PECULIARITIES OF THE PROSODIC PORTRAIT OF A PREACHER IN ENGLISH-LANGUAGE FILM DISCOURSE

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of the peculiarities of the prosodic organization of the monologue speech of preachers – characters in Englishlanguage feature films. Taking into account the various speech functions of the parish priest, which include preaching from the pulpit, speeches outside the church and private spiritual conversations with parishioners, these three types of speech activity were involved in the study. The article highlights the special features of the Anglican faith, which distinguish it from other Christian denominations and lead to a special atmosphere of cooperation between the parishioners and the priest not only during the service and delivery of the sermon, but also during communication on spiritual topics outside the church. The research material, consisting of oral English-language sermons, speeches, and conversations extracted from five contemporary feature films, was subjected to perceptual, auditory, and electroacoustic analysis. The auditory analysis confirmed the prosodic differences between the three speech realizations at the level of perception, revealed the leading role of tempo and melodic component of intonation in the differentiation of speech types and in strengthening its influential effect. Instrumental analysis of the characteristics of preachers’ speech, firstly, made it possible to establish the presence of integral and differential prosodic parameters inherent in three types of speech behaviour of speakers during sermons, speeches outside the church and conversations with parishioners, and secondly, made it possible to create a prosodic portrait of the preacher in his three speech embodiments. A comparison of prosodic portraits of the preacher in various communicative situations related to his functions as a spiritual mentor and pastor showed that it is in the preaching activity of the pastor that greater prosodic expressiveness of all intonation parameters is observed. The smallest prosodic indicators are typical for the priest’s private conversation with the parishioners, where mimicry and kinetic means of expressiveness and emotionality come to the fore. This fact confirms the proposed hypothesis that the sermon is the main speech activity of the priest, and therefore it is in the sermon that the priest uses all his oratorical abilities and skills to the maximum.