intonation speech pronunciation pause
A pause (Latin pausa, from the Greek pausis - “cessation, stop”) is a temporary stop in sound, during which the speech organs do not articulate and which breaks the flow of speech. But silence can also be expressive and meaningful. There is even such a science - pauseology. The first pauseologist in the USA, prof. O'Connor believes that pauses can say no less about a person than words, and that in a conversation they take up 40-50 percent of the time.
It is no coincidence that, speaking about the opening of the Moscow Art Theater, about the first performance, about how the actors played and how the audience received them, Nemirovich-Danchenko also writes about... pauses: the pauses are not empty, but filled with the breath of this life and this evening; pauses in which unspoken feelings were expressed, hints of character, halftones. This means that pauses convey the speaker’s mood, his emotions, and help reveal his character. But pauses are still not words. They are just hints, halftones. You have to guess about the meaning of pauses, you have to be able to understand and grasp their meaning.
A subtle connoisseur of stage art, well aware of the possibilities of the living, spoken word with its variety of intonations and pauses, Nemirovich-Danchenko understood that there are different pauses. He wrote: the pauses are not empty, but filled.
What did Vladimir Ivanovich mean by contrasting empty pauses with filled ones? Which pauses did he consider empty? In a letter to K.S. We read to Stanislavsky: “First of all, the role is to know how to say “Our Father”, and to develop fluent speech, not riddled with pauses, fluent and easy. So that the words flow from your lips easily, without tension.” This, it turns out, is the reason for the appearance of empty pauses in stage speech. This is poor knowledge of the text of the role, when the actor constantly thinks about what should be said next.
Empty pauses occur not only on stage, but also in everyday life. The student did not learn his lesson, but he was called to answer. He stands at the board and toils. He will say a few words and, pause, wait for a hint. There are other situations. There are people who are very limited, their intellect is poorly developed, they have read almost nothing, they know little. When they enter into a conversation, their speech is “speckled” with pauses that mean nothing and do not carry any information. Such pauses do not create comfort during communication; they drag out the conversation, and even irritate some interlocutors.
Someone might object: “But when a person speaks, he must think about what and how to say. This takes time, so he pauses. Is this bad?
Of course not! Pauses of hesitation, i.e. pauses of thinking, reflection, should not be confused with an empty pause generated by the absence of thought. Most often, pauses of hesitation are found in the speech of people discussing political, social, scientific problems, when the speakers have not yet formed a final opinion on the topic under discussion. problem, they look for a solution to the issue, think about it out loud. Pauses help speakers formulate their thoughts into sentences and find the best, most accurate and clear form of presentation. Pauses of reflection occur at any point in the utterance and reflect hesitation in the choice of possible speech means. They can be replaced by combinations of words: perhaps, it would be more accurate to say, it would be better to formulate this way, it would be more correct..., no, that’s not how it should be said. After these reservations, a new formulation of the thought is given. Pauses of hesitation are appropriate and necessary.
However, of greater interest to speakers and researchers of spoken speech are the pauses that accompany emotional speech.
A pause can also be called expressive-emotional - a reaction to the performance of a work of art. This can be a play, singing, art reading, ballet, orchestra playing, or a musician performing. Such a pause expresses the emotion of not just one person, but of many spectators and listeners and indicates the highest degree of their passion. Such a pause is the highest reward for performers, masters of the stage.
There are other types of pauses. In order for speech to be clear and understandable, before memorizing the test or pronouncing it out loud, it is necessary to put the words in order and correctly combine them into groups, that is, into speech beats. Then it will be clear which word refers to which, how they are combined, and from which segments phrases are made.
Pause has many useful functions:
- to attract attention and maintain discipline
- to emphasize the importance of a phrase or statement
- time for students to think about and absorb difficult material
- m between parts of the report.
- indicator of self-confidence
- like the style and image of the speaker
- period after speech
- an important element of meaningful speech
He who cannot be silent is incapable of speaking.
(popular wisdom)
Why are pauses needed?
Pause to get attention
A pause is made at the beginning of a speech in order to make sure that it is carried out. Periodically, during the report, you can take short pauses to make sure that you are being listened to.
Pause to emphasize the importance of information
A pause is usually made after important or significant phrases. And at this moment, the last words of the speaker are heard in the listeners’ heads. You can pause before important information, focusing your attention on it. For example: “Now you will hear my personal opinion...”. After this there is a pause. And even those who did not listen will pay attention to the following statement.
Pause – time to rest and think
Think for both the speaker and the listener. Constantly speaking and constantly listening is hard work, and you need to set aside short periods of time to rest or digest what you have already heard. If you don’t take care of this, your listeners will get tired and stop understanding you. It is better to intersperse information that is difficult to perceive with pauses after each phrase.
Pause after finishing speech
And it would be ungrateful of you not to accept them. In addition, it will be good if you thank the listener for this applause.
