Russian Journal of LinguisticsRussian Journal of LinguisticsRussian Journal of Linguistics2687-00882686-8024Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia named after Patrice Lumumba (RUDN University)9392ArticlesСтатьиArticlesResearch ArticleProsody-Pragmatics Interface in the Sitcom DiscourseВзаимодействие просодии и прагматики в дискурсе ситкомаBiláMagdalénaБилаМагдаленаmagduska_bila@yahoo.comKačmárováAlenaКасмароваАленаalenakac@unipo.skUniversity of Prešov in PrešovПрешовский университет г. Прешов, СловакияUniversity of Prešov in PrešovПрешовский университет, г. Прешов, Словакия150420144NO4 (2014)№4 (2014)17818709092016Copyright ©; 2014, Bilá M., Kačmárová A.Copyright ©; 2014, Била М., Касмарова А.Copyright ©; 2014, Bilá M., Kačmárová A.2014Bilá M., Kačmárová A.Била М., Касмарова А.Bilá M., Kačmárová A.https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0https://journals.rudn.ru/linguistics/article/view/9392The paper presents the outcomes of the analysis of the tonic stress placement and its interpretation in terms of a speaker’s communicative intention in the original version of the episode of the sitcom ‘Friends’. Phonetic and pragmatic analyses of an utterance represent a combination of langue and parole phenomena and that of quantitative and qualitative approaches. The research intention is to explore quasi-spontaneous conversational speech of American variety of English, and to establish in what manner the occurrence of tonic stress is reflected in pragmatic interpretation of the selected audio-visual text. The findings show that the genre of pre-scripted text does not necessarily inhibit and/or determine the mere vocal realization and pragmatic reading.tonic stress placementspeaker meaningcommunicative intentionillocutionary force1.Celce-Murcia, M. and Larsen-Freeman, D. The Grammar Book - An ESL/EFL Teacher’s Course, Heinle & Heinle Publishers, 1983.2.Clarke, R. Jakobson, R. „Linguistics and Poetics“, 2005, [cit. 10-09-23]. Available at: http://www.rlwclarke.net/Courses/LITS3304/2004-2005/05AJakobsonLinguisticsAndPoetics.pdf.3.Friends. Online document. [cit. 11-09-15]. Available at: http://seriarecenze.webnode.sk/friends.4.Gussenhoven, C. Types of focus in English [cit. 13-04-15]. Available at: 5.Kenworthy. J. Teaching English Pronunciation. Longman Publishing Group, 1989.6.Laver, J. Principles of Phonetics, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.7.Leech, G. Principles of Pragmatics. Longman Group Ltd., 1983.8.Nenkova, A. and Jurafsky, D. Automatic Detection of Contrastive Elements in Spontaneous Speech. [cit. 13-04-15]. Available at: www.cis.upenn.edu/~nenkova/papers/asru07.pdf.9.Romero-Fresco, P. A Corpus-Based Study on the Naturalness of the Spanish Dubbing Language: the Analysis of Discourse Markers in the Dubbed Translation of Friends, 2009, [cit. 11-09-15]. Available at: http://www.ros.hw.ac.uk/handle/10399/2237.10.Tench, P. The Intonation Systems of English, Cassell, 1996.11.Widdowson, H.G. Text, context, pretext: critical issues in discourse analysis. Oxford: OUP, 2004.