THE PROSODIC AND SOUND BEHAVIOR OF RUSSIAN CLITICAL PARTICLES

The study considers the influence of prosodic isolation on the segment composition of particles using the example of a clitical particle vot. Particles and prosodic prominence have the same role in an utterance. The question of the connection between prominence and the behavior of particles is still open. We have identified six functionally different positions related to the prominence of clitical particles: 1) the emphasis on the word to which the particle belongs, 2) accentuation of the syntagma which includes a particle, 3) neutral pronunciation of the segment which includes a particle, 4) particle at the beginning or at the very end of the phrase before the pause under the phrase stress, 5) particles as fillers of pauses of hezatation, 6) clichéd structures which include a particle.

The clitical particle vot can be used in all possible positions associated with prominence. The research has shown that accentuation influences the quality of a vowel in a particle: the stronger the prominence, the greater the percentage of pronouncing the vowel without reduction. The prosodically neutral position of vot in a phrase provokes the greatest fluctuation in the pronunciation of the particle. Clitical particles without reduced vowels tend to show their independence in the utterance. On the other hand, when the pronunciation of the particle is reduced in the flow of speech, they seem to be “over- written”, become hard to discern.