Conversation Analysis and Prosody

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingEntry for encyclopedia/dictionary

Abstract

The term prosodyhas varying definitions across language-related disciplines. In conversation analysis (ca) and its linguistic counterpart, interactional linguistics (Selting & Couper-Kuhlen, 2001), it refers to the “musical” aspects of speech, that is, pitch (intonation and pitch register), loudness, and time (syllable duration, speech rate, rhythm, and pauses); in addition, some writers include voice quality. Another term for prosody that is frequently used in linguistics is suprasegmentals. This term is based on the common linguistic distinction between articulation, which refers to the production of individual sounds or segments, and those areas of speech production that are above the level of individual sounds, that is, suprasegmental.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationThe Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics
PublisherWiley-Blackwell
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2012

Keywords

  • Discourse analysis
  • Pragmatics
  • Prosody

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