Equivalent sound level (Leq), sound pressure level (SPL) and fundamental frequency (F0) were analyzed in the stage speech of six Kunqu Opera roles, Young woman, Old woman, Young man, Old man, ...Colorful face and Clown. The roles differ in gender, age, personality and phonation types. Differences among emotions (neutral, sad, angry and happy), singers and roles were examined. For most roles, more similarities were observed between neutral and sad stage speech and between angry and happy stage speeches. In most cases, the latter group showed higher Leq, mean SPL and Mean F0 and larger standard deviation (SD) of SPL difference than the former. Some parameters, such as SD of SPL, the mean of SPL difference and the difference between Leq and mean SPL, also showed the intra-group differences.Young woman role, Young man role and Old woman role were similar in some parameters. Colorful face role and Old man role showed a lot of similarities. Clown role showed the least similarities with the other roles. With regard to gender and age, young roles showed smaller SPL difference, larger correlation coefficient between F0 and SPL and larger mean SPL differences between emotions than old roles; female roles had greater parameter consistency and larger correlation coefficient between F0 and SPL than male roles. The personality and phonation types also effected the characteristics of loudness and pitch. This study showed the importance of speakers’ characteristics in emotional speech analysis.
The present article refers to different methods that already exist, that were invented or that resulted from my work as a teacher for Romanian students from different regions of the country, and in ...particular to those coming from Bessarabia. From this point of view, there are two distinct directions in my activity, more precisely: the first one referring to the correct act of reading in Romanian while the second one consists in eliminating non‑Romanian expressions from everyday speech. They can only be effective if the one in question is interested in the correct use of Romanian, in acknowledging and correcting the way he expresses himself every day. It must be noticed that a teacher’s efforts are null when the student is not constant in his work and his attention is not directed to correct Romanian phrasing. The risk of not getting used to the Romanian literary language refers also to those Romanian students who remain faithful to a regional type of speaking.
The article focuses on one of the problems of literary translation - the translation of dramatic texts. The article examines this type of texts in terms of the specificity of the genre and type of ...literature, their structural and other specific characteristics. Special attention is given to existing approaches to the development of translation strategies in drama. Different approaches to dramatic texts in linguistics and translation studies are analyzed, such as communicative, cultural, and hermeneutic ones. The play of the contemporary British writer David Edgar “Testing the Echo” was selected for a detailed pre-translation analysis, identification and solution of the most significant translation problems. The choice of the play was determined by the presence of complex culture-specific situations (interesting from the point of view of translation), the unusual principle of plot construction, as well as the lack of a translated version of the play. A detailed analysis of the play is preceded by the summary of the plot and some information about the main characters. The paper discusses the most “problematic” extracts from the translation point of view, accounts for translation decisions and lists some of the transformations that had to be resorted to in the process of translating. As a result, a conclusion is made that translation of drama has an interdisciplinary character, involving both theatrical and literary issues. Thus, the most effective strategy of translating drama is a combination of concretization and adaptation.
Speaking differs from person to person depending on their temperament, physical constitution, character, appearance, profession, intelligence, occupation, the circle of friends, their attitude to the ...surrounding world, and to themselves. People speak with particularities specific to their geographical area, the type of work they do, their age, and, finally, according to their state at the time of the speech. We take these nuances into account when verbally building the scenic character. Hence, characters have different vocabularies, different modes of speaking, accentuating syllables, words, having individual speech tempos, according to their characters. This is that defining speech, which differentiates one person from another, one character from another
Three electroglottographic parameters, fundamental frequency, contact quotient, and speed quotient were analyzed for two singers of Young girl role in Kunqu Opera. Each singer performed three ...conditions, singing, stage speech, and reading lyrics. The phonation types adopted in different conditions were explored based on electroglottographic parameters. Fundamental frequency, contact quotient, and speed quotient showed different distributions among conditions. Five phonation types were used in singing and stage speech, which include (1) breathy voice, (2) modal voice with low degree of posterior glottal adduction, (3) modal voice, (4) falsetto, and (5) falsetto with high degree of posterior glottal adduction. The phonation strategies partly showed differences between singers. Different phonation type collocations were employed in singing and stage speech. The relationship between phonation types and pitch was complex. The phonation types actually used were different from and more complex than those in traditional Kunqu Opera singing theory.
