SURPRISED, exhibits a different pattern of means between the two language groups. Within each emotion/attitude, sentence types are differentially rated for each level of intonation condition (native or foreign) in both Russian and English experiments. In general, English speakers are found to be more sensitive to foreign intonation. The most significant difference between intonations is recorded by English speakers' judgments of the Negative emotions/attitudes, with Russian intonation consistently rated as more Negative.

American Intonational Interference in Emigre Russian: A Comparative Analysis of Elicited Speech Samples

unconscious Americanization. Visitors from the former Soviet Union often comment on this strange intonation, even in the speech of emigre purists who studiously avoid the many lexical Anglicisms used by most of their peers. Emigres who return to visit family also report that their relatives usually remark on changes in intonation before noting other linguistic oddities, even if they are unable to identify the exact nature of these changes. In a recent article on emigre Russian, Lynn Visson (1989:185-6) attests to the particular susceptibility of intonation to interference phenomena, noting that the constant reinforcement necessary to maintain it is lacking in the non-native environment. Visson asserts that the emigre loses the sharply rising and falling cadences of Soviet Russian, but she does not attempt to identify the various intonation constructions affected or to specify with what they are replaced.' In this article it is my intention, on the basis of recorded data, to isolate the Russian intonation constructions most subject to American interference and to demonstrate the particular nature of each such instance.

Russian intonation: A perceptual description

Russian intonation: A perceptual description