Bingying Ha

This study explores the prosodic features of news broadcast by native English speakers. Based on Pierrehumbert’s AM theory and Halliday’s three Ts theory, data analysis and induction were used to examine intonational phrase segmentation, nuclear accent placement, and other characteristics. The following conclusions were drawn. Firstly, speakers segment intonational phrases purposefully, with boundaries identifiable through anacrusis, pitch reset of unstressed syllables, pause, and lengthening. Secondly, nuclear accent is typically unmarked (on the last lexical item), but sometimes marked (on non-final items). Thirdly, speakers exhibit a wide vocal range, significant pitch fluctuation, and diverse tone patterns, using pauses and pitch reset to enhance rhythm and intonation variation.

Auto-segmental Metric theory; Halliday’s three Ts theory; prosodic features; news broadcast; native English speakers

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