The Principle of Distinctive and Contrastive Coherence of Prosody in Radio News: An Analysis of Perception and Recognition

The prosodic features of a message are key factors in the transmission of information by radio. Some authors have demonstrated that perception and proper comprehension of radio news depend largely on the intonation, stress and speech rate used by the broadcaster. The aim of this study, therefore, is to determine the degrees of perception and recognition of information broadcast by radio when the prosodic features used in the transmission are modified. The main conclusion reached is that there is indeed a relationship between the prosodic combination employed and the way in which such information is perceived and recognized, and providing that the prosodic features observe the principle of distinctive and contrastive coherence, the information is perceived positively and recognition is highest.