It is possible, perhaps, to choose the right path to the answer to the questions how poetry has been disappearing over the centuries and has lost its purpose in the ever greater void of outer space ...and how it has turned from a common and welcome social activity into a phenomenon that will have to leave its fellow-townspeople due to enormous suspicion about the communal language, the world view of the majority and the material world, if first, (at least) a rough reconstruction of the sense and nature of continual changes in the poetic mechanism has been done (a more detailed overview would extend the paper enormously), as well as of the changes in style and the reception of poetry, since each choice of a possible linguistic system in a particular historical period soon heralded its own boundary line. From a popular, entertaining and educational genre as a transparent means of social communication, which has brought the individual into a community by generating stable certainty, and gave him the sense of control over his own destiny and meaning, lyrics will outgrow proportionally the aesthetic dimensions of its texts (which will subsequently substitute the foretoken of literacy), becoming less comparable and surmountable, in certain periods almost a nontransferable artistic view. In such circumstances, the public will start to have less understanding and tolerance for its 'weaknesses'.
The phonation types used in the young male role in Kunqu Opera were investigated. Two national young male role singers volunteered as the subjects. Each singer performed three voice conditions: ...singing, stage speech, and reading lyrics. Three electroglottogram parameters, the fundamental frequency, contact quotient, and speed quotient, were analyzed. Electroglottogram parameters were different between voice conditions. Five phonation types were found by clustering analysis in singing and stage speech: (1) breathy voice, (2) high adduction modal voice, (3) modal voice, (4) untrained falsetto, and (5) high adduction falsetto. The proportion of each phonation type was not identical in singing and stage speech. The relationship between phonation type and pitch was multiple to one in the low pitch range, and one to one in the high pitch range. The sound pressure levels were related to the phonation types. Five phonation types, instead of only the two phonation types (modal voice and falsetto) that are identified in traditional Kunqu Opera singing theory, were concomitantly used in the young male role’s artistic voices. These phonation types were more similar to those of the young female roles than to those of the other male roles in the Kunqu Opera.
Summary Objectives Kunqu is a special type of opera within the Chinese tradition with 600 years of history. In it, stage speech is used for the spoken dialogue. It is performed in Ming Dynasty’s ...mandarin language and is a much more dominant part of the play than singing. Stage speech deviates considerably from normal conversational speech with respect to duration, loudness and pitch. This paper compares these properties in stage speech conversational speech. Method A famous, highly experienced female singer’s performed stage speech and reading of the same lyrics in a conversational speech mode. Clear differences are found. Results As compared with conversational speech, stage speech had longer word and sentence duration and word duration was less variable. Average sound level was 16 dB higher. Also mean fundamental frequency was considerably higher and more varied. Within sentences, both loudness and fundamental frequency tended to vary according to a low-high-low pattern. Conclusions Some of the findings fail to support current opinions regarding the characteristics of stage speech, and in this sense the study demonstrates the relevance of objective measurements in descriptions of vocal styles.
The article deals with teaching and researching stage speech on the supposition that researching stage speech influences how we teach stage speech. Stage speech is an artistic speech that researchers ...try to study and explain in a scientific manner, i.e. with scientific terminology and methods. Modern studies of stage speech are interdisciplinary (they combine phonetics and theatre studies, literary theory and history, sociology, etc.) and no longer just studies on a stricly linguistic (phonetic) level. The article shows a model of a scientific and interdisciplinary study of stage speech and its influence on or connection to how it is taught. The teaching of stage speech, which is shown on the example of students of Stage Acting at the Academy of Theatre, Radio, Film and Television, balances between science and art as well as between theory and practice. The article demonstrates that researching stage speech influences the teaching that is also interdisciplinary, based on artistic and scientific concepts and constantly combines theory and practice.
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