Therefore, do not forget to pause between the end of your speech and your departure.
Even if there is no applause, you will see and feel the audience's reaction to your speech.
Meaningful speech
It is difficult to follow your speech without pausing. Very difficult. And those speakers who do not pause cannot, do not have time to follow their speech.
Speakers who master the pause can watch every word they say. Their speech becomes meaningful.
This is not a complete list of the benefits of a pause. It’s also useful to remember how pauses help in negotiations, presentations, debates, when answering questions...
It's not only useful to know where and how to use pauses, it's useful to use them in your speech! 🙂
It is not enough to know about pauses. Pauses need to be honed in practical exercises! Otherwise, instead of pauses there will be sounds: “Uh-uh, mmmm...”
PAUSES IN NORMAL SPEECH AND WHEN STUTTERING
L. I. BELYAKOVA, E. A. DYAKOVA
Pauses are an integral component of speech. Their duration and nature of distribution in the speech stream largely determine the rhythmic and melodic side of intonation. The occurrence of pauses is due to a number of reasons. The shortest of them are an integral part of the speech flow and are caused by the peculiarities of the pronunciation of stop consonants, i.e., the absence of sound at those moments when the organs of articulation are in a closed state, which averages 0.1 s.
Pauses caused by the linguistic construction of the text, i.e. linguistic pauses, appear at the boundaries of semantic groups: between syntagmas and sentences. Studies conducted on the material of the English language reveal that during the reading process the duration of linguistic pauses at the boundaries of syntagmas does not exceed 0.75 s, and between sentences varies from 0.5 s to 1.5 s. During these pauses, a so-called “speech” breath can be taken, the location of which is determined by the structural boundaries of the text. Linguistic pauses occur both during reading and during spontaneous oral utterances.
In addition to linguistic pauses, spontaneous speech is characterized by pauses of “indecision,” or hesitation. Unlike linguistic pauses, they are located not only at the boundaries of syntagmas and sentences, but also within them, and also have a longer duration and can be accompanied by non-phonological vocal formations.
Experimental studies show that hesitation pauses have an extremely wide range of variation and reflect that aspect of speech that is the least automated. A high pattern of appearance of hesitation pauses before words that are highly informative or low predictable in a given context has been noted. A connection was found between the duration of pauses and the degree of difficulty of the speech task. Research allows us to conclude that during pauses of hesitation, planning of the utterance is carried out, while the duration of the pauses depends on the degree of difficulties associated with the choice of linguistic units.
Electrophysiological studies by A. N. Sokolov show that pauses that occur during the speech process, in most cases, mean the presence of a speech-thought process that occurs during the generation of a statement,
Thus, it seems possible to consider the time of pauses that occur in spontaneous speech as the time of mental activity, and the time of sounding speech as the time of motor implementation of this activity.
It is known from speech therapy practice that when stuttering, along with a violation of the intonation side of speech, its rhythm is disrupted, and therefore work on pauses is an important part of any correction program. It is believed that teaching speech pauses to people who stutter can be beneficial for them in a number of ways. Thus, a pause is associated with the need to take a speech breath or carry out
relaxation during the speech act, as well as the ability to attract the attention of the interlocutor with a special intonation.
However, to date there have been no experimental studies that would allow us to compare the process of pausing in normal conditions and in stuttering. Knowledge of the pattern of pausing will also reveal some new theoretical aspects of the mechanisms of this speech pathology. This is important, among other things, for the development of correctional methods for teaching fluent speech to people who stutter.
In this work, a comparative analysis of the number, duration and localization of pauses that occur when reading text and monologue statements was carried out in people with normal speech and those who stutter. The task was to study the characteristics of speech pausing in normal conditions and in people who stutter and to clarify the connection between pauses and the manifestation of cramps in the muscles of the speech apparatus. To solve this problem, the frequency of pauses, their duration and place in the speech flow were determined, and the presence of convulsive manifestations during reading and monologue utterance was recorded.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Two samples of speech production of the subjects were recorded on magnetic tape: 1) reading a text of 200 syllables; 2) monologue statement on the topic “My work”. The time to prepare a statement did not exceed 1 minute. According to the instructions, the duration of the statement should have been an average of two minutes. The choice of topic for the second task ensured that it was accessible to all subjects. The speech was recorded openly. Before starting the recording, the subject was asked several questionnaire questions for three minutes in order to adapt him to the experimental conditions. Then speech tasks were presented sequentially.
The subjects' speech samples recorded on magnetic tape were processed using a special computer program. In this case, the electrical signal from the output of the tape recorder was converted into a sequence of rectangular pulses of the same height, i.e., a clip signal. The pulses reflected the duration of the spoken speech, and their absence reflected the duration of pauses, starting from 0.01 sec with an accuracy of 0.005 sec. As a result, consistent values of time intervals of sounding speech and pauses were obtained.
