Books by Beatrice Szczepek Reed

This is an accessible introduction to the prosody of everyday conversation, and its analysis. Basic concepts and methods of interpretation are explained, and a wealth of examples from naturally-occurring talk are used to demonstrate the roles of pitch, time, loudness and voice quality.

The first study, based on instances of everyday talk, to analyze prosodic orientation, a conversational strategy by which speakers design their speaking voice according to the vocal patterns used by their conversational partners. The book explores forms and functions of prosodic orientation, and offers a new perspective on prosody in conversation.