Research on prosodic and kinesic systems revisited english language essay

1-Introduction

People are loaded with prejudices about how each one talks. Much research on linguistics exhaustively dealt with how different types of communities use language differently in terms of choice of terminology. However less research has been done on how people perceive and judge each other according to the usage of linguistic prosody and kinesics. In Tunisia for instance people usually mock each other about how they talk, and I do not mean by that how for example there is a shift of usage of certain letters instead of others or the usage of a certain lexicon, or broadly, accent. What I mean here is the musicality of speech and body motion. We hear sometimes statements such as ” this person is talking like a girl”; however jargon is totally ” manly”, or, ” he is talking like foul-mouthed” however the behaviour is of a respectful person. That really made me wonder why people refuse or accept each other because of how they add musicality and motion to their speech. This question pushed me to delve into the mechanisms of prosody and kinesics and to reveal some of its power to manipulate how people ” categorize” each other. With the growing interest in the prosodic features of language its freshness and the benefits that other fields can get from going deep in this area, this work aims to contribute to show how much prosody and accompanied kinesics specific to a language has to say about the pertaining culture of community members sharing the same system. The way to utter a full statement whether pointing to its musicality or gesture while speaking differs between cultures. This difference has its reasons that are linked to many uncovered facts that go unnoticed because of habituation, norming and the long period for the development of language characteristics to be fully mature and therefore clear to be recognized. The work will try to delve in the traditional question of nurture vs nature; whether prosodic and kinesic systems are primarily innate by collecting some theoretical arguments from previous resources about this matter and by other observations made on the field linking it to an analogy of relation between the effect of music on people; or acquired throughout the influences of many variable forms of context inside the community itself, again, in correlation with music to show how musicality of speech like music has power and influence on how people think and perceive. The study will not exclude making observations on development of prosodic and kinesic systems for single individuals but personal details about the person being observed will be stated first to avoid any unnecessary generalizations about the linguistic community s/he belongs to. This study will delve to collect many forms of prosodic segments and supporting kinemes attached to the full-fledged expressions like idioms and common sayings. The rational from this is to prove that those expressions which are actually culture specific and which say too much about the identity of the speaker and his beliefs are attached to a prosodic and kinesic pattern required to accomplish the meaning of the content of the statement. Having proved that prosody and kinesics are so linked to culture and having shown that human senses are so fragile to musicality and performance while speaking, one can ask why some prosodic- kinesic systems are modified and what the influences behind this change are. How this issue turns to be a problem of loss of identity and another motor for struggle between powerful and weak dialects or languages that would launch a wave of prejudices that could enforce the creation of hierarchical classification and consequently lead to some dialects extension and in parallel the creation of a standard prosodic- kinesic system? Following a diachronic method of study of changes that happen to languages or dialects or accents in different regions around the world, it is hoped that this project demonstrates the deliberate or non-deliberate mechanisms, especially media, which let the ” upper” prosodic-kinesic systems influence the undermined ” stereotyped” ones under the quest of fluency and assimilation. English language would be almost the case study; also a comparison between prosodic and kinesic systems of dialects in Tunisia will be mentioned. Other languages with similar cases will be also hinted to just to reinforce the argument. The work can be classified as a sub-extension of the issue of linguistic imperialism and more broadly cultural imperialism. In this study, the meaning of the term culture will not be restricted to morals; instead, it will cover the set of thoughts and prejudices about a larger set of actions done in daily life not predefined behaviours pertaining to certain culture etiquettes and values. Also the term community will not only define geographically separate groups but also communities that share same language codes, competences, performances behaviours and thoughts. Thus, for example, a man (pertaining to the manly community) cannot use child (pertaining to childish community) prosodic-kinesic features; otherwise he will challenge manhood manners and be called irresponsible.

Thesis Rational:

This research will tackle issues pertaining to different fields: generative linguistics, language prestige, language musicality, globalization and culture studies, social classification and struggle, second language acquisition and teaching strategies. In the path of choosing the topic and its constituents, I found myself obliged sometimes to talk about the issue in a broad angle and other times obliged to narrow the scope of research. Anyway, in the course of time, I had the belief that this issue had me to pick whatever was relevant to it in order to strengthen the arguments or at least to reach them from indirect entries. This research delves primarily into the field of social studies. It aims to build a bridge between two humankind productions: music and language. It raises questions like: how music and linguistic prosody share the same characteristics and how they outline social markedness in the same way. Then, it summons a hypothesis that both fields are gradually standardized because of globalization and mass culture. It demonstrates how norming of manners influence both how we perceive and produce. The research will also focus on full-fledged expressions (idioms, interjections, onomatopoeic expressions, proverbs, common greeting structures…) in specific languages and the most commonly used daily expressions where musicality is so patterned and salient with regard to accompaniment face expressions and body gestures. It will reason how they are culturally marked and how they are prosodically and kinesically dependent, and whether they are more prosodically and kinesically marked than other extemporized expressions (that may be even not prosodically-kinesically marked at all in different languages or dialects) as they are so linked to culture. This work will try to prove that every language has a ‘ general musicality’ (which has to do either with how people perceive the melody of language by recalling many prejudices about the language prestige itself, classification of its native speakers or how people define what is pleasant and unpleasant to hear) and ‘ expressive musicality’ (which has to do with musicality of speech in relation to how to express emotions and attitudes inside a community) always in parallel with the case with music. Differently from previous studies, this research on prosody will conjoin more to fields of discourse analysis, pragmatics and kinesics as they lean mostly to studying language in context and in society. The study will later on narrow the scope to study the issue in a limited social context of the educated community; exactly, of second language(L2) learners inside classrooms and outside. It will contribute in enriching the study of second language acquisition, but also raises dilemmas about whether to teach learners fluency through minding prosodic-kinesic systems which will help them in integration with L2 native speakers or sacrificing fluency in favour of identity preservation. This question will lead to other three linked issues: to how extent fluency in a language helps learners to integrate in the L2 native speakers’ society later outside the classroom? Is being fluent requires acquiring the ‘ general musicality’, the ‘ expressive musicality’ and kinesics of the targeted L2? If perfecting fluency in the L2 was achieved, does that lead to modification of learners L1 in terms of prosodic usage? Those questions would certainly affect our views about teaching strategies (whether to consider including chapters that deal directly with teaching L2 prosodic-kinesic systems inside the syllabus) and L2 teacher performance inside the classroom: whether to appoint fluent teachers and L2 native speakers teachers to help speed up prosodic-kinesic acquisition or just ignore the effect of this choice. This study is so important because no serious and complete work has been done on such interconnected issues, or at least research has been touching the issue without directly facing it from this angle. It is crucial to make a bridge between many human realms and interests to see how they are similar and how they conjoin to reveal human nature.

