Prosodija i mnogoznačnostʹ v russkich diskursivnych formulach (Articolo in rivista, in russo, titolo in inglese: Prosody and polysemy in Russian discourse formulae)

The paper presents the first descriptive approach to the prosody of Russian discourse formulae using the methods of experimental phonetics. The prosody of a frequent idiomatic formula da nu was studied. The analysis of pitch contours revealed that this unit can be marked by two tonal configurations: the falling one that can be identified as the IK-2 of the traditional holistic approach, and the rising one that is distinct from IK-3 and apparently contains a unique high tonal target followed by an irregularly truncated low boundary tone. The usage of these configurations is distributed unevenly and depends on the additional pragmatical meanings set by the dialogical context. In addition, the data indicates that some pragmatic meanings can be disambiguated by segmental duration. The subjects used significantly longer vowels in da nu to express surprise, compared to the rejection of new information. Meanwhile, the expression of doubt takes an intermediate position in this pragmatic continuum, marked by a lengthened prestressed and a shortened stressed vowel.