Page 213 - Communication Processes Volume 3 Communication Culture and Confrontation
P. 213
188 Bel et al.
Figure 6.2
Melodic Transcription of ‘On a simplifié, et maintenant
elle s’appelle la rue Hiskovitch …’
Source: Developed by G. Caelen-Haumont.
Figure 6.3
Melodic Transcription of ‘… avec un “h” au début’
Source: Developed by G. Caelen-Haumont.
pitch on the final syllable of ‘simplifié’ (simplified) was expected.
However, the actual augmentation of pitch (120 Hz) is significantly
higher, a deviation that is interpreted as an ironical tone. In contrast,
‘Hiskovitch’ is pronounced ‘flat’ in spite of its syntactic border position
and the amount of information that is conveyed by its strangeness and
usefulness to the listener, all concurring to predict a higher pitch on
the first syllable.
In the second part of the sentence (see Figure 6.3), ‘with a “h” in
the beginning’, the ironical tone is rendered by putting an emphasis
on meta-linguistic information—the proper spelling of ‘Hiskovitch’
(phonetically ‘hache’, ‘h’). The pitch rise is even larger (222 Hz) and
the break is accentuated by a pause before the remaining part of the
sentence ‘au début’ (in the beginning).
