Abstract Language is the main tool for human beings to communicate with each other. Daily communication can be achieved through verbal expressions as well as prosodic features, such as stress, intonation, pausing and rhythm. As an important part of language, the application quality of English language prosodic features will directly affect the quality of the speakers’ communication. This paper is focused on detailed analysis of the English language prosodic features, and then, makes a tentative exploration on the role they play during the process of communication from the perspective of pragmatics, aiming at drawing attention of communicators to the prosodic features and making more language users pay attention to it. At the same time, the result of the study will bring about implications for English phonetic teaching. The teaching of phonetics and phonology should make full use of the skill and knowledge of prosodic features.

Key words: prosodic features; pragmatic function; communication; English phonetic teaching 

摘要语言是人类最主要的交流工具，人类日常交流的实现依赖重音、语调、停顿、节奏等语言韵律特征。作为语言的一部分，语言韵律特征运用的好坏将直接影响交际双方对话语的理解。本文细致深入地分析了英语语言的韵律特征，然后从语用角度对其是怎样在话语交际过程中起作用做了一个尝试性探索，希望能够引起交际双方对语言的韵律特征的重视，使更多的语言使用者意识到韵律特征在英语交流中的作用。研究的结果也为今后的英语语音教学提供了启示，语音教学要更加广泛深入地融入与韵律特征有关的语音学和音系学的知识。 61645

毕业论文关键词：韵律特征；语用功能；交际；英语语音教学

Contents

1. Introduction 1

2. The Basic Rules of Prosodic Features 2

2.1 Stress 2

2.2 Tone and Intonation 3

2.3 The Rhythm and Rhythm Group 6

3. Pragmatic Functions 7

3.1 The Introduction of Pragmatics 7

3.2 Basic Pragmatic Functions 8

4. Case Analysis 9

4.1 Informational Function Realized by Stress 9

4.2 Informational Function Realized by Tone and Intonation 9

4.3 Directive Function of Rhythm 10

4.4 Phatic Function Realized by Tone and Intonation 10

4.5 An Example of An Advertisement 10

5. Implications in English Phonetic Teaching 12

5.1 Actual Analysis on Secondary School Phonetic Teaching in China 13

5.2 Integrating Prosodic Features into Phonetic Teaching 13

6. Conclusion 14

Works Cited 16

 1. Introduction 

 Speech is the shell material of the language，which is concerned by two branches of the linguistics, one is phonetics and the other is phonology, and it is the medium to communicate. As we all know, communication does not only just mean verbal expressions but also mean vocals, which will provide a basis for the study of human voice in prosodic features. The study which is from the perspective of the social function forms the concept of phoneme. According to “Researching Language from Multiple Perspective”, phoneme is the basic unit of voice system, which has the function of distinguishing. It is composed of the function of forming and distinguishing. (Wang DeChun.2002:474) In the language, phonology is not the only phonological unit that can distinguish meanings and transmit information. People also use the prosodic features of language to distinguish meanings, express feelings and emotions and transmit information in the process of verbal communication. That is to say, prosodic features have the role of pragmatic function and they are helpful to form the contextual clue of discourse in certain situation. 文献综述