METHODS OF DETERMINING AND ANALYZING COMPLETE AND INCOMPLETE INTONATION PHRASES IN SPONTANEOUS SPEECH (ON THE EXAMPLE OF STUDYING GERMAN INSULAR DIALECTS)

The paper aims to develop mechanisms for studying sounding material. In this regard, it seems relevant to develop methods and techniques for documenting dialectal material. This paper presents a methodology for determining complete and incomplete intonation phrases (IP), for detecting the tone structure of the intonation patterns of selected IPs and for determining their nuclear contours. The method presented in the article is based on the methodology of research of German regional dialects described by P. Gilles in his work Regionale Prosodie im Deutschen: Variabilitat in der Intonation von Abschluss und Weiterweisung. This technique is new as for the sphere of its application, and relevant as it relies on non-intonational research criteria, including semantic, syntactic and pragmatic indices of IP. The analysis of complete and incomplete IPs resulted in singling out two intonation patterns of complete intonation phrases (both absolutely complete and possibly complete): the falling pattern (Hm%) and its variant (Hl%), the fall-rise pattern (MHm%) and its variant (Lhl%), and two of their implementations caused by the syllabic structure of the nuclear patterns: for disyllabic nuclear contours -Hm%, MHm%, and their variants, Hl%, LHl%, for polysyllabic nuclear contours - H-m%, MH-m%, and their variants H-l%, LH-l%. For the falling and fallrise intonation patterns a linear configuration was discovered, which is expressed in a sharp continuously linearly decreasing movement of the tone from the nuclear syllable to the end of the IP. There is no such linear configuration in the complete intonation phrases of the German literary language. The study of an absolutely and possibly consistent incomplete IP resulted in singling out only one rising intonation contour Hh%, and its variant MHh%; in establishing two implementations of this pattern: for disyllabic nuclear patterns -Hh%, and its variant MHh%, for polysyllabic nuclear patterns -H-h%, and its variant MH-h%. For an absolutely clarifying incomplete IP only one intonation contour was detected: the rising intonation Mh%, and its variant MHh% (for disyllabic nuclear patterns), M-h%, MH-h% (for polysyllabic nuclear patterns). In the linguistic material under review, a possibly clarifying incomplete IP was not found. For the rising intonation contour of the incomplete IP, an arc-shaped configuration was established, which is expressed in a smooth increase of the pitch of the nuclear tone from the nuclear syllable to the end of the IP. Such an arc-shaped configuration of the rising intonation contour is also observed in the German literary language. In the speech of the same informant- speakers, all the aforementioned intonation patterns are fully realized. At the same time, analysis and comparison of complete and incomplete IPs in the dialects under review showed the absence of differentiation of dialects in this parameter, which indicates a mixed character of the German dialects of the region in question. The given methodology is effective in the study of German insular dialects at the suprasegmental level. Studies of this kind have not been conducted so far in Russia and abroad.