Only pauses of 0.1 s and above were analyzed, since it is known that a shorter break in the acoustic signal can result from the pronunciation of stop consonants. Comparison of speech samples with the clip signal provided an accurate picture of the localization of pauses in the speech stream. In addition, in each speech sample the total number of pauses (as a percentage) of the following durations (in seconds) was calculated: 0.1-0.2; 0.2-0.3; 0.3-0.4; 0.4-0.5; 0.5-0.6; 0.6-0.7; 0.7-0.8; 0.8-0.9; 0.9-1.0; from 1 s and above.
The reliability of the obtained differences was assessed using the Student's test.
The manifestation of convulsive activity of the muscles of the speech apparatus during reading and monologue speech was determined visually and auditively.
The study involved 39 adults who stutter (24 men and 15 women) and 16 people with healthy speech (9 women and 7 men).
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Characteristics of speech pausing in persons with healthy speech. The distribution of the number of pauses by their duration is shown in Fig. 1. As can be seen from the figure, the shortest pauses from 0.1 to 0.2 seconds were most common in the speech samples of the subjects. Their number was almost the same, both during reading and in a monologue utterance (20.8% and 21.5%, respectively, the differences are unreliable: (a > 0.1). Basically, these pauses were the result of the pronunciation of stop consonants and had
place inside words. They appeared less often between words, but never between sentences.
During the process of reading the text, all pauses from 0.2 to 1 s occurred mainly at the junction between two syntagmas and less often between two sentences, i.e., they corresponded to the syntagmatic division of the text. At the same time, pauses lasting from 0.2 to 0.6 s were most characteristic of the reading process (54.9%). Long pauses - from 1 s and above (the longest of them did not exceed 1.3 s) occurred rarely (5.3%) and were recorded only at the boundaries between sentences, which syntactically corresponded to a period. The observed pattern in the localization and duration of pauses in persons without speech pathology was syntactically determined, which indicated a successful technical reflection of the semantic organization of the text and the adequacy of its semantic perception (i.e., understanding).
When implementing a monologue utterance, pauses lasting from 0.2 to 0.6 s occurred significantly less frequently (39.1%) than when reading (the differences are significant for pauses lasting from 0.4 to 0.5 s and from 0.5 to 0 ,6 s, a
vocal formations of the type: “EEE”, “MMM”, i.e., phenomena were observed indicating difficulties associated with the choice of linguistic units that arise in the process of realizing the utterance.
Example 1: “And then... 1.33 s... forest path... 0.7 s... ten, fifteen minutes... 2.915 s.... We have a very good team at work.. . 1.465 s...EEEE... 0.2 s... relations... 0.62, s... we are very... 0.865 s... friendly."
Example 2: “The history of the institute... 2.320 s... began... 1.140 s... a long time ago... 1.350 s...: III... 0.61 s... its organization... 1 .69 s... was like... 1.11 s... organization of higher women's courses."
From the examples it is clear that pauses lasting 1 s and longer were pauses of hesitation; they reflected the greatest difficulties arising in the process of programming an utterance at the semantic level.
Characteristics of speech pausing in people who stutter. The distribution of the number of pauses by their duration is shown in Fig. 2. The shortest pauses lasting from 0.1 to 0.2 s on average occurred as often as normal (differences are not significant, a>0.1). In contrast to the norm, they mainly took place within words.
When reading text by people who stutter, the duration of pauses had a wider range than in people with healthy speech. The longest pause reached 15.58 s. The most characteristic were either very short pauses - from 0.1 to 0.3 s (37.2%), or long pauses - from 1 s and above (19.7%), and long pauses occurred 3.7 times more often than normal. Pauses of other durations, and especially from 0.3 to 0.6 s, when reading text, occurred significantly less frequently than in persons with healthy speech (the differences are significant, a
Such a significant decrease in the number of pauses, the duration of which is normally determined by the syntagmatic structure of the text, and, on the contrary, an increase in the number of long pauses signaled a distortion of the semantic division of the text by stutterers.
A comparison of tape recordings with a reference text offered for reading showed that people who stutter made numerous errors in reading words. Most often, such errors were expressed: a) in changing the grammatical form of the word (for example: peeps -> peeps, gilded -> golden); b) in inadequate substitutions of words based on phonetic proximity (for example, instead of: “A trunk with pimples is an aspen” -> “A trunk with pimples is an aspen”); c) in omissions or insertions of unnecessary words (instead of: “The noise was approaching with alarming speed” -> “Noise with alarming speed”, “In the morning I went with my dog to the grove” -> “In the morning I went with my dog to the grove”); d) in incorrect accents.
The errors made by the subjects were not corrected, which led to significant distortions in the meaning of the text they produced. This gave reason to assume that the unity of the external and internal aspects of the reading process does not occur in people who stutter and their semantic perception of the text being read is distorted. One might think that the main task of people who stutter when reading aloud is to ensure the pronunciation side of the process. All voluntary attention is directed to the articulation of the spoken text, and not to the perception and transmission of its meaning, which experimentally confirms the assumption of N. I. Zhinkin that stutterers have sharply reduced control over the meaning of the spoken text.
