The Prosody of a Popular Science Text (based on BBC movies)

INTRODUCTION 2
CHAPTER 1. TAXONOMY OF TEXTS 5
1.1. Approaches to text classification 5
1.2. Phonostylistics. Phonetic styles and pragmatic aims of the speaker 8
1.3 The Variations of Phonetic Styles 9
CHAPTER 2. POPULAR SCIENCE TEXT 11
2.1. Characteristic features of the popular science text 11
2.1.1. Temporal characteristics 15
2.2. BBC films as a unique instance of popular science discourse 16
CHAPTER 3. PRACTICAL PART 21
3.1. The description of the procedure 21
3.1.1. The material for the analysis 21
3.1.2. Methods of the analysis 21
3.1.3. Text properties 22
3.2. The analysis of the temporal component 24
3.2.1 Pausation 24
3.2.2. Rhythmical structure 27
3.3. The analysis of the melody 28
3.4. Non-verbal component and its interaction with prosody 31
CONCLUSION 34
APPENDIX 1. SENSE-GROUPS AND PAUSATION 35
1.1. Age of Conquest 35
1.2. Allergy Planet 38
APPENDIX 2. NON-VERBAL COMPONENT AND PROSODY 41
1.1. Age of Conquest 41
1.2. Allergy Planet 43
BIBLIOGRAPHY 46

1.1. Approaches to text classification

It is quite obvious that the scientists needed to classsify texts they worked with, so some research work has been done. The task appeared to be rather difficult and there is no consensus between the researchers. Hence, there exist several approaches. The major opposition between types of discourse is the opposition by modus – the means of transferring the information.
All humans have five senses: we can see, hear, smell, taste and touch. Yet scientists have not invented the devices which would be able to transfer the information through tactile sensations nor through our ability to smell and taste (the braille, used by the blind people, can be regarded as a side-effect of the problem of adaptation of written speech for the means of successful integration of the disabled people into society). Thus, generally there are two means of transferring the information: through sound (acoustic means) and through image (optical means).
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1.2. Phonostylistics. Phonetic styles and pragmatic aims of the speaker

Speaking about phonetic aspect of the problem, we should remark that phonetic styles are not the same as functional styles. Professor T.V. Medvedeva defines phonetic styles as "different ways of pronunciation determined by extralinguistic factors and characterized by specific phonetic factors". Thus, phonostylistics focuses on the phonetics means restricted to a particular situation or type of context.
T.V. Medvedeva distinguishes the phonetic styles of reading aloud, prepared speaking and spontaneous speaking, each of them further subdividing into an array of varieties (i.e. prepared speaking is presented by lecturing, interviewing, all kinds of discussion, etc.) Other scholars may classify the phonetic styles as informational, academic (scientific), publicistic and conversational, and that is closer to functional styles that we are used to in the terms of literature science.
L.K.
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1.3 The Variations of Phonetic Styles

The variations of phonetic styles are based on the typical speech situations. As far as prepared speech is concerned, there are several factors that distinguish these speech situations:
• The audience
• The setting
• The purpose of speech
Here the setting can determine the degree of formality of the communication; the target audience determines the content, style and the ‘tone’ of speech. According to the purpose set by the speaker texts belonging to different speech styles can be aimed:
• To inspire or to motivate
• To teach
• To impart information
• To explore or to debate ideas
• To entertain
The majority of them, however, may include a combination of several purposes.
As far the spontaneous speech is concerned, it is in most cases a face-to-face interaction between two or several people.
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2.1. Characteristic features of the popular science text

Professor T.V. Medvedeva classifies a popular science text as belonging to a publicistic phonetic style. She compares it with news reading. It would be useful to compare it with lecturing style as well. The main aims of popular science text are:
• to impart information
• to entertain.
To reach them, the popular science text must satisfy the following conditions: it should be informative, science intensive, trustworthy and listener-oriented. Thus, the basic rules for the presenter of such text are as follows: the presenter must (a) catch the audience's attention and interest and (b) keep it till the end of the presentation.
As the popular science text is aimed at educated people (but not professional audience), the information should be audible, all the terms should be explained and thesis illustrated.
To reach the goals mentioned above, the presenters use the methods based on the psychological researches.
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2.1.1. Temporal characteristics
Scientists believe that pausation depends not on the individual psycho- or physiological abilities of the speaker, but on the basic laws of mental process.
M.G. Mirianashvili distinguishes:
• physiological pauses (heterogeneous in length, might be caused by stuttering, breathing problems, groping for the right word expression etc)
• speech pauses (framed by breathing cycle, usually are not noticed by common human being, serves to separate into segments and unite it)
• technical (depend on the rhythm)
• semantic (caused by intonation shift)
O.F. Krivnova thinks that breathing cycle is synchronized with the process of speech production and speaks about thinking-breathing complex. To be energetically efficient, the strategy of text production must be formed on the basis of breathing needs.
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2.2. BBC films as a unique instance of popular science discourse