Variables:

Prosody: it pertains to the suprasegmental level of language. it consists of the use of intonation, rhythm, stress, loudness, gestures and face expressions in speech(although, in many schools, those features are treated separately in kinesics field) to add or modify or even form a meaning by itself that is not simply conveyed by lexical and semantic structures. It also tells much about the emotional state of the speaker and his coded desires in speech. Kinesics: is the understanding of non-verbal behaviour which consists of movement of the body and facial expressions. Linguicism: According to Tove Skutnalib-Kangas, Linguicism refers to discrimination based on the language one speaks. In other words, linguicism is to promote for prejudices about one language until these prejudices lead to its pejoration till its usage becomes avoided and limitedLinguistic imperialism: a sub-field study related to the umbrella term linguicism. It is concerned with demonstrating how there is a promotion for English towards becoming the lingua franca throughout the usage of educational systems, political principles and other means of power. Discourse analysis: it is a linguistic field of study that is concerned with the analysis of how oral or written chunks unified to form a coherent meaningful text with regard to context and participants during the moment of speech.

Objectives:

Before I go straight to my final conclusion that there is a risk of standardization of prosodic-kinesic systems, I have to summon basic theories that stand to reinforce the final idea. 1-The demonstration of the high sensitivity of human senses toward the musicality of speech and gestures (here I want to demonstrate that if a person is so fragile to musicality and motion, s/he would be at risk of imitating so quickly)2-The demonstration that every community has specific prosodic and kinesic system with distinct features that represent in a way or another a distinctive culture: Here there will be an insistence on the fact that prosody and kinesics are so linked to culture as they are actually sets of manners and etiquettes (having demonstrated the first and second point, I would have already been paving the way towards tackling the issue of linguistic and cultural imperialism)3-I will be demonstrating some facts and mechanisms that trigger the standardization of prosodic-kinesic systems by stating some examples of stereotyping and ridiculing susceptible prosodic-kinesic systems and favouring the ” superior” ones. I will demonstrate some examples of the changes that happen to these threatened systems with correlation to its effect on culture and manners pertaining to the submitted community.*The logical framework of similarity between music and prosody inside culture: Music effect on human psyche /music and culture identitySimilarity between music and prosodic featuresProsody effect on human psyche (micro-subject study)Relation between prosody and culture (macro-subject study)Prosodic systems modificationChanges in culture.

Conclusion:

This work aims at strengthening the idea of culture maintenance and the uniqueness of every language (or dialect) whatsoever was its prominence compared to other languages (or dialects). It refuses any type of standardization that leads to the triumph of the most eminent language (or dialect) and death of other weakened languages (or dialects). The work also tries to reveal how people from different genders, ages or social class are loaded with many prejudices about each other prosodic-kinesic system. For example how women cannot adopt men prosodic and kinesic features and vice versa is actually a social construct fossilized through time. Or why prosodic systems adopted by the elders sometimes is seen as exasperating.

2. Literature review:

2. 1. Research on prosodic and kinesic systems revisited:

