Linguistic and socio-cultural peculiarities of business communication

Through verbal communication, people learn about others' thoughts, ideas, products, and services. However, often how we say things conveys more meaning than what we say. In fact, voice quality is said to convey about 38% of the meaning. Qubein, Nido. How Do You Sound to Others? -- <http://hodu.com/speaking-skills.2.shtml> The accent may give away one's national or regional origin. The tone of voice will tell people whether the talker feels elated or sad, excited or bored. One's involvement -- the true feelings and attitudes -- is often sent by means of the vocal and physical cues, and sometimes a speaker may send conflicting messages through different channels: words, body, face, and tone.

As it is known, about 93% of communication is non-verbal. http://hodu.com/speaking-skills.2.shtml Much of it is unconscious, but a great deal of a wordless message can be consciously controlled. We convey feelings, moods and attitudes through a variety of intonation parameters, such as, volume, speed or pace, stress and some others. If motivated, anyone can become steadily more conscious of others' needs, feelings, and messages by intentionally growing the communication skill of awareness. For instance, in order to make the presentation interesting, a speaker will change the delivery, however not to obviously, e.g.: speed or pitch of voice.

Some intonation patterns may be completely colourless in meaning: they give to the listener no implication of the speaker's attitude or feeling. They serve a mechanical function - they provide a matrix into which all sentences may be poured so that they achieve utterance. Such intonation patterns represent the intonational minimum of speech. Sokolova, M.A. English Phonetics: a Theoretical Course. - M.: Vysshaya Shkola, 1991.- P. 120.

The distinctive function of intonation is realized in the opposition of the same word sequences which differ in certain parameters of the intonation pattern. It is difficult to classify all the fine shades of feeling and attitude which can be conveyed by slight changes in pitch, by increasing or decreasing the loudness of the voice, by changing its quality, and in various other ways. On the other hand, it is quite possible to make a broad classification of intonation patterns which change the meaning of the utterance. Applied to intonation it can be of the greatest service in guiding speakers in the correct use of the tones and accents. Sokolova, M.A. English Phonetics: a Theoretical Course. - M.: Vysshaya Shkola, 1991.- P. 131.

Pitch

Vocal pitch, the highness or lowness of the voice on a musical scale, is an extremely important variable in communication. Since variety contributes to attention, the natural variety of pitch is desirable in business communication.

Different combinations of pitch sections (pre-heads, heads and nuclei) may result in more than one hundred pitch-and-stress patterns, but they all convey the most general meaning expressed by the nucleus itself, and different pitch sections (pre-heads or heads) either add some additional attitudinal meanings to the patterns or intensify them. Broadly speaking, any sentence type can be linked with any tone group and the particular meaning of every pattern occurs only in a certain context and with reference to a particular style and type of speech. Sokolova, M.A. English Phonetics: a Theoretical Course. - M.: Vysshaya Shkola, 1991. - 240 p.

We tend to identify higher pitches with female voices and lower pitches with male voices. We also learn vocal stereotypes specific to this or that culture. We associate low-pitched voices with strength, sexiness, and maturity and high-pitched voices with helplessness, tenseness, and nervousness. Gamble, T.K.; Gamble, M. Contacts: Communicating interpersonally. - N.Y.: Random House, 1982. - P. 175.

The pitch of the voice is very difficult to control without practice, and this makes it a highly accurate verbal indicator of how a speaker feels about the subject he or she is presenting. In most western cultures listeners normally impute strength and confidence to the person who speaks with a low-pitched, well-modulated voice. When the speaker's voice rises to a high pitch, listeners attribute it to excitement, panic, and lack of control. <http://hodu.com/speaking-skills.2.shtml> So, if a speaker slows down and uses the lower end of the voice range, he or she is perceived as calm, confident and competent. We can vary the pitch with which we talk by changing the tightness of the vocal folds, the pressure with which we exhale air, and, to a limited extent, the elasticity of our vocal folds.

