Prosody
of humor in Sex and the City 183
of the intonation unit. The first unit is higher than the rest and progressively the
pitch lowers as the “speaker’s air pressure diminishes” (Wennerstrom 2001: 29). A
detailed analysis shows slight changes in the average pitch following the pattern of
high pitch at the beginning of each intonational unit and contrasting lower pitch
in the following units. A detailed analysis of the pitch changes as shown in Table 4,
identifies a pattern of High Pitch-Low Pitch in a contrasting manner that works
in the narrative as a whole and within the intonational units. So, the first is said at
a higher pitch than the second (325.79 Hz and 226.18 Hz). Again higher pitch is
found at the beginning of the third intonational unit (251.72 Hz). The fourth and
fifth units can be considered as a part of same unit, although there is a very brief
pause between 4 and 5, and the content of 5 contrasts clearly with the negative
description of Kurt she has just given. Finally, unit 6 is said in a muttering tone in
a much lower pitch than all the previous units (160.6 Hz).
Humor seems to be performed prosodically by the pauses and the contrasting
changes of pitch we observed within 1 and 2, 3 and 4 and 5, and then, 6 in contrast
with all the previous pitches. Although neither the first nor the second units are
humorous by themselves, the pitch contrast indicates some meaning contrast. In
the first unit, Carrie expresses her feelings clearly and emphatically while the sec-
ond unit’s lower pitch preempt some of the emphasis of the previous unit. Finally
in 5 and then in 6, after being very negative towards Kurt, she gives new informa-
tion lowering her pitch, and indicates an ironic or playful attitude towards what
she is saying and towards her previous utterances.
In the next example, Carrie introduces the audience to the phenomenon of
modelizers. While the pause introduced in front of “modelizers” might serve the
purpose of making the information to follow more easily accessible, the pause
after “models” clearly emphasizes the effect of the humor introduced afterwards.
The next pause before “but in Manhattan” has a similar effect contrasting the two
utterances as incongruous and emphasizing the humor to follow the pause. The
humor style of this passage is related to the metaphorical exaggeration that under-
lies the choice of words (see Table 5). Prompted by the definition of the “model-
izers” as a “particular breed” (Table 5 line 1) Carrie chooses vocabulary that can be
referred to humans and to animals. The underlying reference is the vocabulary and
style of a nature documentary where the modelizers are presented as a particular
evolution of womanizers. The expressions “step behind” “safely confined” can be
ambiguous (line 2 and 3). The metaphor gets expanded in 4 when she explicitly
describes the models as “creatures” which “run wild” in the streets and Manhattan
is a “virtual model country safari”. The analysis of the pitch in this section shows
a contrasting change between each intonational unit. The first one in 220.30 Hz is
contrasting with the following unit in 178.31 Hz, while it rises to 206.04 in 3, and
184 Eduardo Urios-Aparisi and Manuela Wagner
lowers again to 193.07 Hz in 4. The combination of pauses/pitch and intercuts of
images illustrating what is said by Carrie is a frequent device in this context.
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