2. 1. 1. Prosody and kinesics: anchors of emotion and identity: Prosody and kinesics are certainly crucial mechanisms for the perception or expression of emotion and identification of identity. Aristotle said ” voice is an important medium for conveying character,” A research done by Patterson & Johnsrude (2008) demonstrated that one can identify gender, social status and emotion throughout the choice of linguistic prosody. Birdwhistell hinted to the point that kinesics is so attached to culture and gender identity (Kinesics and Context: Essays on Body Motion Communication, 1970, p. 44). A research entitled ” Categorizing sex and identity from the biological motion of faces” came with the conclusion that people can identify gender and identity only by facial motions (H. Hill & A. Johnston, in Current Biology, V. 11, Issue 11, pp. 880-885, 2001). Ekman and Friesan (1967) divided kinesics into five categories. One of them is the ‘ affect display’ which consists of kinemes that convey emotion (1967). However, not every community express emotion with the same way and not every community shares the same characteristics of identity. The debate about whether manifestation of emotion is a natural and biological faculty or cultural construct was triggered from Darwinian assumptions that emotion is innate and universal. He with other researchers such as Paul Ekman (1971) and Carroll Izard (1971) set anchor on the idea of universality of emotional expression around the world. Izard says ” Emotion is neuromuscular activity of the face” (Izard, 1971, p. 188). Later after Darwin opinions, observations done by many researchers like Mead (1961) and Briggs (1970) came with rival opinions. Because of the importance of prosodic-kinesic usage and its interference in demonstration of emotional reflexion, identity (of an individual) and culture (of a community), numerous studies to analyse individual languages’ prosodic and kinetic systems have been exhaustively dealt with. Actually, the field of study of prosody and prosodic systems analysis is fertile. Basic information about the field and the explanation of how a prosodic system works is available with sufficient details. David Crystal‘ s book Prosodic Systems and Intonation in English is one of the resourceful work in this matter but it is still limited to a neutral description of prosodic systems in English in a synchronic way. His work proved that English language has a systemized pattern of linguistic prosody that differs from other languages. In this same book, Crystal dedicated a chapter to indicate that non-segmental contrasts within voice quality (or timbre, if to adopt a term from musicology), one of suprasegmental features pertaining to prosody, is a communal convention (Crystal, 3. II.). 2. 1. 2. Prosodic and kinesic change: Actually there is no clear study of how there is a development or change in prosodic choices and language musicality due to languages/dialects ‘ struggle’ reasons. Or at least this fact was only hinted to as a result of simple ‘ influence’. Studies of this matter paid attention to change in norming of stressing and syllabification in the word level and phrase level limit. My research will try to enlarge the scope of analysis to contain pragmatic prosody. The intended goal is to inquire about aspects of speech that are not explicitly represented in its orthographic transcription but to larger scope that cover intonation, rhythm, timbre, speech rate and accompanied body gestures in relation to meaning. Books describing the development and changes that happen in prosodic systems are available with a variety of described prosodic systems in different regional parts on the globe. Many books such as Development in Prosodic Systems edited by Johanna Paula Monique Fikkert and Haike Jacobs (2003) provide a resource of collected and described data that would help in a diachronic study of the change in prosodic systems although as said previously it limited itself to syllabic stress, tone and meter change in different regions. This book is only neutrally descriptive it does not give any judgement on the changes that happen on the prosodic systems. The editors hinted to the linguistic factors that lead to changes such as word borrowing but didn’t treat other premeditated social reasons that may consequently conduct to the linguistic imperialism. For kinesics, the studies about changes in systems and kinesic choices are horribly scarce; almost none have been sufficiently talking about how a person usage of kinesics or reception of others’ kinemes can be modified because of adaptation and influences of other kinds of kinesic systems. This is probably due to one major reason which is that the argument about the universality and naturalness of the ‘ kinesic system’ is still the prominent one. Although I, myself, believe that much of kinemes are natural behaviours, I still persist that most of them are culturally bound, and most of them are learned from the surrounding society. If so, kinesic systems are always subdued to change whenever there is a change in societal context. In my research, I will support this idea in my empirical work.

2. 2. Prosodic-kinesic imperialism:

In a written translation of English text to Arabic language a statement: ‘ he walked slowly like a snake’ was translated as ‘ كان يمشي ببطئٍ مثل الحلزون’. Notice the change of the word from snake to snail. Here, the translator is aware of cultural difference in defining the meaning of slowness and how different cultures assimilate icons for it. Now, concerning the suprasegmental units, tone units and gestures like words have senses. Those senses are stored in our brains and retrieved to be used in specific contexts. In an oral translation like we had here, a translator should be aware of –although it is not the case with TV interpreters these days- the culture specificity and meaning of icons that different tone units conceal. A lack of this skill will not guarantee a good translation of meanings, and sometimes will lead to misinterpretation and falsification of meanings. 2. 2. 1. Robert Phillipson’s Linguistic Imperialism: In his Linguistic imperialism Robert Phillipson mentioned too much about the dominance of English language. He went further by mentioning how educational systems enforced that power and promoted for English to be the lingua franca. However Phillipson did not mention much about the effect of English prosodic features and kinemes on other languages’ prosodic-kinesic systems nor did he focused on the concomitance between culture, kinesics and prosody. Here, I will not limit my research on observing English language only, but I will instead highlight other accents and dialects inside the umbrella of English language. I will also give other examples from other regions with different languages. If the results are similar even if the observed contexts differ, my suppositions would be so close to become more real. 2. 2. 2. Prosodic-kinesic acquisition: In this study I will divide prosodic-kinesic change into two main stages. The first is for L1 acquisition, the second is of modification of the L1. Both stages co-function and interwork to form the personality. Most part of the acquisition starts at the beginning with the influence of various natures of the surroundings in which a person lives (Whalen, Levitt & Wang, 1991). Starting from being in a mother’s womb, a baby begins to recognize sounds and characteristics of exterior voices especially of his mother (motherese) (DeCasper and Spence, 1986). These patterns of melodies in its indecipherable form for a baby that are after all the prosody of the language aid in the posterior stages to acquire the mother tong in general and to develop and refine a ” primitive” and non-mature system of prosody. The journey of the development, mutation or modification of prosodic-kinesic choice continues in later age stages (presented in the next table). stage of changereasonsand outcomesDevelopment/acquisition/systematizationmodificationmutationinterferenceTriggered byInnocent acquisition of prosodic-kinesic systemsPersonal refutation of prosodic-kinesic systemInterference of other prosodic-kinesic systemsSubject or non-subject to exterior influenceSubject to own cultureNo culture influenceSubject to exterior culturesgeneratesMother tongue native prosodic-kinesic featuresMutated mother tong prosodic-kinesic systemSecond language prosodic-kinesic systemDistance from mother tong prosodic-kinesic systemattachmentaloofTaste and attitudeDoes not mattermatterDominant motivebothinstrumentalintegrativechoicenessNot freefree