The hardest time to control the pitch of the voice is at the beginning of the speech. Most presenters - whether novices or experts - begin their speeches at a higher that normal pitch because the stress they are experiencing tenses and tightens their vocal cords so that they vibrate at a higher frequency. With relaxation, the vocal cords relax and assume their normal tension. Lieb, A. Speaking for success: the Canadian guide. - Toronto: HBJ Canada Inc., 1993.- P. 19.

However, if a speaker is excited or passionate about his subject, he or she will likely have difficulty masking the emotions - and the pitch of the voice will be raised. A high pitch indicates emotional engagement. If you're also speaking quickly, the combination usually indicates your stress level is elevated. Although you may worry that you sound nervous or anxious, the audience will interpret the intonation shifts as vocal prompts.

As tension usually tightens the vocal folds, raising the pitch and causing problems for presenters, women speakers particularly need to be cautious about pitch, since tension can increase their pitch to unpleasant levels, thus reducing their effectiveness as speakers.

In business communication one must also remember that a person whose pitch is too high, too low, or monotonous (on the same level) may not only transmit a negative impression when communicating, but risk losing customers completely. Some individuals, however, overuse one tone to the exclusion of all others. They have monotonous or monotone voices, which are characterized by having too little variety in pitch. Other individuals speak toward the upper end of their pitch scale, producing very fragile, unsupported tones. Gamble, T.K.; Gamble, M. Contacts: Communicating interpersonally. - N.Y.: Random House, 1982. - P.177. Nervousness can give the sentences a rising intonation, with each one sounding like a question in a forced, unsynchronized over-inflection that results in a bewildering melody. Lieb, A. Speaking for success: the Canadian guide. - Toronto: HBJ Canada Inc., 1993. - P. 20.

Another problem for some speakers is a habitual and repeated pitch pattern. A regular rising and falling pitch pattern is often described as speaking in a "sing-song" manner. Not only is this pattern unnatural, it quickly becomes boring. Communicating / Taylor, A.; Rosegrant, T.; Meyer, A.; Samples, B.T. - New Jersey: Prentice Hall, Inc., 1983. - P.329.

As Ann Thompson summarizes, "There is an important observation about voice pitch. Voices that are normally pitched in a low or middle range have much better carrying power than high-pitched voices. Besides, the higher the pitch, the more effort the speaker must exert to be heard. As a matter of general practice, a speaker should try to keep voice pitch to a middle range, except for a change of pitch to emphasize meaning. The relaxation of tension for speaker and audience is immediate. An audience finds a high-pitched voice irritating and, more often than not, turns the sound off". Thompson, A. Words Into Speech: a handbook for speakers. - Toronto: Copp Clark Pitman Ltd., 1991. - P.52.

The range between high and low pitch varies from individual to individual, and from one linguistic population to another. International speakers should be aware of the fact that the English generally have a greater range than Americans do.

Sentence stress

Depending on the situation or context, in a sentence or an intonation group some of the words are of greater importance than the others. Words which provide most of the information are brought out in speech by means of sentence-stress: a special prominence given to one or more words according to their relative importance in a sentence. Thompson, A. Words Into Speech: a handbook for speakers. - Toronto: Copp Clark Pitman Ltd., 1991. - P.51.

The main function of sentence stress is to single out the communicative centre of the sentence which introduces new information. Практическая фонетика английского языка / М.А. Соколова, К.П. Гинтовт, Л.А. Кантер. - М.:Владос, 1997. - C. 212. The prominence is realized by variations of pitch, force, length and quality. The syllables of the words marked by sentence-stress are pronounced with possible changes in pitch, greater force, greater length of vowels and their full quality, that is the stressed words are pronounced more distinctly. The most prominent part of a sentence is the last stressed word which takes the nuclear tone. The second in weight is the first stressed word which often has the highest pitch and is fairly loud.

The distribution of stresses in a sentence depends on the semantic value of words and is closely connected with the lexical and grammatical structure of the sentence. The ability to move smoothly and steadily from one stress to the next and to fit in the unstressed syllables between them forms the basis of a natural English accent.