When implementing a monologue utterance, the duration of pauses in the speech of the same stutterer could have an even greater range than when reading. The longest pause reached 111.85 s. The distribution of pauses showed the same pattern as during the reading process: most often there were either very short pauses - from 0.1 to 0.3 s (35.0%), or long pauses - from 1 s and above (24.5 %).
In connection with the identified features in the distribution of pauses by duration, stutterers had
The influence of the type of seizure on the nature of the distribution of pauses was traced. It is known that clonic and tonic types of seizures differ primarily in the duration of their manifestation. Thus, it was examined whether the duration of speech spasms affects the duration of pauses that occur in the speech production of people who stutter. For this purpose, from among the examined stutterers, individuals with a predominantly clonic type of speech spasms (6 people) and with a predominantly tonic type of speech spasms (6 people) were selected. All of them had severe stuttering. The comparison results showed that in stutterers with clonic type of seizures (Fig. 3), more than half of all pauses were short - from 0.1 to 0.3 s (57.8% during reading and 54.4% during monologue utterance) . Upon analysis, it turned out that these pauses appeared as a result of speech spasms,
which led to repeated alternations of pauses with part of a word, a syllable, with undifferentiated sounds. Long pauses of 1 s or more in these stutterers appeared extremely rarely (4.5% and 6.4%, respectively).
On the contrary, for the speech of stutterers with a predominantly tonic type of convulsions (Fig. 4), the most characteristic were long pauses - from 1 s and above (43% for reading and 46% for monologue statements, respectively), short pauses - from 0.1 to 0 .3 s - occurred much less frequently (22.2% and 19%, respectively). The above differences in the number of pauses between stutterers with clonic and tonic types of seizures are significant (a
Analysis of the texts showed that long pauses (from 1 s and above) in the speech of stutterers with the tonic type of speech spasms were accompanied by phenomena opposite to those that were characteristic of pauses of hesitation. For example, when convulsions were localized in the vocal part of the speech apparatus, speech stops were sudden, the words preceding the pause were pronounced at a more accelerated pace and ended abruptly. The appearance of undifferentiated sounds was associated with an attempt to start speech interrupted by a spasm, which was expressed in a particularly tense or compressed sound of the voice.
Example 3: “My future... 0.52 s.... specialty... 1.340 s... there* ... ...5.305 s... E* ... geophysicist... .. . 0.250 s... Well** ... 1.87 s... this specialty is like this** ... 11.895 s... ... GM* GM* ... 1.490 s... this specialty very... 0.145 s... GM* ... 0.500 s... ... GM* ... 1.490 s... III** - interesting... 8.765 s... . 78,700 s... we are studying minerals in 8,800 s classes."
Example 4: “I’ll start with... ... 1.195 s... This* ... 0.350 s... why I chose this specialty... .... 1.195 s... EE* .. . 0.250 s... EEE* ... ... 0.700 s... EEE* ... 0.430 s... EEE* is our specialty... 1.280 s... ... EEE* - well tied ... 1.575 s... ... EEE* - this is both aviation and MMM* ... 0.350 s... here... 1.520 s... this is... 0.510 s... E* ... 1.425 s... almost all turbine engines."
When convulsions were localized in the area of the articulatory apparatus, pauses of 1 s or more often occurred when trying to pronounce a stop consonant sound. Moreover, they corresponded to the duration of the closure of the organs of articulation before the explosion.
Example 5: “You can use... 8.475 s... (p)*** ... use fresh items... 1.100 s... (d)*** ... dora, ... 0.805 s ... (t)*** ... tomato paste... 0.755 s... this is the mostE0.750 sE(h)*** Garlic and salt and... 2.140 s... (p)*** ... pepper.
Thus, with severe stuttering, the pause was mainly filled with convulsive activity of the muscles of the speech apparatus, i.e., during the pause there was no cessation of motor speech activity, which is typical for the norm. On the contrary, it reflected abnormal activity of the speech apparatus, which did not manifest itself in the form of an acoustic signal.
If normally a pause indicates the end of the motor implementation of one part of the utterance and preliminary internal speech planning of the subsequent segment of speech, then when stuttering during a pause, as our research has shown, the motor act continues. This apparently means that the programming of utterances in people who stutter is carried out mainly against the background of high motor activity of the speech muscles.
Absence of pauses of hesitation, as well as pauses associated with syntactic
the construction of the text, and the presence of pauses caused by convulsive speech activity, explains the characteristic features of the intonation side of the speech of stutterers: monotony, lack of emotional expressiveness and intonation completeness of semantic groups, both when reading and in monologue speech.
