Article Type : Research Article
Authors : Shahid MA
Keywords : Communication; Intonation; Narrative analysis; Phonology; Qualitative study; Stress
The current study investigated the significance of
paralinguistic features in the dialogue and how masterfully Amir Khan
materialised these elements of intonation in the presentation of the single
phrase ‘acha’ in a prison scene in the Indian Movie PK retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ju6bwyhev94. To elaborate the functions of
intonation to specific the variation of meaning to the listeners, the
qualitative research design was used. The study used Labovian Narrative
Analysis to decide the speaker's tone variation when uttering the phrase
'Acha'. The study discovered that the
presentation of the phrase was once entirely based on the paralinguistic
features of communication that masterfully manifested the attitudinal functions
of intonation, and how elements of intonation display a range of moods of the
identical speaker (e.g. pleasure, displeasure, anger, curiosity). Though Amir
Khan did not utter many sentences displaying paralinguistic features in the
scene, he did perform only one phrase' in the perspective of paralinguistic
features and conveyed the message that professional actors, newscasters, and
speakers' speech can be beneficial for language learners in phonological terms.
Attempted to distinguish between spoken words and the
meanings they convey ('language') and other communicative elements of human
speech, the 'Para-language,' or 'language beside’ [1]. In English phonetics,
the intonation is the musical sample of an utterance which is essentially
counted as variation in the pitch degree of voice however in syllabus-stressed
languages as in English stress and rhythm are additionally attentional. In phonetics, stress is the intensity given
to a syllable of speech by extra effort in utterance, resulting in relative
loudness ((Stress | Linguistics | Britannica, n.d.). The use of extra
respiratory energy during a syllable is defined as stress. A stressed syllable
is created by expelling more air from the lungs in one syllable than in others
[2]. The language via intonation expresses a range of thoughts e.g. pleasure,
displeasure, surprise, anger, curiosity, and wariness. According to Trask [3],
the use of pitch, and perchance of additional prosodic phenomena such as
loudness, tempo, and pauses, throughout utterance is generally longer than a
single phrase to deliver meaning. Intonation is used for a range of purposes:
for marking grammatical boundaries (phrases and clauses), for signalling
sentence kinds (e.g., statements and questions), and for conveying the
speaker's mindset (surprise, irony, anger, etc.) Intonation is a complex topic,
and a wide range of techniques has been adopted with various ranges of success.
Under the attitudinal function, the attitudes of speakers can be expressed
employing searching at the one-of-a-kind voice features and pitch ranges in
their intonation (Intonation | Definition, Examples, & Facts | Britannica).
The distinct intonations used in communication can represent the speaker's
mindset. Listeners who do not understand intonation may struggle to understand
the speaker's intended meaning, leading to miscommunication. In the speech,
intonation describes how the voice rises and falls. In English, there are three
major patterns of intonation: falling intonation, rising intonation, and
fall-rise intonation. Falling intonation refers to how the voice falls on the
final burdened syllable of a phrase or a group of words. In wh-questions,
falling intonation is very common. Rising intonation refers to the way the
voice rises at the end of a sentence. In yes-no questions, rising intonation is
common. The term "fall-rise intonation" refers to how the voice falls
and then rises. We use fall-rise intonation at the end of statements when we
want to say we're not sure or if we have something else to say (Intonation -
English Grammar Today - Cambridge Dictionary). Intonation Literature evaluation
of the problem of pronunciation and intonation amongst non-native newcomers to
English has ended up a growing challenge among teachers and linguists.
Intonation is a linguistically large exchange of voice pitch, i.e. the pitch
change has to be perceptible and underneath the speaker's management.
Intonation refers to an aggregate of acoustic parameters, together with
duration, intensity, and pitch used to speak discourse meaning. It is unique in
tone, and the systematic use of voice pitch to distinguish lexical gadgets [4].
