Article

Name: Towards the intonation design of the so-called unsegmented (thetic) sentences

Authors: Mikhail Ya. Dymarsky, Mariya R. Koposova

Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation; Institute for Linguistic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation

In the section Linguistics

Abstract:

The paper examines the intonation structure of statements such as “Nastupila vesna” (Spring has come), which are traditionally considered to be unsegmented, consist of a single rheme, and are referred to as “thetic” in generative-oriented literature. Such constructions are assumed to contain a zero theme with the meaning of deixis to the immediate environment: they only seem to be unsegmented outwardly. The authors analyzed the material obtained by sampling fragments from the Russian National Corpus from works of Russian classics containing statements of the type under study. Additionally, a search was conducted for the performance of these fragments by professional actors in audiobooks. The analysis conducted through instrumental methods indicated that the primary strategy in the intonation structure of these statements, alongside the rhematic accent on the subject, also referred to as the first intonation construction, involves the upward movement of the main tone on a communicatively neutral predicate. A total of 264 examples were analyzed, with the rise of the main tone on the predicate found in 246, accounting for 93.2 %. This rise is demonstrated to differ significantly from the well-known “automatic” or technical rise, being close or coinciding in its characteristics with the thematic accent known as the third intonational construction. This rise is proposed to be designated as an echo-thematic accent, serving the purpose of compensating for the absence of a materially expressed theme. Further arguments are presented in support of the theory that the predicate acquires the thematic nuance in these sentences.

Keywords: “unsegmented” (thetic) sentence, zero theme, pitch rise, technical rise, thematic accent, echo-thematic accent

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