In addition, the peculiarities of speech pausing in people who stutter may indicate the uniqueness of the course of intraspeech programming and its significant difference from the norm, as well as a decrease in control over the semantic side of the utterance.
1. Akhmanova O. S. About psycholinguistics. M., 1978. P. 55.
2. Belyakova L. I. Clinical and physiological analysis of the central pathogenic mechanisms of stuttering: Dr. dis. L., 1981.
3. Varshavsky L. A., Litvak I. M. Study of formant composition and some other characteristics of sounds of Russian speech // Problems of physiological acoustics. T. 3. L., 1955.
4. Zhinkin I. I. Speech as a conductor of information. M., 1982.
5. Zimnyaya I. A. Psychology of reading as a type of speech activity: Psychological and pedagogical problems of teaching reading techniques, semantic perception and text reduction / Materials of the All-Union Scientific and Practical Conference. M., 1988. pp. 67-69.
6. Kulanok K. N. On some functions of the speech pause // 17th conference of the Minsk Pedagogical Institute of Foreign Languages. Part II. Minsk, 1964.
7. Nosenko E. L. Objective indicators of the level of proficiency in oral foreign language monologue speech: Cand. dis. M., 1970.
8. Nosenko E. L. Features of speech in a state of emotional tension. Dnepropetrovsk, 1975.
9. Sokolov A. N. Inner speech and thinking. M., 1968.
10. Sheykin R. L. Towards the analysis of the mechanisms of pauses in speech // Mechanisms of speech production and perception of complex sounds. M. L., 1966. P. 31 44.
11. Dalton P., Hardcastle W. J. Disorders of fluency and their effects on communication. L., 1977.
12. GoldmanEister F. Pauses, clauses, sentences // Language and Speech, 1972. V. 15. N 3-4. R. 103-113.
13. GoldmanEister F. The distribution of pause duration in speech // Language and Speech. 1961. V. 4. N 3-4. R. 232-237.
14. GoldmanEister F. A comparative study of two hesitation phenomena // Language and Speech. 1966. V. 4. 1-2. R. 18-26.
Received by the editor on January 17, 1991.
* - difficult to differentiate combinations of sounds or non-phonological vocal formations. They are pronounced especially loudly, sharply, intensely.
** - pronounced quietly, with effort, in a compressed voice.
*** - the pause was accompanied by an attempt to pronounce a certain consonant sound.
source unknown
Prosody – this is the general name for such rhythmic and intonation aspects of speech as pitch, volume of voice tone, voice timbre, stress force.
Extralinguistic component of speech – inclusion of pauses in speech, as well as various kinds of psychophysiological manifestations of a person (crying, coughing, laughter, sighing).
With the help of prosodic and extralinguistic means, speech flows are regulated and linguistic means of communication are saved. They complement, replace and anticipate (anticipate) speech utterances and express emotional states.
Sounds in their perception can be hot, cold, narrow, growling, bad, good, etc.
Sounds are formed into words, which can be euphonious or dissonant. The abundance of hissing, whistling sounds and their combination is perceived as dissonant and creates certain emotions. This must be remembered when forming abbreviations and using foreign words in their Russian transcription.
Not only individual words, but also speech as a whole can be euphonious or dissonant. The euphony of speech is influenced by the alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables and the associated alternation of short or long words.
Speech is euphonious, if short words alternate with long ones, then there is no feeling of “chopped speech” (“You are not an order for me, I know that myself”) or “monotonous” (“The above-mentioned instructions are, of course, known to our deeply respected colleagues”) speech. Before a speech, you should always check the text in terms of its euphony.
Observations show that a smooth, calm, measured manner of speech is the most attractive in communication. In the process of communication, the interlocutor will listen with greater pleasure to a melodic, low, velvety, warm voice than to a high, nasal, shrill, sharp, creaky, trembling voice.
In speech intonation performs various functions:
1) Communicative function – defines the main communicative types of statements (narration, question, motivation): “He came.” “Has he come? Come on in!”;
2) excretory the function is:
In highlighting the degree of importance of segments of a statement;
In the special highlighting of any element of a statement using logical stress.
Example:
1. Nonverbal means play big role in the process of communication, because through a non-verbal channel information is transmitted that cannot be transmitted by verbal means.
2. Please Please submit your vacation schedule by the 20th.
Please You submit a vacation schedule by the 20th.
I ask you introduce vacation schedule by the 20th.
Please introduce schedule holidays by the 20th.
Please provide a schedule vacations by the 20th.
Please provide your vacation schedule by the 20th.
For business communication, you need to keep in mind that in the Russian language in address, be it a name or the words “master”, “comrade”, the emphasis is usually placed on the first word:
Tatiana Petrovna, sir President
In European languages, the emphasis is usually on the second word:
Herr Paul; Fray Schmid; mister Johnson.
3) Emotional function– lies in the fact that with its help various emotional shades are conveyed to the statement.
