Prosodic or Suprasegmental Features

Prosodic or Suprasegmental Features

1. The term comes from poetry referring to the metrical stucture of a verse

2. They are features over and above segmental values as place and manner.

3. They are divided into

   • Length
     • Speech sounds that are identical in their place and manner features may differ in lenght.
       • E.g: Biru (Japanese word) means "Building" but with more length in the "i" as in Biiru means "beer."
         • In effect, the extended silence of the prolongued closured is meaningful in different languages but in English only emphasized it.
   • Pitch
     • which depends on
       • The larynx size and how fast the vocal cords vibrate. the faster they vibrate, the higher the pitch.
         • In children, the vocal cords are short and vibrate faster. In adults, they vibrate slower
   • Stress
     • Easy to recognize, harder to describe.
       • Stressed sound is usually precedes by a very slight pause and is spoken at slightly incredes volume.
         • Context is very important to construct and recognize stress e.g Desert (noun) - Des'ert (verb)
           • Volume is generally used to show emotions. In writing they can be represented by exclamation marks
   • • Intonation
       • It goes in accordance with the function of the words in a sentence. The tone rises or falls depending on the context.
         • For example, the intonation in a question rises at the end in order to highlight the request.
     • Tone
       • It goes in accordance to the speaker's emotions or feelings. It rises or falls depending on the attitude.
         • Tone is part of pragmatic communication.