Intonation, the meaningful use of the pitch on a word or phrase, contributes to
the interpretation of discourse meaning, grammatical meaning, and affective
meaning. In discourse, intonation identifies important information for the
listener, shows how different pieces of information relate to each other,
establishes a level of engagement between the speaker and listener, and manages
conversational turns. In common communication functions, intonation reflects
speakers' attitudes and emotions on the keen listeners [5]. The patterns of
pitch trade over an utterance or collection of utterances are referred to as
intonation. Such patterns may be partly personal, but they are also
conventional, and thus, to some extent, systematic. Underhill and Carr [6,7]
describes intonation, as the section of phonology, as the form of pitch
modulation observed in the total utterance. Shuying Advocate that miscues and
misunderstandings manifest usually due to incorrect expression of intonation
[8]. Consequently, instructors play an essential role in elevating students’
consciousness of the features of intonation, mainly in ESL or EFL lecture room
settings. The present is all about the functions of Intonation. Intonation
serves many distinctive functions. Tench discusses the functions of intonation
in the English language, including communicative, attitudinal, informational,
syntactic, and textual functions [9]. The communicative function of intonation
may address the speaker's certainty or hesitancy throughout the communication
process, whereas the informational function of intonation refers to the devices
of information expressed in the discourse. The syntactic function of intonation
refers to the use of tones to distinguish a grammatical category, whereas the
textual function of intonation refers to the use of tone in longer texts, such
as paragraphs above sentence structure. The attitudinal characteristic of
intonation is especially relevant in the language study room because the use of
unique and varied intonation patterns in conveying the same message can reveal
a variety of specific attitudes of the speaker. Cenoz contends that information
on LL signs can also reflect community language practises in the official and
second languages [10]. According to Scollon, [11] evidence in the formation of
signs should indicate whether the languages include symbolic or informative
functions. The purpose of this research is to conduct linguistic analysis and
identify prosodic features in English Indian Movie trailers. Based on their
thorough analysis, the authors conclude that the value of prosodic design grows
because prosodic features provide sound colouring to Indian Movie trailers,
primarily optimising auditory perception and viewers' desire to watch the
Indian Movie [12].
The current study also focuses on the Indian Movie
scene dialogue, which was held in prison between only two characters, Amir Khan
and Anushka Sharma.
According to Townsend [13], "It is no longer what
you say, but how you say it," says an adage. Paralinguistics received the
least attention of the various types of "body language" that are now
claimed to convey up to 75% of the "true" meaning of any communication.
Nonetheless, nonverbal factors of speech, at least in Western European
languages, play an important role in conveying to the listener what is
absolutely on a speaker's mind or what his "reality map" looks like.
Timing, emotional tone/inflection, speech errors, national or regional accent,
the desire for words/sentence structure, verbal "tics," and tonic
accent are all examples of training in paralinguistics or the way we say what
is on our mind. I will discuss each of these paralinguistic training methods,
in turn, providing examples and quoting lookup studies.
Nursyamsu [14] examined the patterns of intonation and
types of information structure that take place in EFL rookies and found
that There were 5 types of intonation
samples used through the speaker: fall, upward jab (final), upward thrust
(non-final), fall-rise (final), fall-rise (non-final); (2) There have been 158
clauses with 25 unbiased clauses and 133 dependent clauses from the
respondent’s performance; (3) There were three structures from information
structure: tonality, tonicity, and tone; (4) In tonality system, S-T with the
percentage 18% used to be the most pattern used by way of the respondent; (5)
Given-New- Given (G-N-G) with the percentage 36% used to be in the main used in
her overall performance primarily based on tonicity system; (6) Incomplete
facts (rise non-final) was once the most dominant intonation pattern used
utilizing the respondent with the percentage 33%.
Khromov [15] concluded that intonation is one of the
most important aspects of language acquisition appropriateness because it is
realised within the framework of announcing standards with a distinct
communicative-pragmatic sense, with modal, expressive, and emotional marks.
This thesis is validated and improved by a variety of normative approaches. In
the procedure of phonetic peculiarities of the language, instructing the
intonation cannot be defined solely by the frequency of the main tone of speech
melody. It is critical to consider the complex personality of intonation
devices to maximise their utility in a speech based on the communicative task.
Furthermore, we must not overlook the use of intonation to categorise distinct
grammar meanings, and, most importantly, for intonation formulation of
utterances in specific communicative situations.
Al-Shamayleh [16] investigates the impact of the use
of multimedia in enhancing the satisfaction of instructing English stress and
intonation to university students who are gaining knowledge of English as a
foreign language and suggests the following recommendations: 1. Multimedia
needs to be delivered as a primary device for educating English stress and
intonation. 2 Further experimentation underneath special stipulations for a
longer period is recommended.
Peng [17] proposed the discovery of his find out about
as the flexibility of English intonation consists of wealthy language data and
the tone change conveys in another way refined meaning. The misuse of
intonation will directly affect the verbal exchange effect. The characteristic
of intonation is much greater abundant and complex than the phenomena listed in
the paper. This paper is simply a part of the normal rule. In phrases of
English phonetics teaching, instructors modify the significance and the
teaching method.