Rapid speech indicates excitement and concern about something. Slow speech reflects depression, grief, arrogance or fatigue.
When excited, the voice becomes trembling and harsh. In a calm state, the voice is softer. With suppressed discontent, “metallic” notes appear in the voice. The ideal voice timbre should be deep, dark and melodic.
Avoid pronounced emotional intonations associated with sharp jumps in tone and large frequency ranges;
Monitor the pace and speed of speech;
Observe the rules of euphony of speech;
Use full pronunciation style, that is, pronounce words clearly.
Very important in business communication "energy of speech": its expression and tonal variability. Listeners are impressed by this manner of behavior when the speaker does not fuss, but speaks emotionally, without hiding his feelings and beliefs, conveying them with a variety of intonations. Often the true meaning of a message lies in intonation. How we speak is in many cases more important than what we say.
It is also worth noting the pause in business communication. Main task pauses– psychological. With its help, the speaker can attract attention and arouse interest among interlocutors (if the speaker takes a short pause before and after an important message, then in this way he highlights it). A pause can be used between individual elements of thought: phrases, sentences.
Communication is carried out through different means. Highlight verbal and non-verbal means of communication.
Verbal communication(sign) is carried out using words. Verbal means of communication include human speech. Communication specialists have calculated that a modern person pronounces approximately 30 thousand words per day, or more than 3 thousand words per hour.
Depending on the intentions of the communicants (to communicate something, to find out, to express an assessment, an attitude, to encourage something, to come to an agreement, etc.), various speech texts arise. In any text (written or oral) a language system is implemented.
So, language is a system of signs and methods of connecting them, which serves as a tool for expressing thoughts, feelings and expressions of people’s will and is the most important means of human communication. The language is used in a wide variety of functions:
- Communicative. Language acts as the main means of communication. Thanks to the presence of such a function in language, people have the opportunity to fully communicate with their own kind.
- Educational. Language as an expression of the activity of consciousness. We receive most of the information about the world through language.
- Rechargeable. Language as a means of accumulating and storing knowledge. A person tries to retain the acquired experience and knowledge in order to use them in the future. In everyday life, notes, diaries, and notebooks help us out. And the “notebooks” of all humanity are various kinds of written monuments and fiction, which would be impossible without the existence of a written language.
- Constructive. Language as a means of forming thoughts. With the help of language, a thought “materializes” and takes on a sound form. Expressed verbally, a thought becomes distinct and clear to the speaker himself.
- Emotional. Language as one of the means of expressing feelings and emotions. This function is realized in speech only when a person’s emotional attitude to what he is talking about is directly expressed. Intonation plays a big role in this.
- Contact making. Language as a means of establishing contact between people. Sometimes communication seems to be aimless, its information content is zero, the ground is only being prepared for further fruitful, trusting communication.
- Ethnic. Language as a means of uniting the people.
Speech activity refers to a situation where a person uses language to communicate with other people. There are several types of speech activity:
- speaking - using language to communicate something;
- - perception of the content of spoken speech;
- writing - recording the content of speech on paper;
- reading - perception of information recorded on paper.
From the point of view of the form of existence of language, communication is divided into oral and written, and from the point of view of the number of participants - into interpersonal and mass.
Any national is heterogeneous; it exists in different forms. From the point of view of social and cultural status, literary and non-literary forms of language are distinguished.
The literary form of a language, otherwise known as a literary language, is understood by speakers as exemplary. The main feature of a literary language is the presence of stable norms.
Literary language has two forms: oral and written. The first is spoken speech, and the second is graphically designed. The oral form is original. Non-literary forms of language include territorial and social dialects, and vernacular.
For behavior, non-verbal means of communication are of particular importance. In non-verbal communication, the means of transmitting information are non-verbal signs (postures, gestures, facial expressions, intonation, glances, spatial location, etc.).
To the main nonverbal means of communication include:
Kinestics - considers the external manifestation of human feelings and emotions in the process of communication. These include:
- gesture;
- facial expressions;
- pantomime.
Gesture. Gestures are various movements of the hands and head. Sign language is the most ancient way of achieving mutual understanding. In different historical eras and different peoples there were their generally accepted methods of gestures. At present, attempts are even being made to create dictionaries of gestures. Quite a lot is known about the information that gestures convey. First of all, the amount of gestures is important. Different peoples have developed and incorporated into natural forms of expressing feelings different cultural norms for the strength and frequency of gestures. Research by M. Argyll, which studied the frequency and strength of gestures in different cultures, showed that within one hour, Finns gestured 1 time, the French - 20, Italians - 80, Mexicans - 180.
The intensity of gesticulation can increase with the increase in a person’s emotional arousal, as well as with the desire to achieve a more complete understanding between partners, especially if it is difficult.
