ON THE ESSENCE OF THE PROSODIC INDEX IN TIMBRAL TEXT ANALYSIS

Abstract

The article addresses the issue of meaning formation in text, where prosody plays a significant role. The text encompasses graphical, stylistic, semantic, and pragmatic components reflective of prosody. The author establishes a hierarchy wherein text elements acquire a “prosodic index,” determining the prominence of elements in relation to one another. This prosodic index depends on both linguistic components expressed through the speech prosody and its relative weight compared to other indices. The aggregate of prosodic indices within a text forms a system termed “timbre” by M.E. Konurbaev. As recipients read the text, they reconstruct this hierarchical system and form a coherent semantic “picture” of the text. The article illustrates how words and phrases acquire a prosodic index, exemplified through defamiliarization of the inner form of the word and extended metaphor. It investigates the role of prosodic index formation in revealing how authors structure messages and “guide” readers to extract content from them. The analysis demonstrates the importance of working with the prosodic index in studying meaning formation mechanisms, as well as indicating the elements of classical, linguistic, and stylistic text analysis necessary for its identification. Timbral analysis aids in identifying explicit, implicit, and ancillary meanings, relying on the prosodic prominence of elements in the text.