The objective of the course is to develop the ability to understand and appropriate the variation of spoken language in contemporary French through its phonostylistic components.
The approach taken is both multidimensional and experiential and aims to describe the complexity of the human voice through examples of spoken French.

The course comprises a theoretical part and an application part :
a) In the theoretical part, the components of speech prosody are presented in French :
- intonation, accent and rhythm
- relationship between syntax, pragmatics and prosody in the interpretation of speech
- diatopic variations : overview of the varieties of prosody of French in France and the Francophonie
- diaphasic variations (in communicative situations): sociolinguistic proximity-distance, phonostylistics
- phonostylistics : idiosyncrasy of prosodic communication, recognition of the individual voice
- Manifestation of emotion in verbal speech and communication pathology.
b) In the application part, a progressive approach to the tools of prosody analysis is proposed:
the praat software, prosogram, prosobox, audacity

Knowledge and understanding. -

Knowledge of the main lines of the functioning of language prosody in French, being able to distinguish syntactic, semantic, pragmatic and prosodic levels in linguistic communication

Applied knowledge and understanding. -

Ability to conduct a prosodic analysis of a speaker: recording, transcription, construction of a prosodic profile

Making judgements

Interpretation of results and link between qualitative and quantitative analysis of a voice sample

Communication skills. -

Ability to communicate, present and discuss results in French including multimedia presentation

Learning skills. -

Ability to independently identify a prosodic analysis sample from existing recordings and to choose the convenient approach for the type of sample chosen

The teaching material prepared by the lecturer in addition to recommended textbooks (such as for instance slides, lecture notes, exercises, bibliography) and communications from the lecturer specific to the course can be found inside the Moodle platform › blended.uniurb.it

Innovative teaching methods

Assessment

Each student makes up a portfolio during the practical sessions of teaching in view to elaborate the prosodic analysis of three samples of words in French.

The oral examination consists of the presentation and discussion of the three samples. The assessment of the test is based on the student's ability to elaborate and consolidate the analysis of authentic samples of contemporary French.

Disability and Specific Learning Disorders (SLD)

Students who have registered their disability certification or SLD certification with the Inclusion and Right to Study Office can request to use conceptual maps (for keywords) during exams.

To this end, it is necessary to send the maps, two weeks before the exam date, to the course instructor, who will verify their compliance with the university guidelines and may request modifications.

Teaching

Non-attending students are invited to consult the teaching material uploaded onto Moodle (slides discussed in class) through which it will be possible to study the chapters in greater depth in the "Study Texts" section.

Non-attending students must independently develop the software command needed to study an authentic voice sample.

This sample will be proposed for individual study by the lecturer. The examination will focus on the presentation of a single prosodic speech sample (instead of three) and the presentation of a chapter from the reference texts agreed with the lecturer.