Stress shift plays a crucial role in the delivery conveying subtle shades of meaning. The same sentence can demonstrate various degrees of curiosity, impatience, or sarcasm.

Rate

An application of the general sense of this term in Phonetics and Phonology is to refer to speed of speaking; alternatively known as tempo. Crystal ,D. A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics. - 3rd ed. - Cambridge: Blackwell, 1991. - P.289. Languages and people vary in their overall rate of articulation (measured in such terms as syllables per second, words per minute, incidence of pauses). Within a given norm, however, it is possible to vary one's rate for particular semantic or social effects, e.g. the 'meditative' sense of we-e-ll, produced very slowly.

The rate of speech can be normal, slow and fast. The parts of the utterance which are particularly important sound slower. Unimportant parts are commonly pronounced at a greater speed than normal.

The rate or speed at which a speech is delivered can indicate to the audience how the speaker feels about his material. A deliberate, plodding delivery often indicates solemnity or seriousness; a quickened pace suggests urgency or enthusiasm. Of course, speed of delivery varies from speaker to speaker, but most North Americans speak at a rate of around 160 words per minute. Lieb, A. Speaking for success: the Canadian guide. - Toronto: HBJ Canada Inc., 1993. - P. 19.

Varying the delivery speed of different parts of a speech help to highlight the main ideas and influence listeners' subconscious interpretation of the message. A modulated delivery is less predictable, and can hold the listeners' interest by requiring them to actively vary their responses.

For listeners, an average speaking rate of from 140 to 170 words a minute allows them time to digest the words of a speech. There can, however, be no fixed rate of delivery that applies to every speaker. Nor should the rate of delivery be uniform throughout a speech. Emotional moments in a speech seem more spontaneous if the words rush out. Deliberative moments, when a new idea is being considered or a conclusion stated, should be presented more slowly. Highly charged moments, as for instance memorable words at the end of a speech, should be delivered slowly and impressively. Thompson, A. Words Into Speech: a handbook for speakers. - Toronto: Copp Clark Pitman Ltd., 1991. - P.50.

If a speaker wants to elicit a serious response, he or she delivers the speech at a slower than average tempo. This gives the audience more time to consider the impact of each word. But keeping the delivery plodding for too long is less challenging for the audience and it increases the likelihood that the listeners will become distracted.

Increasing the tempo suggests excitement or informality. But although a fast delivery will initially stimulate an audience, a speaker should not maintain that excitement indefinitely. Keeping the audience on its toes can be reached by once again modulating the delivery speed.

Generally, an effective speaker will most often speak in a clear, concise manner at a slightly slower pace using short, simple sentences (subject-verb-object) and high-frequency words. The listeners will not understand him if he speaks too fast or runs his words together. Haynes, J. Keys to Effective Communication. - <http://www.everythingesl.net/inservices/keys_effective_communication_91344.php>

An effective speaker does not rush, or talk deliberately slowly. Being natural - although not conversational - is the main key of success.

Pause

Obviously, it is impossible to not communicate with people. We all decode meanings from silences and absences as much as we do from talking and other non-verbal actions.

Often, if a speaker feels tense before going into a meeting, he or she takes a deep breath to relax. Furthermore, "lots of folks believe that any gaps in the flow of a conversation are negative, contributing to overwhelming feelings of awkwardness and uncertainty. To avoid this discomfort, many keep up a constant stream of chatter, whether or not they have something relevant to contribute," suggests Nancy Gerber. Gerber, N. Stepping-Stones. - <www.sstones.com>

