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Paralanguage


Paralanguage, It refers to something that may be expressed consciously or unconsciously and it includes the pitch, volume and in some cases intonation of speech. Often it is not what you say but how you say it that determines an interaction’s outcome.

What It Is


Paralanguage includes accent, pitch, volume, speech rate, modulation, and fluency. Some researchers also include certain non-vocal phenomena under the heading of paralanguage: facial expressions, eye movements, hand gestures, and the like. "The boundaries of paralanguage," says Peter Matthews, "are (unavoidably) imprecise."

Etymology

From Greek and Latin, "beside" + "language"


2. Paralinguistic features:
Quality: Each one of us has a unique voice and its quality depends upon its vibrating mechanism. One can make conscious efforts to improve one’s quality of voice.

Volume is the loudness or the softness of the voice. Voice should always project but need not always be loud. One should vary volume so as to make voice audible and clear.

Rate is the number of words which speaker speaks per minute. It varies from person to person and from 80 to 250 words per minute. The normal rate is from 120 to 150 words.

Pitch refers to the number of vibrations per second of voice. The rise and fall of the voice conveys various emotions. A well balanced pitch results in a clear and effective tone.

Articulation (સંધાન, ઉચ્ચાર કરવો) is the movement of the tongue, lips, jaw and other speech organs in order to make speech sounds. Speakers should be careful not to slop, slur, chop, truncate, or omit sounds between words or sentences.

Pronunciation: If articulation means speaking out all the sounds distinctly, then pronunciation requires speaking out sounds in way that is generally accepted. The best way is to follow British Received Pronunciation (RP).

A pause is a short silence flanked by words. A pause is speaking lets the listener reflect on the message and digest it accordingly.

Word Stress: English is a stress-timed language. Stress is an extra effort given on a syllable or a word 

Example1: 
A teacher shouting after giving prior polite warning to a student misbehaving again and again in the school. The volume as well as the pitch can be seen changing from low (polite warning) to high (anger).

Example 2:

Phrases have different messages depending on what parts we emphasize. For instance, take the sentence; she’s giving this money to me. 
• She is giving this money to me. 
SHE is the one giving the money, nobody else. 
• She is giving this money to me. 
She is GIVING, not lending. 
• She is giving this money to me. 
MONEY is being exchanged, not anything else. 
• She is giving this money to me. 
I am getting the money, nobody else. 

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