The specific meaning of individual gestures varies across cultures. However, all cultures have similar gestures, among which are:
Communicative (gestures of greeting, farewell, attracting attention, prohibitions, affirmative, negative, interrogative, etc.)
Modal, i.e. expressing assessment and attitude (gestures of approval, satisfaction, trust and mistrust, etc.).
Descriptive gestures that make sense only in the context of a speech utterance.
Facial expressions. Facial expressions are movements of the facial muscles, the main indicator of feelings. Studies have shown that when the interlocutor's face is motionless or invisible, up to 10-15% of information is lost. There are more than 20,000 descriptions of facial expressions in the literature. The main characteristic of facial expressions is its integrity and dynamism. This means that in the facial expression of the six basic emotional states (anger, joy, fear, sadness, surprise, disgust), all movements of the facial muscles are coordinated. The main informative load in facial expressions is carried by eyebrows and lips.
Eye contact is also an extremely important element of communication. Looking at the speaker not only shows interest, but also helps us focus on what we are being told. Communicating people usually look into each other's eyes for no more than 10 seconds. If we are looked at a little, we have reason to believe that we are treated poorly or what we say, and if we are looked at too much, it can be perceived as a challenge or a good attitude towards us. In addition, it has been observed that when a person lies or tries to hide information, his eyes meet his partner's eyes for less than 1/3 of the conversation.
Partly, the length of a person’s gaze depends on what nation he belongs to. Southern Europeans have a high gaze rate that may be offensive to others, and the Japanese look at the neck rather than the face when speaking.
According to its specifics, the view can be:
- Business - when the gaze is fixed in the area of the interlocutor’s forehead, this implies the creation of a serious atmosphere of business partnership
- Social - the gaze is concentrated in the triangle between the eyes and mouth, this helps create an atmosphere of relaxed social communication.
- Intimate - the gaze is not directed into the eyes of the interlocutor, but below the face - to chest level. This look indicates a great interest in each other’s communication.
- A sideways glance is used to convey interest or hostility. If accompanied by slightly raised eyebrows or a smile, it indicates interest. If it is accompanied by a frowning forehead or drooping corners of the mouth, this indicates a critical or suspicious attitude towards the interlocutor.
Pantomime is gait, posture, posture, general motor skills of the whole body.
Gait is the style of movement of a person. Its components are: rhythm, step dynamics, amplitude of body transfer during movement, body weight. By a person’s gait one can judge a person’s well-being, his character, and age. In psychologists' studies, people recognized emotions such as anger, suffering, pride, and happiness by their gait. It turned out that a “heavy” gait is characteristic of people who are angry, while a “light” gait is characteristic of joyful ones. A proud person has the longest step length, and if a person suffers, his gait is sluggish, depressed, such a person rarely looks up or in the direction where he is going.
In addition, it can be argued that people who walk quickly and swing their arms are confident, have a clear goal and are ready to realize it. Those who always keep their hands in their pockets are likely to be very critical and secretive, as a rule, they like to suppress other people. A person with his hands on his hips strives to achieve his goals in the shortest way in the least amount of time.
Posture is the position of the body. The human body is capable of taking about 1000 stable different positions. Posture shows how a given person perceives his status in relation to the status of other persons present. Individuals with higher status adopt a more relaxed posture. Otherwise, conflict situations may arise.
Psychologist A. Sheflen was one of the first to point out the role of human posture as a means of nonverbal communication. In further studies conducted by V. Schubz, it was revealed that the main semantic content of the pose consists in the individual’s placement of his body in relation to the interlocutor. This placement indicates either closedness or a willingness to communicate.
A pose in which a person crosses his arms and legs is called closed. Arms crossed on the chest are a modified version of the barrier that a person puts between himself and his interlocutor. A closed posture is perceived as a posture of distrust, disagreement, opposition, criticism. Moreover, approximately a third of the information perceived from such a position is not assimilated by the interlocutor. The easiest way to get out of this position is to offer to hold or look at something.
An open pose is considered to be one in which the arms and legs are not crossed, the body is directed towards the interlocutor, and the palms and feet are turned towards the communication partner. This is a posture of trust, agreement, goodwill, and psychological comfort.
If a person is interested in communication, he will focus on the interlocutor and lean towards him, and if he is not very interested, on the contrary, he will focus to the side and lean back. A person who wants to make a statement will stand straight, tense, with his shoulders turned; a person who does not need to emphasize his status and position will be relaxed, calm, and in a free, relaxed position.
The best way to achieve mutual understanding with your interlocutor is to copy his posture and gestures.
Takeshika - the role of touch in the process of nonverbal communication. Handshakes, kisses, stroking, pushing, etc. stand out here. Dynamic touch has been proven to be a biologically necessary form of stimulation. A person’s use of dynamic touches in communication is determined by many factors: the status of partners, their age, gender, and degree of acquaintance.
Inappropriate use of tactical means by a person can lead to conflicts in communication. For example, a pat on the shoulder is possible only under the condition of close relationships and equal social status in society.