On the other hand, we can think about pauses in a speech like about rests in music. They can add dramatic effect and variety as well as giving the presenter a chance to breathe. Stern, M.A. Communication Tip: Use the pause that refreshes - <http://www.matthewarnoldstern.com/tips/tipps02.html> Some scholars believe that conversation breaks can help to facilitate reflection on the topic. Clarke, R. D. Enjoy the silence: it has its place in effective communication. // Black Enterprise: Nov, 2005. - <http://www.allbusiness.com/periodicals/article/843738-1.html> The pause phase of communication represents a short "time out" that allows both the speaker and listener to improve communication. A speaker pauses when he or she wants to gather the thoughts, or to find out how the listeners feel about what has been said, or before answering a question. Gesher, R. I.; Winer, M.D. Say what you mean. - 2000. - <http://www.gesher.org/TCS/Speech%20from%20Media%20Life.html> Psychoacoustic investigations prove that the pause gives the listener more time for better comprehension. House, D. The influence of silence on perceiving the preceding tonal contour. // Proceedings of the 13th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences. - Stockholm, Sweden, 1995. - P. 122-125.

Fran Briggs asserts that "silence can provide a gateway for both the listener and speaker to foresee and adapt with appropriate forethought." She states that silence can make more than just a point; it can make "an exclamation point... and without a single word preceding it. <…> Why is that? Because it can be used to shed light or convey darkness. Utilizing the sound of silence is truly the "master's" art of communication". Briggs, F. There's Gold in That Silence. - <http://www.selfgrowth.com/articles/Briggs5.html>

For the analysis expediency it is efficient to distinguish the following three kinds of pauses:

1. Short pauses which may be used to separate intonation groups within a phrase.

2. Longer pauses which normally manifest the end of the phrase.

3. Very long pauses, which are approximately twice as long as the first type, are used to separate semantic groups.

Carefully calculated pauses, even a fraction of a second of meaningful silence, can lend emphasis to the group of words that precede it, give time for their meaning to sink in, and rouse suspense about what is to come. Some common occasions for an intentional pause follow:

before announcing the name of the speaker you are introducing, a slight pause before pronouncing the speaker's name gives it the prominence it deserves;

in mid-sentence -- to introduce an important point;

after asking the audience a question;

just before the last few words of a speech. Thompson, A. Words Into Speech: a handbook for speakers. - Toronto: Copp Clark Pitman Ltd., 1991. - P.50.

Functionally there may be distinguished syntactic, emphatic and hesitation pauses. Sokolova, M.A. English Phonetics: a Theoretical Course. - M.: Vysshaya Shkola, 1991. - P. 120.

1. Syntactic pauses separate phonopassages, phrases, intonation groups.

2. The pauses are usually made after phrases or short sentences, not after each word. However, it is not uncommon in speech to find filled or silent pauses prior to a focal accent as an additional signal of emphasis. Strangert, E. Phonetic characteristics of professional news reading // Papers from the fifth national phonetics conference, PERILUS XIII. - Stockholm University, 1991. - P. 39-42. Thus, a pause can appear before an emphatically focused, semantically important content word Ferrer, L., Shriberg, E.; Stolcke, A. Is the speaker done yet? Faster and more accurate end-of utterance detection using prosody. // Proceedings of ICSLP 2002. - Denver, Colorado, 2002. - P. 2061-2064. to make especially prominent certain parts of the utterance:

She is the most | charming girl I've ever seen.||

So, an intentional pause can be a powerful way of communicating. Deliberate pauses at key points have the effect of emphasising the importance of a particular point. Communication Skills - making oral presentations. - <http://lorien.ncl.ac.uk/ming/dept/tips/present/comms.htm>

3. However, a pause can also be a hesitation pause Shriberg, E. Phonetic consequences of speech disfluency. // Proceedings of the 14th International Congress on Phonetic Sciences. - San Francisco, 1999. - P. 619-622. which can be part of dysfluency. Hesitation pauses are mainly used in spontaneous speech to gain some time to think over what to say next. They may be silent or filled. Experiments show that the filled pause is perceived as hesitation conveying uncertainty and non-assertiveness. Gussenhoven, C. Intonation and interpretation: phonetics and phonology. // B. Bel and I. Marlien (eds.), Proceedings of the Speech Prosody 2002 Conference, Aix-en-Provence, 2002. - P. 47-57.^; Ohala, J.J. Cross-language use of pitch: an ethological view. // Phonetica 40, 1983. - P. 1-18. On the other hand, silent pause may be used to emphasize an idea, generate certain emotions, and enhance attention to and retention of information presented in a speech. Functioning in the latter capacity, silence is similar to white space in print advertising, increasing the contrast between the information presented and its surroundings.