Cristina [18] presented the findings of extensive
research conducted by Francisco Huerta Rendon on eighth-grade college students
of General Basic Education on the treatment of intonation in the oral
expression of the English language. This study was carried out to identify and
quantify the extent to which the difficult reliance has affected the students'
communicative performance. The goal of this task is to determine the impact of
intonation on oral expression by designing an instruction manual for treating
intonation using the potential of short dialogues. This investigation also
enables one to consider oral expression as one of the most important and gist
abilities to boost by way of the human being, so it is well-timed to award the
most important role in the acquisition of any language. For these reasons, it was appropriate to
incorporate bibliographic research into the theoretical framework to achieve an
appropriate development of the related content material. Furthermore, it is
performed to conduct a field search which brings about various types of
research such as descriptive in which the application of some empirical
techniques such as the statement guide, interview, and survey reveals how to
impact the problem scenario within the educational setting. Once the research methods have been
tabulated, analysed, and interpreted, it is reasonable to conclude that the
implementation of a guide for coaching intonation in brief dialogues for stages
A-1 will provide full-size improvements to the learners' English communicative
procedure.
Zulfugarova [19] concludes that one of the most
difficult duties for foreigners to learn is the intonation, i.e. the stress
patterns and melody of English. Stress on words and sentences can be inaccurate
to the point of making the message completely unintelligible. One of the first
language characteristics realized as an infant is the intonation of the native
tongue. Learning pitch patterns as a child is less difficult than learning new
patterns as an adult. However, getting to know intonation will considerably
advantage the non-native speaker’s intelligibility in conversation.
Madzlan [20] highlight the importance of intonation
and its feature for intelligibility in communication, mainly among teachers in
ESL lecture rooms, and suggest that teachers have to grant students with
sufficient exposure to the applicable use of intonation to keep away from
miscommunication. Students must be made aware that correct intonation helps the
right interpretations.
Nigam et al. (2018) ambitions to know the importance
and use of intonation in communicative English or spoken / day-to-day English.
It is a properly regarded fact that, understanding and using the right
intonation patterns in day-to-day communicative English is a difficult and one
of the most challenging tasks for non-native speakers and beginners of English
particularly Indian speakers of English because we have many languages. Even
though they are conscious of theory, policies, and regulations when it comes to
implementation and uses they tend to make mistakes. In general, in most
faculties and colleges, ESL freshmen are rarely ever trained to use the right
patterns of intonation. The trouble is that the majority of the teachers of
English are now not confident in educating intonation as it is difficult. Even
though some of them are confident in instructing segmental facets like
consonants and vowel sounds when it comes to supra-segmental features; phrase
stress, intonation, and rhythm most English teachers dare no longer to try and
teach. The actuality is that the majority of the instructors of English
themselves sense concern in the use of the right intonation patterns on proper
syllable [21] unpack the fundamental mechanisms by using which paralinguistic
facets communicated through the voice can affect evaluative judgments and
persuasion. Special emphasis is positioned on exploring the hastily emerging
literature on vocal elements linked to appraisals of self-assurance (e.g.,
vocal pitch, intonation, speech rate, loudness, etc.), and their subsequent
impact on data processing and meta-cognitive tactics of attitude change. The
main purpose of this evaluation is to advance a grasp of the extraordinary
psychological processes through which paralinguistic markers of self-belief can
affect attitude change, specifying the prerequisites under which they are
greater in all likelihood to operate. In sum, we spotlight the importance of
considering simple mechanisms of mindset exchange to predict when and why
appraisals of paralinguistic markers of self-belief can lead to more or less
persuasion.
To elaborate the functions of intonation to express
the variation of meaning to the listeners, the qualitative research design was
used. As per Jonker [22] the essence of qualitative research is to become aware
of the traits and structure of phenomena and occasions examined in their herbal
context The dialogue was adapted from a scene in the Indian Movie PK uttered by
Amir Khan [23]. The study employed
Labovian Narrative Analysis to ascertain the speaker's paralinguistic features:
stress and intonation when uttering the phrase 'Acha,' with a particular
emphasis on the attitudinal function of intonation. The main points of Labov's
model were first published in an essay titled "The Transformation of
Experience in Narrative Syntax" [24]. These steps are abstract,
orientation, complex action, evaluation, resolution, and coda. He continues by
stating that not all of the elements must apply to all of the texts. In any
case, all of these elements are relevant to the present study.