A table that shows my personal classification of stages of change of the mother tongue prosodic-kinesic system in relation to reasons and outcomes

2. 2. 3. Prosody, kinesics & fluency: For a person speaking a second language (L2) apart from his own mother tong, things go clearer than first language (L1) acquisition. A person acquires not only jargon or syntax of a second language. Instead, s/he adopts the prosody and kinesics of this language. To have a great knowledge of vocabulary, syntax and phonetic articulation of a second language does not fully guarantee fluency. If someone misses the proficiency in prosodic-kinesic control specific to the L2, native speakers of this L2 will sooner or later feel oddity of the way s/he arranges the tone-units and kinemes of their language. Carol Chomsky (1976) argued that teaching a student how to read only by understanding the meaning of words is not sufficient to acquire fluency. The alternative strategy of making them hear the same text recorded before they read it proved to be supportive for attaining fluency. A similar study by Erekson (2010) demonstrated that both syntactic and emphatic prosody helps a lot in text comprehension, so systematically, in the flexible control of language in general. 2. 2. 4. Mechanisms of choice of a specific prosodic-kinesic system: 2. 2. 4. 1. Attitude: An attitude is ” a relatively enduring organization of beliefs, feelings, and behavioural tendencies towards socially significant objects, groups, events or symbols” (Hogg & Vaughan 2005, p. 150). Collin Baker organized the previous idea into three components of attitude towards language learning: cognitive, affective and readiness for action (Attitudes and Language, 1992). Those three interfere in how a learner appreciate a language and judges it. By those definitions it is clear how biases about prosody and kinesics of a targeted language can possibly affect eagerness to learn it, or how it anticipates how quick learners learn an exotic language depending on their judgements about it, or even more, how they accept their native one. This can be another entry to the hypothesis that states that every language has its own general musicality and kinesic system, and not all people appreciate the same tone-units or accompanied kinemes of languages. 2. 2. 4. 2. Motive: a different but similar view about mechanisms classification pertains to motive: two mechanisms interfere in how a speaker judges the usage of a L2: integrative (Crookes & Schmidt, 1991) and instrumental motives (Hudson, 2000). The first is when someone uses or learns a L2 to identify and be integrated in the community of that language. The instrumental is when someone uses or learns the L2 only for functional use.

2. 3. Kinesics & Linguistic prosody:

In Neuroscience, Ross (1981, p. 561) confirmed the fact that both kinesics and prosody share the right hemisphere. Kendon (1990) found that different movements function distinctively in that they harmonize with different prosodic structures inside communication. A very recent research done in RWTH Aachen University-Germany by Regenbogen C. et al. (2012, 26(6), pp. 995-1014) on prosody and facial expressions stated that both competences contribute in affective meaning perception and transmission. So, although the research on how kinesics and prosody synchronize during speech is still on-going and needs more attention, present results envisage confirming outcomes to the hypothesis. I will try to make my contributions about this matter in the course of doing my empirical work.

2. 4. Music & Linguistic prosody:

2. 4. 1. Ear sensitivity to music and linguistic prosody: Actually my work will be sincerely a fail without proving the strong tie between music and prosody. And even more, my research requires knowledge of the science of musicology. As music effect on human psyche was exhaustively examined and recorded, this work will focus on making an analogy to show the similarity of the effect of both linguistic prosody and music on human psyche. Imitating how a full-fledged utterance is melodically said is actually similar to the quest for singing a well-known song of a famous singer in a compatible way. A similar study I have made shows that when a person sings a song of a well-known singer, s/he tries to imitate the same pitch timing or any characteristic of a melodic fragment. For an audience hearing the performance, making a replica of the original singer’s way of singing the song would be praised and applauded. The book Language and Music as Cognitive Systems edited by Patrick Rebuschat, Martin Rohrmeier, John A. Hawkins and Ian Cross offers a comparison between both paradigms. A similar study, Music, Language, and the Brain by Aniruddh D. Patel comes with similar assumptions about the resemblance between musical and speech prosody components. The book makes an analogy between analytical features such as pitch change and timbre. 2. 4. 2. Neuroscience: In the field of Neuroscience, It is well known that the left hemisphere is where language control resides (Ehrenwald, 1984). Music control resides in the right one (Buzan, T., 1983). A study done for a comparison between a group of subjects with damaged left hemisphere, subjects with right damaged hemisphere and normal subjects to show where linguistic prosody control resides in the brain. The subjects with damaged right hemisphere were found impaired in production of linguistic features (Karen L. Bryan, 1989 VOL. 3 NO. 4). When we are talking about prosody we are actually talking about a kind of music which is more complex and inconstant than the proper music and at the same time, it is not a language by itself but it is a tool added to a language and which shares the same power of music to modify or add emotion to empty statements. So, to resume, music and prosody share the same hemisphere, the right one. 2. 4. 3. Music & linguistic prosody, taste: Bourdieu claims that defining the characteristics of good taste and what is aesthetical creates larger gaps between social classes because much of these definitions are internalized in an early age which makes it difficult to change. Those principles can transform to instinctual prejudices about other definitions to aesthetics (Bourdieu in his Distinction, 1984). 2. 4. 4. Classical music VS lowbrow & standard prosodic system VS colloquial one: Indeed, a vast scan of 17th and 18th century era music can show that highbrow classical music, rococo and baroque music was of preference by the aristocracy. Other types of lowbrow music were reserved to layman pertaining to poor class. In the same era, there was a difference between unmarked standard high class queen English general musicality and marked nonstandard poor class layman English dialects general musicality. Both classical music and queen English were characterized by symmetry of form: balanced musical periods; melodies are built of short melodic fragments; Rhythm was constant; Cadence and pause was used to separate melodic phrases. Aristocracy English was in parallel rhythmically balanced. Tone fragments are short and much pausing exists before introducing a new idea. ” Neatness” and ” polish” are two enquiries that please aristocrats’ taste that time found both in their music and linguistic prosodic frame. So that enforces the idea that good taste or bad taste is social construct. Another observation comes with a contrasting view to the previous idea about music; one can easily be teased by a high level of loudness, or by a high level of pitch or noisy timbre. Actually there hasn’t been a satisfactory full research on how some musical patterns/segments (e. g. quick oscillation in pitch, an unordered rhythm like [..-.-.-..-..], or even bad-arranged loudness and tenseness oscillation) can be teasing to the human ear, nor does even a targeted hypothesis of the universality of this fact exist although we live with it daily. There is also no validity of information about the degree of tolerance of hearers towards these natures of musical chunks in accordance to their taste. Or is it only natural that those musical frames are found ” teasing”. So I will try to make analysis of this lacuna in literature, and reflect it to linguistic prosody field through the same analogical approach with music to see whether same teasing sound effects pattern exist in linguistic prosody. Which ones exist frequently in certain languages than others? And whether ‘ good’ or ‘ bad’, do they have effect on the language melodic prestige in general or in human psychology specifically? 3. Methodology This research needs a vast area to cover data collection and analysis. Primer resources will be taken from previous observations and descriptions done on a variety of contexts, also other observations from my part will be included. Thus, this work will be a three-pronged approach: experimental, theoretical, and computational. It will always follow a logical framework based on analogies and comparison whether between languages or between various systems and fields sharing the same nature like music and linguistic prosody or prosody and kinesics. 3. 1. Data analysis:*words about Features/transcription schemes: My primer anticipations say that I will not rely on single system of prosodic transcription. Actually I will be sometimes referring to more general schemes such as IPA which is mostly leaning to phonetic transcription. Other times I will be referring to other more specific schemes of transcription: systems such as VERBMOBIL, PROSPA, IPO, TEI, ToBI, SAMPA, KIM, SAMPROSA, SAMSINT, TSM, TILT, PROZODIAG (Lund), INTSINT, and Goeteborg. Not all transcription systems may be applied to all languages analysis. Some are language specific and others are applicable to more than one language. Also every transcription scheme either focuses on a specific prosodic feature or expands to contain other features. Some features are defined distinctively in different transcription schemes. I could have chosen one of these schemes to work with, however my research purpose and research question oblige me to speak about many features and feature subcomponents as ample as possible. The MATE scheme (meta-scheme) relatively groups four levels of analysis. Each one has its own major scheme to be transcribed with and different components relevant to the level:

Phonological levels of analysis

Major scheme used

Targeted phonological componentsPhonetic transcriptionSAMPAPhonetic representation of intonationINTSINT & IPOPhonological representation of intonationToBI (‘ Tones’layer)/// Prosodic phrasingToBI(‘ Break-Indices’ layer)

Table showing the four phonological levels for analysis, relevant studied components and the major scheme used for the task

