ПРОСОДИЧЕСКИЕ МОДЕЛИ ТЕЛЕВИЗИОННЫХ ЖАНРОВ
PROSODIC MODEL OF TELEVISION GENRE

Summary/Abstract: This paper considers television discourse as a variety of genres. In spite of centrality of the visual image in television, this medium uniquely combines visuality with both oral and written varieties of language. Television thus distinguished from print media by its predominantly aural-oral mode of language use. Therefore, it is natural to make emphasis in the envisaged article on the underestimated aspect of television speech – its intonation. The present research was directed at ascertaining of the linguistic status of prosody in the broadcast and describing speech prosodic organization of the genres under study. Theoretically, this article draws on the works of D. Crystal and D. Davy, J. Kenyon, L. Shcherba, scholars who laid basis for a phonological school of styles – phonostyles, and whose important theoretical works were a ground for further detailed examination of phonetic styles of spoken speech. The material for research comprises news reading, comments, interviews of the reporters and correspondents, television journalists and newscasters of the leading Russian television channels RTR, NTV and ORT. The bulk of the experimental analysis constituted the recorded samples of broadcast discourse produced by 30 TV journalists in different genres. The amount of experimental material makes up 10 hours of recorded speech. In view of the aims of the investigation, the experimental material was liable to proven methods of prosodic study: auditive and acoustic analysis. It is expedient to outline the specifics of the television genres by means of the listening analyses of the phoneticians. The valid findings can be gained through the further acoustic analyses undertaken of the recorded sampling, highlighting trustworthy facts. The experimental investigation elicited that prosodic parameters are significant forming means of television genres. It appears that a genre is characterized by a specific combination of the definite prosodic features, which are not typical of the other ones. The melody configuration and its range, loudness, speech tempo, segmentation into short or long intonation groups, sort of pauses, their occurrence and duration, choice of nuclear tones and their location – all these prosodic properties signal genres differences.

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