The Style and Timbre of English Speech and Literature PDF
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The Style and Timbre of English Speech and Literature This page intentionally left blank The Style and Timbre of English Speech and Literature Marklen E. Konurbaev Professor of Philology, Moscow State University, Russia © Marklen E. Konurbaev 2016 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2016 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-57827-6 ISBN 978-1-137-51948-1 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9781137519481 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Konurbaev, Marklen E., 1964– The style and timbre of English speech and literature / Marklen E. Konurbaev, Moscow State University, Russia. pages cm Includes bibliographical references. 1. Language and languages in literature. 2. Speech acts (Linguistics) in literature. 3. English language—Style. 4. Language and culture. I. Title. PN56.L27K66 2015 809—dc23 2015013973 Typeset by MPS Limited, Chennai, India. For my Teacher, my Wife, and my Mother This page intentionally left blank Contents List of Figures and Tables viii Preface ix Acknowledgements xii Introduction 1 1 Prolegomena to Stylistic Timbrology: Automation vs Foregrounding 9 2 Neutrality in Language vs Neutrality in Speech 67 3 Classification of Contexts by Types of Stylistic Background 76 4 A Glimpse of the Brain: The Mechanism of Mental Audition 91 5 Inner and Outer Speech: A Parametric Match 107 6 Individual Author’s Style: The Way to Hear Timbre 117 7 The Style and Timbre of Everyday Speech 140 8 The Style and Timbre of Official Documents 155 9 The Timbre of Journalism 159 10 The Voices in Fiction 173 Conclusion 187 Bibliography 189 Index 197 vii List of Figures and Tables Figures 4.1 Brain functionality map 100 4.2 Structure of voice registers 104 7.1 Map of attitudinal strings of timbre 148 Tables 5.1 Intonation contours optimisation model: simple mode 111 5.2 Intonation contours optimisation model: complex mode 113 viii Preface This book has been written to encourage and inspire university teachers to promote a better understanding of ‘how writers write’ by instructing their students to grasp an auditory impression of the text and its mes- sage in the course of silent reading. Living human speech is unthink- able without voice and timbre that are part and parcel of the process of understanding. Why do we silently agree then to a proposition that silent reading of a page without consideration of the way it actually (or potentially) sounds is the only possible way to understand it? Every author leaves his or her distinctive oral mark in the text for the reader to discover, enjoy and comprehend. Arguably, these marks bear the greater part of the author’s attitude to what is being written or said. In fact, we are always in search of them when we try to perceive what the author is up to. It is only when these oral traces are reunited by the intellec- tual force of an intelligent reader into an impression of the author’s expressive stance, then do the grounds appear for its adequate human perception. Otherwise it remains merely an assumption that can be eas- ily debunked by asking a person to read a fragment of the text aloud and then provide a commentary on what had been actually read. The exercise is often difficult and chastening for both teacher and student. Confusion of the text’s logical and conceptual analysis with consid- eration of its holistic ontology is one of the most typical deficiencies of the way in which literature is often presented to students. Indeed, we understand the whole since the author wants usto understand the whole. This presupposes the analysis of how the elements of speech form recognizable holistic images as it were in flesh and blood, where the basic meaning of words is accompanied by contextual connotations. Eventually, these form a new reality of perception that is perceived by the reader through intellectual effort based on his or her cultural and social experience and the potential of the deeper semantic insight. Such mental images are formed as a synergy of the linguistic, cultural and rhetorical elements in speech, being supported by what the reader or listener considers to be of importance and makes prominent in the course of reading. “Above all, listen to the implied sound message of the text in your mind’s ear”, instructed her students the late Professor Olga Akhmanova (1986) at Moscow University when teaching them elementary reading ix
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