Hence, for methodological reasons, I will not state the exact choice of scheme right now. As far as symbolization is concerned, sometimes I will use conventional symbols from previously stated schemes, and some other time, I will be using very simple symbols such as ” high-toned”/” low-toned”/” tonally non-patterned”/” non-rhythmical” especially when talking about the general musicality of a certain language. Choice of symbolization is therefore a tough quest especially in my theoretical work as I will be referring to other findings with different symbolization designs and hence, be sometimes obliged to make conversions between them. For voice quality things are more complicated. This ‘ para-prosodic’ but relevant feature is measured in accordance to many other features like F0 variation and frequency with its variant sub-features. Again, I will sometimes describe this feature in a general way like to say ” hissy/stentorian/sharp…” but I am conscious that those voice qualities are in a way or another a combination of prosodic features going hand in hand with complex articulations of the mouth and flow of the air. For kinesics, I will consider the smallest unit as ” kineme” like Knapp put it (Knapp, 1972). Transcription would be a simple description of body movements and facial expressions. If other more conventional transcriptions are found, I will rely on them. 3. 2. Raised hypotheses and relevant questions: -I will do experiences on musician subjects to see to what degree they have the capacity topredict the exact pitch of a musical note before hearing it from a musical instrument. This experiment will show that human beings are capable of hearing and memorizing a single musical note; let alone the memorization of non-exact segments of pitch variation. If those musicians acquired this difficult ability, that means that linguistic prosody is also acquired through training ear on a certain pattern-I will try to take many recorded samples from people with different genders, ethnicities, social background and ages and who talk in different accents, dialects and languages, then I will blur the content of conversation but I will maintain the same pitch variation. Then I will take these blurred samples and make many people hear them. Then I will ask them if they identified the language or dialect or accent only through prosodic change. This experiment will be done to prove that every language has a prosody specific to it.- I will try to extract prosodic and kinesic features of every emotional state in different communities. I will collect audio samples of ad-lib speech and analyse the audio or video segments in terms of pitch, loudness, rhythm, pause and gestures. If same features were used for same emotional state but differently in different communities, that will prove that every community conventionally express emotion using different sets of prosodic and kinesic cues.-I will collect audio samples from different subjects in terms of age, culture, language, gender… and analyse their prosody and accompanied kinesics. After demonstrating the previous point I will try to construct impressions about the reasons behind the specificities of prosody specific to a certain language. For example, if people pertaining to a specific community speak in an agitated pitch range (a typical prosodic quality of anger state); does that mean that this community is always under pressure which leads to retaliation? To what extent does that go hand in hand with the theory that communities speaking without the rule of no-gaps no-overlaps are people accustomed on demonstrating their ideas and refusing the power of the other? Another example; does common etiquettes that once prevailed in a certain community and that were considered the perfect attitude affected the choice of prosody of later generations. Posh upper class British English prosodic-kinesic system had a nature of pride with the characteristics of pride prosodic and kinesic features: short range of pitch and loudness frequency with slow emotion. A third example of standard American way of talking; the prosodic and kinesic nature seems to be more flexible, relaxing, and confident compared to the rigid aristocratic Standard English. Is that because Americans wanted to be detached from the previously predominant ways to speak English or because it is related to the fact that Americans lived with more flexible rules in life and lived independently with a fossilized ideology of self-independence, capitalism, and individualism. By this experiment I will show that each person tries to stick to a prosody or kinesics that represents his community. After that, I will demonstrate examples of anomalies that happen to these firm systems. Those coming from the repudiation of culture, refute of identity or social etiquettes or norms which normally goes in parallel with the interference of new odd prevailing prosodic systems.-I will try to collect samples for analysis of subjects’ speech in two contexts. One is a talk between two individuals the second is a talk in a group. The expected result is that there will be intensification in every prosodic-kinesic feature: An increase in loudness, a stronger range of pitch variation, a quick pattern and rhythm of speech and gesture. This experience wants to show that the feeling of self-containment and belonging to a group or community affects the musicality and gestures in our speech. If the results are positive, this will show that collectivist communities use a more vivid system of prosody than individualistic ones.-I will make bilingual subjects read the same text but with both languages. Then I will try to analyse the recorded samples and see whether there is a change in usage of prosodic nature. If there is, this will enforce the idea that every language has its own prosody. Not only that, it will prove that certain jargon and certain formulaic expressions (like interjection and proverbs) having the same meaning in both languages are expressed with different prosodic system according to the language. This latter experience may come with a conclusion that full-fledged expressions like idioms, which are actually very attached to culture of a community, require a specific prosodic pattern in speech that goes hand in hand with the co-relation between meaning and manner. A same experience can be done not only on bilingual subjects but also on subjects that shift lingos to be convenient to their context and to be more accepted by the listener s/he is talking to. 3. 3. Samples: This research needs a collection of audio or video samples from people or communities that:+were in some extent far from exposure to the mechanisms of standardization of prosodic-kinesic features. That’s to say isolated languages:+are unaware of them being tested to avoid any non-natural responses from their part which will lead to wrong assumptions and results*.-Amish population: I am thinking about making observations on the Amish community in America who speak Pennsylvanian Dutch also I need samples of people speaking Swiss Dutch in Switzerland and Amish people in Pennsylvania speaking English instead of Pennsylvanian Dutch all that to make a comparison and see the degree of change in usage of prosodic-kinesic systems, because I think it is a raw context to study that have not been exposed to exterior contact or technological usage. I hope the book that I selected dealing with Amish culture studies provide me with the desired materials and sample analysis.-Pirahã language speakers: according to the investigation conducted by Daniel Everett, Pirahã language relies too much on prosodic usage. This population is also an isolated culture which makes the study of this population too relevant to this research.-Foreign language learners: Sinclair and Coulthard (1975, p. 6) admitted that human communication is so complex to analyse. So they turned to definite contexts for study, namely the context of classrooms: a closed social context where language structures are easily identified. I would like to see to what extent language learners’ education influenced their way of talking and the choice of prosodic-kinesic systems and the interference of systems of the mother tongue and foreign language inside school or in their daily life. How they see their degree of fluency and how adopting a correct prosodic-kinesic system of the foreign language is crucial to fully speak a language.-Call-centre agents: the major condition to be accepted to work in a call-centre is to speak the language fluently and to ” sound” as a native speaker. I want to show how much call centre agents respect the prosodic system of the spoken language (English and French). And through a sample analysis, I will try to detect some possible errors in prosodic usage that make agents uncovered as foreign speakers pretending to be native ones.-Tunisian people: I will try to collect many samples from Tunisian speakers from different regions ages and genders and extract prosodic and kinesic characteristics for each. I want also to prove that there has been discrimination and stereotyping of some prosodic-kinesic systems in Tunisia that were not taken seriously.-a dog lived from birth with a family for about ten years; she acquired the capacity to respond to prosodic segments from people. I will record her response through observation to prove that animals with their limited capacities can understand meanings through simple prosodic segmentations; let alone human beings. This will be done to prove the power of prosody to convey meaning. 3. 4. Ethical consideration:*I will assure anonymity and/or confidentiality of the cooperating people who gave their speech or video samples by stating abbreviated names and blurring faces in videos if needed. 3. 5. Instrumentation: -software: *FL Studio v. 10: For the analysis of speech samples in its pitch variation I chosethe software Fruity Loops v. 10 endowed with the Newtone plugin*MBROLA project software for text-to-speech generation with its add-ons available for download in its official site*Aneto Prosody Analysis and Labelling Tool v. 2. 0*WinSnoori 1. 34*Speech Analyser v2. 7 A Speech Analysis ToolAnd other software with different functionalities and potentials that may be downloadable freely from the internet.-a collection of media of samples downloaded from the internet, video games, films, self-done records-questionnaires-previous observations of languages from works, books, articles written on the matter3. 6. Assumptions:*Samples: I am expecting a flexible collaboration from people, students and teachers to answer my questionnaires in a serious way. I believe I can extend my area of study to other targeted regions by passing questionnaires to friends abroad or having them record samples for analysis from there. If things get better I might be doing that personally if I go abroad. I hope also to reach information about the Amish population although I know it is difficult. Otherwise I will be relying solely on written previous resources which seem to be available.*Materials: I hope that software that I got help me in extracting all features necessary for transcription and I hope to be smoothly at ease in their usage in the course of progressing with my research. 3. 7. Limitations:*instrumentation: -after I had a scan on tools available and instrumentations for prosodic analysis or body gestures analysis, I found that previous researches did not settle down on same instruments, way of analysis and even transcription and features boundaries. Actually, there are many ways and instruments to analyse prosodic features, the choice is made according to the perspective, methodologies and purpose of the research. Also, some researches relied on software (automatic calculating analysis), others on relative perceptive analysis (judging components only by human sense). The difference in instrumentation consideration and features is due to the incomplete development of the field of prosody and the vast scientific area that prosody can cover. However, kinesics is relatively more defined because it is simpler and its features are more salient and easily perceived even by human sense.*samples:-My work primarily requires the collection of recordings from different individuals with different prosodic systems. The more I get samples, the best and truthful the assumptions can be. The problem is that many people needed to be subjects for the study does not take research ethics seriously.-the demonstration of the link between the ways a community articulate with a specific prosody (prosodic system) and reasons behind this choice (historical, biological and cultural reasons) is hard to demonstrate because the complexity of human being including the psyche, social environment and other conditioning facts may go unnoticed for a researcher, a common hard task in research. 3. 8. Delimitations:- The most obvious solution for the second limitation is either to choose subjects that are already familiar to me personally, or observing conversations in its most deliberate nature where subjects enter in a state of unconsciousness or natural hypnosis like the one we experience in phone conversations(we usually ignore our surrounding and build a context where the two participants on the phone are acting like actually present in same context) or found commonly in the most intense emotional states of hilariousness, anger, surprise…- The aim of focusing more on full-fledged expressions in relation to prosody and culture is because of two reasons: one is because it is really hard to extract prosodic forms that are specific to a language. That simply needs much time and one cannot ignore that all languages too have very similar prosodic structures that share the same meaning. Full-fledged expressions are in the other hand more salient in their dependency on prosody and in their relation to culture.

