Prosodic organization and meaning effects in four different interpretations of “Na Batucada da Vida”

Abstract

In this study we propose a look on the voice phenomenon, in which linguistic aspects of voice interpretation in a song can be taken into account. Based on the theory of Prosodic Phonology, we aim to understand how a group of judges auditively perceive the way in which Carmen Miranda, Dircinha Batista, Elis Regina and Ná Ozzetti prosodically organize the lyrics of the song “Na Batucada da Vida”. More specifically we analyze the perception of how the interpreters organize and delimit the Intonational Phrase (I), a constituent of prosodic hierarchy, whose limits can be marked by pauses. Since I is a constituent that takes into account semantic elements for its definition, the creation of different meaning effects in each interpretation can be defined from the different ways in which the interpreters organize I. Considering the view that voice and language are inseparable, we demonstrate, based on the different ways of organizing the Intonational Phase, the possible attributions of meaning to the interpretations. The ways in which the interpreters organize I are influenced by their subjectivity marks. On the other hand, similarities may be explained by the influence of previous interpreters on more recent ones as well as the influence of information of musical nature.