ABSTRACT
Some prosodic characteristics of spontaneous speech have received considerable attention. Those that have been investigated include: the relationship between slips of the tongue and prosody; pitch as an indicator of discourse structure; social and physical determinants of pitch; and kinesics in relation to linguistic systems and pausing. Relatively less attention has been paid to the prosodic differences between contrasting discourse modes. This chapter presents extracts from a sermon, a lecture, a formal radio discussion and a formal speech. It presents questions on prosodic features which have implications for a full taxonomy of discourse modes, including: "what evidence of informality is there? Sociolinguistic evidence for the effect of context on speech style is overwhelming. The reverse is true in conversation, where the relative average pitch level is lower, and the significance of this being that a great deal of dyadic exchange is non-competitive.
