Realization of intonation structures in reading attempt and spontaneous speech in the elderly

Introduction
The articulation activities of respondents with healthy physiological aging of the brain structures is a significant differentiating factor because slight changes occur on the suprasegmental plane of the language. In the linguistic prosody, the most important elements of the act of utterance emerge in the foreground, which relates to lexical stress (the syllable in a word is stressed), emphatic stress (the word in a sentence is stressed), and intonation (chanting in a sentence, questions, statements). The indicated elements are directed by the part of the right hemisphere of the brain that is responsible for processing and understanding speech prosody, i.e. the posterior cortex in the area of the Sylvius sulcus and the lower part of the right frontal lobe.

Aim of the research: Identifying suprasegmental features of language on the example of selected read texts and spontaneous oral statements.

Material and methods
The study was conducted in a group of healthy seniors attending classes organized by clubs and retirement homes. The spectrographic method was used, including the Praat speech program. The graphic version is presented in the form of intonograms.

Results
Minor disturbances in the rhythmic-intonation structure were found in the subjects without concomitant speech organ dysfunctions and without previous neurological episodes that could affect the implementation of intonation structures.

Conclusions
The realization of particular intonation structures is influenced by the speaker’s emotions, intentions, and attitude towards the interlocutor. This means that intonation is of great importance in the process of not only realizing certain levels of language organization, but also in the communicative situation, and thus in the implementation of grammatical and semantic functions.