3. 9. Content outline:

I-music and hearing senses: (in this chapter there will be a quest for demonstrating the high sensitivity of human ear to musical variations and characteristics and to the sound effects added to melodies. II-relation between music and linguistic prosody: (here there will be a study on the approach that compares between features that music and prosody of speech share in common. Same arguments stated in the first chapter would be feasible to apply on prosody. III-can we really speak of different ” prosodic-kinesic systems”? : (in this section there will be an exhaustive attempt to demonstrate that there is a strong tie between prosody, kinesics and culture by indicating different features specific to each culture)IV-where do we find the artificial and controlled prosody and kinesics? : (here there will be a comparison between ad-lib speech and rehearsed speech in regard to prosodic-kinesic features usage. There will be an analysis of political rhetoric and body language, analysis of TV news presenters’ speech, analysis of speech of actors in movies and analysis of fixated prosody-kinesics in the full-fledged (formulaic) language expressions such as idioms, proverbs, interjections and others. V-prosodic imperialism: (here I will broadly present a definition of linguistic imperialism and link it to my research objectives concerning prosody. I will see to what extent dominant languages in general enforce their power through their prosody and kinesics and which language prosody seems to be in favor nowadays. How American media and educational system promote for the standard American ways of speech. How they alienated marginalized dialects and any exotic language in daily life and education systems. How prosodic-kinesic features dominance shifted from British southern posh upper class English accent to standard American English. This section also will hint to forms of retaliation against standardization of prosodic-kinesic systems in general.

4. Conclusion

The work has merits as it disturbs issues that are common but not seriously faced. It demonstrates how there is discrimination built upon language usage in terms of prosody and kinesic articulation. It tries to add its contribution to the fact that Prosodic and kinesic usage is cultural and ideologically specific through a vast collection of arguments from previous works that already dealt with this question, and throughout conducting a personal study by the analysis of markedly different prosodic and kinesic systems of languages in different communities (regionally, physiologically, ideologically different) in Tunisia; different dialects in native English speaking countries; and different languages in the world. The study then introduces the problem about language prestige classification and how it affects the choice of prosody and kinesics. How higher prestige languages are forcing their prosodic and kinesic system and how they are simultaneously forcing to adopt odd culture and ideology. This research applies studies on the fields of prosody and kinesics on Phillipson’s preceding assumptions stated in his Linguistic Imperialism: That education, scientific advance and media are enforcing English language prestige. So it will be in a way another additional argument and a continuum in favor to his ideas.