Abstract
The first step is to grant a quick synopsis of the
scene underneath the study. The scene was Indian Movieed on a prison telephone
with solely two characters, Amir Khan and Anushka Sharma. Anushka Sharma used
to be the listener and Amir Khan was the speaker. Anushka performs as an
information reporter who is looking for exciting new tales for her newspaper in
the Indian Movie. She is looking for Amir Khan, whom she believes would be a
unique character to provide her newspaper with sensational news. Amir Khan is a
tourist from an unknown planet who has come to Earth to do habits research. He
has no know-how of the earth's people's cultural norms. He knows no precise
language to talk with the people, which drives him to do some ridiculous
matters that make him a laughingstock amongst the Earth's inhabitants. Because
of his atypical habits, he has piqued the activity of Anushka, who is curious
about him.
Amir
Khan: What do you think? Is our history
nonsense?
Anushka:
And what if not? What is the language of the medium on your planet?
Amir Khan? Hey, there's no language on our planet. We
simply apprehend the thinking of each other. There is no fusion of any sort in
understanding. Here on your planet, human beings say something and mean
something else. These four meanings of
one word. Shake the head from right to left, its capacity for the whole lot is
fine. Very right Very good. It is better to communicate with huge eyes, which
means a country of shock. When your mother has an accident, the fashion is
distinct with open eyes! Expression of sound in a lengthy and low voice. When
an individual is angry, an equal word is spoken with a specific fashion of
pitch. The voice becomes even greater domineering and loud. Acha! You are
instructing us. And when you assume about it, it is desirable to have a lengthy
face. You have to pay interest to the expressions alongside the word, then
anyone can dare understand this challenging language on your planet. There is
so plenty of confusion, that it took me four hours to examine the complete
Bhojpuri language.
Anushka:
Just give up now. There is additionally a restriction on exaggerating things.
The 2nd step is to set the scene. Because Amir Khan is
an alien with no home on Earth, he intentionally pees on the wall to be
apprehended by way of the police and spends some time in the penal complex as a
refugee. Anushka, who is very involved in him, follows him to the penitentiary
and pays a bribe to the police to attain a right of entry to the prison cell to
speak with Amir Khan. In the cell, she inquired about his whereabouts with
super interest.
The scene's occurrence is the third step. Anushka's
curiosity is piqued when Amir Khan informs her that it has arrived from every
other planet, which astounds her. During the interview, he tells her that he is
aware of nothing about the people's culture or language due to the fact no
language is spoken on his planet. They study each other's minds besides
speaking, and there is no confusion in their understanding. The Earth people's
language is difficult to analyze and recognize due to the fact solely one word
has 4 meanings in the exceptional outlet of facial expression and emotions. He
spent six hours getting to know that ordinary language, Bhojpuri. She was
surprised to hear that nonsense story and was perplexed by what he was saying
confidently. She assumed he was making up stories about learning the entire
Bhojpuri language in six hours by clutching the hand of a prostitute at the
betrothal.
The fourth step reveals the scene's motive or focal
point. During his presentation, he explained how he discovered the language
while clutching the hand of a prostitute in betrothal and how difficult it is.
If he truly wants to convey the message effectively, he emphasises the
speaker's tone and expression; otherwise, the listener will not be able to
recognise the speaker's true meaning. According to him, words alone are
insufficient to convey a message; however, the tone of one's voice can help
listeners understand the true and correct meaning. He says the phrase 'achaa
achaa' in four unique intonation patterns and explains how the meanings of the
unique intonation pattern differ. These strong emotional intonation patterns
appear to express attitudes of pleasure, displeasure, surprise, or anger. When
uttered with expressions, Amir Khan clarified four meanings of a single phrase,
'acha.' He promulgated the thought of [25] who says ‘The rise-fall pattern is
used to express strong feelings of approval, disapproval, or surprise. It is
not usually considered an important tone for foreign learners to learn, but
learning to distinguish it from other tones is still useful practice. This tone
is certainly used in English, but it usually conveys (on single-syllable
utterances) the feeling of saying something routine, uninteresting, or boring.
The easy clockwise and anticlockwise movement of the
head in a friendly environment, when someone says 'acha ha acha ha,' shows that
he is happy and showing his pleasure and agreement, and potentially he wants to
say that everything is fine. A gentle movement of the head indicates approval
of the action. If we consider the phrase 'acha' to be a two-syllable word with
the phonetic transcription | ?.t?p |, Amir Khan's delivery shows a tonic accent
on the first syllable and a falling accent on the second.
When someone says "acha" at the top of his
voice, with surprise and wide-open eyes, he represents a state of shock and
uncertainty. When told that your mother was in an accident, the response will
be ‘Acha!’ with a pursed lip. The rising tone is on the second syllable and the
falling tone is on the first in this pattern.
The phrase 'acha,' when spoken with a tight, lengthy
voice and a tight face, expresses displeasure and complaint. The primary stress
is on the second syllable, while the secondary stress is on the first syllable.