Referring to the examples of popular science discourse we could recollect the films produced by BBC or the Discovery channel and other companies which are known for their everlasting popularity among the viewers of all ages.
The TV format allows to use audio and graphics simultaneously and that results in a radically new quality of data presentation. The details of it would be further investigated in the practical part of this work, while generally we could only say that this new level provides a deeper interaction between the viewers and the subject in the emotional sphere. Here we could recollect the words of N.I. Mironova who says that ‘A man’s emotional state strongly determines his perception, attention and ideation. It is proved that the people pay attention first to the information which emotional coloring corresponds to their own emotional state’.
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3.1.3. Text properties
The main characteristics of the chosen texts are outlined in the following table.

Tab. 4

Age of Conquest
Allergy Planet
Aim of communication
to entertain, to inform

to inspire further studies
to rise a problem
Formality
less formal
more formal
Degree of spontaneity
prepared speech
Type of script presentation
acting out
reading
Type of interaction with the audience
direct
indirect
Anchorperson in the screen
present
absent
Music used
as an expressive means
as a background

It is obvious that both texts can be classified as belonging to the popular science style.
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3.2.1 Pausation
The classification we adopt in this paper divides pauses into several groups according to their length.
The first group consists of pauses with the length of 100-350ms. They are super-short and perceived within the sense-groups. We call them situational because their function varies depending on the situation.
The second group with the length of 400-1900ms is short pauses that usually appear between sense-groups and between phrases. We call them logical.
The third group of pauses are long (2000ms and more) and we call them rhetorical. In some cases they can be super-long, up to ten seconds, and often filled with music.
In the ‘Age of Conquest’ (AoC) the first group prevails while in the ‘Allergy Planet’ it is the second group:
Fig. 2

In the following table there are some examples the pauses of each group:
Tab.
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3.2.2. Rhythmical structure
In the AoC the presenter appears in the screen for several minutes in the beginning of the each episode to establish direct contact with the audience and to introduce a new topic. Then he disappears to let the camera show the discussed object, and to maintain the contact prosody is used, primarily – rhythm.
The rhythmical structure of the text is arranged as a succession of sense groups that are more or less equal in length (q.v. Appendix 1) and are separated by the pauses of approximately equal length, too. It is also supported by syntactical repetitions (right down to the end, right round at the back; some of them of Aesop fables, some of them of little stories, some nobody knows what they are) and the prosodically marked words (there are approximately 2 marked words per sense-group).
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3.3. The analysis of the melody

As it has been already said, the main cause of the difference between samples lies in the way the texts are presented. In the ‘Allergy Planet’ the script is read, while in ‘Age of Conquest’ the script is acted out by the anchorman and there are elements of spontaneous monologue. The main markers of spontaneous speech are:
• hesitation pauses and pauses that disrupt the syntactic division of the utterance,
• fast tempo,
• emotional coloring of the voice,
• lax articulation.
Reading, in its turn, is usually recognized by slower tempo, absence of hesitation, lowering of the pitch at the end of syntactically unfinished sense-groups. Compare:

Tab.
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3.4. Non-verbal component and its interaction with prosody

As we already mentioned, the presence of the anchorman in the screen creates an opportunity to use multiple non-verbal means of communication that require optical channel. The main problem the filmmakers must solve when creating a popular science TV programme is establishing and maintaining the contact with audience. We have already told how prosody works to reach this goal, now we must speak about the role of the non-verbal means, namely oculesics, facial expressions, kinesics and posture (look §2.2 to revise the detailed descriptions of the terms).
Fig. 4

Average number of eye contacts made is 8.3 per minute. Their functions are establishing a contact (first eye contact in the beginning of each episode) and maintaining it (later eye contacts in the episode, falling into scheme show/describe something – look in the camera – proceed with explanations; looks as if the presenter wants to check how attentive the audience is).
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CONCLUSION

Summarizing the findings, we must say the following:
1) there are phonetic styles of reading aloud, prepared speaking and spontaneous speaking. One of the varieties of the prepared speech is popular science text. It is characterized by pragmatic aims to inform, to entertain, and is less formal and much more expressive than lecturing (academic style).
2) In a form of a TV film popular science text is characterized by the use of different non-verbal means. The script can be read or acted out; in the latter case there is an anchorperson in the screen and it allows using kinesic-prosodic complexes – to establish and maintain audience’s attention, to give prominence to the key words. The former is characterized by the absence of the hesitation pauses, syntax-based division into sense-groups. They are separated primarily by logical pauses in both cases. In the sample that was acted out, the phrases were also separated by logical pauses.
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