5. Annotated list of work cited

-Akpossan, C. J., & Delumeau, F. (2007). Comment la prosodie donne du sens aux interjections ?. Cahiers de Linguistique Française : Interfaces Discours – Prosodie, (28), 335-347. This work demonstrates how prosody has both the capacity to reveal the semantic meaning of a word and to present the affective meaning of expressions. The study examines how interjections are so dependent on prosody to enquire meaning. The case study here is the Guadeloupe Isle. This work will be a support for my study when dealing with formulaic expressions in correlation to culture prosody and kinesics.-Baker, C. (1992). Attitudes and language. Clevedon, England: Multilingual Matters. This book makes a fascinating description of the issue of attitudes towards native or learned foreign languages. Also the book does not ignore the fact that attitudes change due to many factors. Practically the book did not tackle the issue of attitude in relation to prosody and kinesic usage. So I will apply the same ideas that were dealt with in this study to my research about prosody and kinesics.-Bonvillain, N. (2010). Language, culture, and communication: The meaning of messages. (6th ed.). New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall. This work is a description of how language use changes according to the culture of the speaker and how many communication components are so reliant on understanding the manners and ways of speech during conversation.-Copeland, N. C. (2010). The relationship between melody and prosody: perception and production capabilities of musicians and non-musicians. (Doctoral dissertation). Retreived from Illinois Digital Environement for Access to Learning and Scholarship. This work is a comparison of two human cognitive performances. It came with a conclusion that a musician ear is more successful in detecting pitch errors than non-musician one because the musicians were ‘ trained’ on that ability. This work will be used when dealing with demonstrating the similarity between those cognitive fields, pointing to the fact that linguistic prosody systems can be ‘ taught’ by using the same prosodic cues repetitively.-Hancil, S. (2009). The role of prosody in affective speech. Bern: Peter Lang. This work describes how different prosodic systems cues combinations can cause different interpretations of affective meaning during communication. This work can be of relevance with my aims at demonstrating the interrelation between prosody and emotional synthesis and as a map that describes how English, French and Japanese people use prosodic features differently.-Hirst, D., Cristo, A. D. (Eds.). (2008). Intonation Systems: A Survey of Twenty Languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. This book describes intonation systems of a great variety of languages. It also provides a standard transcription system to prosody. This book may be handy with its vast description of different languages prosodic cues from all over the world. It will facilitate the task of finding well described prosodic systems to compare between.-Merriam, A. P. (1964). The anthropology of music. Illinois: Northwestern University Press. This book demonstrates how music common in a community presents its culture and ethnicity. I will use this book in demonstrating that both linguistic prosody and music are two similar human cognitive productions that must be linked to identity and culture preferences.-Phillipson, R. (1992). Linguistic imperialism. Oxford: Oxford University Press. This book is a description of how English language dominated all fields of life using influential power mechanisms in education systems especially and also in media and scientific advance. This work is much related to my study since I will be dealing with language power difference and with similar issues treated in similar manner such as describing the influence of L2 learning on learners’ native language performance in the quest of acquiring fluency, but this time in another precise linguistic field of study which is prosody and kinesics. Pierto, P. (2012). Experimental methods and paradigms for prosodic analysis. In, A. Cohn, C. Fougeron, & M. Huffman (Eds.), Handbook of laboratory phonology (pp. 528-537). USA: Oxford University Press. This chapter of the book provides methods, disciplines, tools and approaches for the analysis of prosodic topographies. It will be of use especially when I deal with empirical work. It will be of help in choosing adequate methodologies and materials.-Poyatos, F. (2002). Nonverbal communication across disciplines: Volume 1: Culture, sensory interaction, speech, conversation. Amsterdam : John Benjamins Publishing Company. This book provides a great description of how the three elements which form communication: verbal language, paralanguage, and kinesics join to form the meaning of expression. He also links the three elements to an intercultural study and to a regard to foreign language teaching. This work is so linked to mine as it touches merely the same fields of interest.-Shanahan, D. (2007). Language, feeling, and the brain: the evocative vector. New Jersey: Transaction Publishers. In chapter three of this book, the author explains how both prosody and kinesics interfere in emotional expression and he gives some of the history of how the interest in study of those fields progressed through advance in scientific research. Also the book demonstrates the connection between culture and language in relevance to other previous works done on the field.-Shriberg, L. D., Paul, R., McSweeny, J. L., Klin, A., Cohen, D. J., & Volkmar, F. R. (2001). Speech and prosody characteristics of adolescents and adults with high-functioning autism and Asperger syndrome. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 44 (5) 1097-1115. Like did Freud in studying unconsciousness, it would be a methodological gap not to have an idea about people with defects relevant to prosody. This study is a comparison of the speech and prosody usage of speakers with either high-functioning autism (HFA) or Asperger syndrome (AS). This study may be useful in enforcing some ideas about prosodic articulation performance in speech production. And how incapacity to control prosody makes people marked socially.-Weingarten, D. B., Dehé, N., & Witchman, A. (Eds.). (2009). Where prosody meets pragmatics. Bingley: Emerald Group Publishing Limited. This study describes the functionality of prosody inside conversation and emphasizes its role in adding meaning to textual and contextual paradigms. This work is relevant to my study as pragmatics is the study of language in its context. It also gives a great deal of importance to the study of participants in interaction using prosodic cues.-Wood, D. C. (2010). Formulaic Language and Second Language Speech Fluency: Background, Evidence and Classroom Applications. New York: Continuum International Publishing Group. This work pioneered the idea to include teaching formulaic expressions in syllabuses. It heightens the importance of those expressions in fostering fluency acquisition. This work is relevant to my study as it speaks about formulaic expressions (or full-fledged expressions) which are stuck to fixated prosodic cues and to cultural indicators.