The phrase 'acha' uttered lengthy with a hand on the
chin shows that he is wondering and attempting to show that he is remembering
something. The first syllable in this pattern also has a falling tone, while
the second syllable has a rising tone.
The fifth step, resolution, is the result of the
utterance. Intonation is no longer what you say, but how you say it, under
phonological parameters. It skills that the intonation is extra necessary than
the phrases spoken. Amir Khan promotes the phonology philosophy, which can
beautify and demonstrate the effect of spoken words. He is merchandising the
thinking that the use of the right words with the wrong thoughts can have an advantageous
or ineffective pragmatic effect on the listener. Hence the speaker's effort
will be squandered if the expression of feelings is not in sync with the
phrases of the conversation. He gave a good presentation of the utterance of
the phrase 'acha' in four one-of-a-kind types of intonation with effective
thoughts that can deliver the proper message to the listeners/viewers in the
scene. The intonation in the presentation is so robust that each frequent
scholarly person and frequent human being can apprehend it. Only the phrase
'Achaa', uttered in four different tones of voice, sincerely conveys the
emotions of pleasure, displeasure, anger, and curiosity.
Though Amir Khan did not utter many sentences
displaying paralinguistic features in the scene, he did perform only one
phrase' in the perspective of paralinguistic features and conveyed the message
that professional actors, newscasters, and speakers' speech can be beneficial
for language learners in phonological terms.
The sixth step finalizes the scene's relationship to
the real-life conversation. When dealing with personnel in the workplace,
intonation is crucial. In the workplace, a business enterprise ought to task
authority over its employees. No one can dare to go against the employer if he
speaks with self-belief and a powerful intonation. The identical is actual for
a company's agent who promotes his business enterprise through accurate tone
tactics. He promotes his company's slogans with the wrong emotions; as a
result, he will be unable to deliver the right message to the listeners, which
can be very damaging to his company's reputation. A teacher's intonation is
extraordinarily important when dealing with students from a variety of cultural
backgrounds. Because intonation varies depending on cultural background, a
teacher should be well-versed in intonation to deal with students. The
intonation is extremely vital for a religious scholar who must demonstrate
spiritual settlement and disagreement. He has to counsel and chastise his
followers. Keeping all of this in mind, his intonation is integral in conveying
the proper message at the proper time.
Linguists have different points of view about the
significance of the features of intonation in colloquial communication. Daniel
Jones proposes that the attitudinal characteristic of intonation expresses the
mood and thoughts of a speaker, their attitude to the positive situation, and
also to the listener or some other interlocutor [26] is of view that
intonation, at least, is the outlet of well-mannered emotions [27]. An IELTS
coach says that intonation is essential in spoken English due to the fact it
conveys meaning in many ways. Changing the pitch in your voice, making it
greater or lower, allows you to show surprise (Oh, really!). McMahon, 2003) proposes there is, no doubt,
that intonation is created by a pitch which is the upward push and fall of the
voice. In the scene beneath the study, Amir used the paralinguistic features of
intonation masterfully and manifested that the word solely has semantic value
and the addition of emotion in utterance aggravates the pragmatic aspects which
make clear the means to the listener. Through the presentation of the single
phrase ‘acha acha’ in a range of intonation patterns, Amir Khan clarified that
features of intonation with emotional expression change the meanings of the
words.
The current study investigated the importance of
functions of intonation in the conversation and how Amir Khan materialised
these features of intonation in the presentation of the phrase ‘acha acha’ in a
scene in the Indian Movie PK written by Hirani and Abhijit Joshi and directed
by Rajkumar Hirani. The presentation of the phrase was based totally on the
linguistic aspects of Phonology that masterfully manifested the attitudinal
functions of intonation, and how features of intonation display the various
moods of the same speaker (e.g. pleasure, displeasure, anger, curiosity). The
presentation gave a clear message to the linguistic students that words are now
not adequate to convey the message; the emotional amalgamation and its outlet
will play a very important in conveying a clear and vivid message to the
listeners. The study is delimited to only one character, solely one scene, and
only one phrase. Anyhow, it graphically imparts the function of intonation.
Finding out about is very vital from a speaking point of view that can be
materialised in day-to-day communication. It is very interesting and has an
appeal to linguistic students and lookup scholars. As the canvas of the study
is very small, it can and needs to be enlarged by way of the keen researchers
with the addition of characters, scenes, and phrases. It can also be completed
on comparative measures in a full-length thesis.
The Implication of the Study
English
teachers should pay close attention to intonation patterns so that students can
learn how to convey and receive the correct message through the use of
intonation functions.