Shaking hands is a multi-talk gesture known since ancient times. Primitive people, when meeting, extended their hands to each other with open palms forward to show their lack of weapons. This gesture has undergone changes over time, and its variants have appeared, such as waving the hand in the air, placing the palm on the chest and many others, including a handshake. Often a handshake can be very informative, especially its intensity and duration.
Handshakes are divided into 3 types:
- dominant (hand on top, palm turned down);
- submissive (hand from below, palm turned upward);
- equal.
The dominant handshake is the most aggressive form of it. With a dominant (powerful) handshake, a person communicates to another that he wants to dominate the communication process.
A submissive handshake is necessary in situations where a person wants to give the initiative to another, to allow him to feel like he is the master of the situation.
A gesture called the “glove” is often used: a person clasps the other’s hand with both hands. The initiator of this gesture emphasizes that he is honest and can be trusted. However, the “glove” gesture should be applied to people you know well, because at first acquaintance it can have the opposite effect.
A strong handshake, even cracking your fingers, is a hallmark of an aggressive, tough person.
A sign of aggressiveness is also shaking with an unbent, straight hand. Its main purpose is to maintain distance and prevent a person from entering your intimate area. Shaking the fingertips serves the same purpose, but such a handshake indicates that the person is not confident in himself.
Proxemics - determines the zones of the most effective communication. E. Hall identifies four main areas of communication:
- Intimate zone (15-45 cm) - a person allows only people close to him to enter it. In this zone, a quiet, confidential conversation is conducted, and tactile contacts are made. Violation of this zone by outsiders causes physiological changes in the body: increased heart rate, increased blood pressure, rush of blood to the head, release of adrenaline, etc. The invasion of an “alien” into this zone is regarded as a threat.
- Personal (personal) zone (45 - 120 cm) - a zone of everyday communication with friends and colleagues. Only visual contact is allowed.
- Social zone (120 - 400 cm) - an area for holding official meetings and conducting negotiations, conferences, and administrative conversations.
- Public zone (more than 400 cm) - an area of communication with large groups of people during lectures, rallies, public speaking, etc.
When communicating, it is also important to pay attention to vocal characteristics related to nonverbal communication. Prosody is the general name for such rhythmic and intonation aspects of speech as pitch, volume of the voice, and its timbre.
Extralinguistics is the inclusion of pauses and various non-morphological human phenomena in speech: crying, coughing, laughter, sighing, etc.
The flow of speech is regulated by prosodic and extralingual means, linguistic means of communication are saved, they complement, replace and anticipate speech utterances, and express emotional states.
You need to be able not only to listen, but also to hear the intonation structure of speech, evaluate the strength and tone of voice, the speed of speech, which practically allow us to express our feelings and thoughts.
Although nature has endowed people with a unique voice, they themselves give it color. Those who tend to change the pitch of their voice sharply tend to be more cheerful. More sociable, more confident, more competent and much nicer than people who speak in a monotone.
What the speaker experiences is reflected primarily in the tone of voice. In it, feelings find their expression regardless of the words spoken. Thus, anger and sadness are usually easily recognized.
The strength and pitch of the voice provides a lot of information. Some feelings, such as enthusiasm, joy and disbelief, are usually conveyed in a high-pitched voice; anger and fear are also conveyed in a rather high-pitched voice, but over a wider range of tonality, strength and pitch. Feelings such as grief, sadness, and fatigue are usually conveyed in a soft and muffled voice with a decrease in intonation towards the end of each phrase.
Speed of speech also reflects feelings. A person speaks quickly if he is excited, worried, talks about his personal difficulties, or wants to convince or persuade us of something. Slow speech most often indicates depression, grief, arrogance or fatigue.
By making minor mistakes in speech, for example, repeating words, choosing them uncertainly or incorrectly, breaking off phrases mid-sentence, people involuntarily express their feelings and reveal their intentions. Uncertainty in word choice occurs when the speaker is unsure of himself or is about to surprise us. Typically, speech impediments are more pronounced when nervous or when a person is trying to deceive his interlocutor.
Since the characteristics of the voice depend on the work of various organs of the body, their condition is also reflected in it. Emotions change the rhythm of breathing. Fear, for example, paralyzes the larynx, the vocal cords become tense, and the voice “sits down.” In a good mood, the voice becomes deeper and richer in shades. It has a calming effect on others and inspires more confidence.
There is also a reverse connection: with the help of breathing you can influence emotions. To do this, it is recommended to sigh noisily, opening your mouth wide. If you breathe deeply and inhale a large amount of air, your mood improves and your voice involuntarily decreases.
It is important that in the process of communication a person trusts the signs of non-verbal communication more than verbal ones. According to experts, facial expressions carry up to 70% of information. When expressing our emotional reactions, we are usually more truthful than in the process of verbal communication.