It should be pointed out that our ear can also perceive a pause when there is no stop of phonation at all. It may happen because a stop of phonation is not the only factor indicating an intonation unit boundary. The main factor is a perceivable pitch change, stepping down or stepping up depending on the direction of nuclear tone movement. The other criterion is the presence of junctural features at the end of each intonation group. This usually takes the form of a pause but there are frequently accompanying segmental phonetic modifications (variations in tempo, aspiration etc.) which reinforce this. So the intonation unit boundary is not necessarily indicated by a complete stop of phonation.

To summarize, pauses are meaningful for both the audience and for the speaker:

They give the audience a chance to think about what the speaker said. Therefore, a good place to pause is right after the speaker makes a key point. Such a pause also adds emphasis and dramatic impact to a statement.

They add variety. An interrupted stretch of words can get tiresome to an audience. A pause is a convenient break for the listeners, and it keeps them attentive.

They slow down the pace so that the audience can understand the speaker more. Nervous speakers tend to speak quickly in order to get the speech out of the way. Pausing gives them a chance to breathe, to calm down, and speak at a more controlled pace.

They help a speaker to eliminate "ahs" and "ums". People use such distracting fillers to give them time to think. The speaker can use the pauses as time to think, and it sounds more polished and professional to the audience.

On a higher cognitive level, pausing is perceived as cognitive loading.

Phrasing words for meaning

The skull of a blue whale | is the size of an automobile. A limitless amount of radiant energy | falls on the earth from the sun. The celebration of the town's centennial | continued for a whole weekend. Twenty-five million gallons of water | tumble over Victoria Falls each day. Thompson, A. Words Into Speech: a handbook for speakers. - Toronto: Copp Clark Pitman Ltd., 1991. - P.53.

Atmospheric pollution | profoundly harmful to our physical well-being | is threatening our very existence.

The Athabaska glacier in Alberta | as it crawls between Mount Athabaska and Mount Kitchener | grinds a channel seven miles long and three miles wide. The variety show | scheduled to begin this evening at 8 p.m. in the civic auditorium | has been postponed until next week | same day | same time | same place. Thompson, A. Words Into Speech: a handbook for speakers. - Toronto: Copp Clark Pitman Ltd., 1991. - P.53.

Besides, it is also important how vowels and consonants are joined in the stream of speech. A foreign language sounds like a continuous flow of syllables if listeners have not learned to recognize the signs of where one word stops and another begins. Lack of attention to juncture can make a speech indistinct or hard to understand, so even experienced translators may find it difficult to accurately render a message into another language. For example, if you tell a carpenter to build a greenhouse, make sure that you don't end up with a green house. Or if you ask your secretary to get you the night rate and have it on your desk the next morning, be sure it doesn't sound like "nitrate."

Rhythm

Prosodic components (pitch, loudness, tempo) and speech rhythm work interdependently. Rhythm is understood as periodicity in time and space. Subjective perception of rhythm is correlated with biological processes in the human body: heart beating, breath and so on. Rhythm can also refer to images, sounds and movements, and in a speech both can be used. Speech production is naturally closely connected with the process of breathing. So speech activity as well as any other human activity is conditioned by physiological factors among others and is characterized by rhythm.

Rhythm as a linguistic notion is realized in lexical, syntactical and prosodic means and mostly in their combinations. Speech rhythm is traditionally defined as recurrence of stressed syllables at more or less equal intervals of time in a speech continuum. We also find a more detailed definition of speech rhythm as the regular alternation of acceleration and slowing down, of relaxation and intensification, of length and brevity, of similar and dissimilar elements within a speech event. Such figures of speech as sound or word repetition, syntactical parallelism, intensification and others are perceived as rhythmical on the lexical, syntactical and prosodic levels. Often the syntactical parallelism of the homogeneous clauses is correlated with the identical prosodic contour of the intonation groups in the phrase and is strengthened by the repetition of a certain word.

In the stress-timed English language, the amount of time given on each syllable varies considerably, the total time of uttering each rhythmic unit is practically unchanged. The stressed syllables of a rhythmic unit form peaks of prominence. They tend to be pronounced at regular intervals no matter how many unstressed syllables are located between every two stressed ones. Thus the distribution of time within the rhythmic unit is unequal. The regularity is provided by the strong "beats". Sokolova, M.A. English Phonetics: a Theoretical Course. - M.: Vysshaya Shkola, 1991. - P. 137.

The markedly regular stress-timed pulses of speech seem to create the strict, abrupt and spiky effect of English rhythm. To bring the meaning of the utterance to the listener the stressed syllables of the notional words are given more prominence by the speaker and the unstressed monosyllabic form words are left very weak.

The speech tempo and style often regulate the division into rhythmic groups. The enclitic tendency is more typical for informal speech whereas the semantic tendency prevails in accurate, more explicit speech.

The more organized the speech is the more rhythmical it appears. A lecture read aloud is more rhythmic than colloquial speech. On the other hand, rhythm is also individual - a fluent speaker may sound more rhythmical than a person searching for the right word and refining the structure of a phrase while actually pronouncing it.

However, regularity in a speech chain is not realized in its exact isochronous form. Absolutely regular speech produces the effect of monotony. It means that the intervals between the stressed syllables are not physically equal. Whenever short rhythmic groups are mixed with longer ones the speaker minimizes the differences by means of changes in the rate of delivery.

Most rhythmic groups are simultaneously sense units. K. Pike finds the term "waves" for rhythm periodicity to be very expressive. Sokolova, M.A. English Phonetics: a Theoretical Course. - M.: Vysshaya Shkola, 1991. - P. 139.

In speech an intonation group, a phrase and a phonopassage seem to have similar prosodic organization:

1) the beginning of a rhythmic unit is characterized by the tone and intensity maximum, the slowing of the tempo;

2) the end of a rhythmic unit is marked by a pause of different length, the tone and intensity minimum, slowing of the tempo, generally sloping descending terminal tones;

3) the most common pre-nuclear pattern of a rhythmic unit is usually the High (Medium) Level Head.

Many of those who use language well have a natural ear for rhythmic patterns: they know how to use rhythmic devices to reinforce meaning and control the emotions of the audience. Rhythm of the delivered speech can describe the features of the speaker's voice, the structural elements of the speech that can be characterized on the textual level, and visuals - everything that contains repeated elements.

Tension can cause the vocal cords to be too tight to follow the natural rhythms of language. As a result, the performance can be monotonous and uninspiring. Lieb, A. Speaking for success: the Canadian guide. - Toronto: HBJ Canada Inc., 1993. - P. 20. Professional speakers do not distort the rhythm of their speech. Haynes, J. Keys to Effective Communication. - <http://www.everythingesl.net/inservices/keys_effective_communication_91344.php>

Loudness

Loudness is a strong factor that affects perceived meaning. Human beings have a built-in mechanism that adjusts the volume of the voice to what is needed. More precisely, loudness is the attribute of auditory sensation in terms of which a sound may be ordered on a scale from soft to loud Crystal ,D. A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics. - 3rd ed. - Cambridge: Blackwell, 1991. - P. 207., corresponding to some degree with the acoustic features of intensity (measured in decibels (dB)), which in the study of speech is based on the size of the vibrations of the vocal cords, as a result of variations in air-pressure. There is, however, no direct or parallel correlation between loudness (or 'volume') and intensity: other factors than intensity may affect our sensation of loudness; e.g. increasing the frequency of vocal-cord vibrations may make one sound seem louder than another.