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IntroductionThe weather forecast is a very typical programme on both radio and TV, and can also be accessed via the internet. The BBC celebrated 60 years of broadcasting the weather forecast live in 2014, and the Met Office – which is the source for my corpus – has been forecasting for over 150 years. Yet, even though it is clearly aimed at the general public, it is also a highly specialized field with a certain number of specific characteristics. It is these characteristics which this article will attempt to define within this multimodal context. I will look at prosodic features as well as other significant characteristics of the weather forecast; and I shall try to see what challenges it presents in terms of the perception of its message. 1 The CorpusThe corpus focuses exclusively on the UK, and mainly on the Met Office weather forecast updates available on the internet,1 but it also includes one forecast by Michael Fish from 19792 so as to appreciate the changes over the past few decades. Beyond the fact that these forecasts necessarily include a certain amount of variation in the weather itself, they also imply clear focus on the informational aspect associated with visual aids since the target audience has freely chosen to access a website.3 A complementary corpus was also considered and includes other recordings of weather forecasts by non professionals,4 and recordings of some of the professional forecasters outside the context of the forecast, but on the subject of the weather.5 The recordings were scripted and then analysed from visual, lexical6 and prosodic perspectives, using the acoustic analysis software PRAAT (Boersma and Weenink, 2014).2 A particular style of discourse When tuning in to the weather forecast, it is quite easy to identify the type of programme, which leads me to consider it as a “genre”. Indeed, the definition given in the Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary, 7th edition, 2005, states that a genre is: “a particular type or style […] that you can recognize because of its special features”. It does, however, specify “literature, art, film or music”, so the weather forecast may not truly be considered as such, but it does nevertheless possess at least three very recognizable features.First, the forecast corresponds to a pre-established discourse situation involving a technical presentation with a generally neutral standpoint. It will also make use of a specific lexical field both to refer to the weather and to structure the discourse. Thirdly, it has recognizable prosodic patterns. These three characteristics may be exemplified in the phrase: “sunshine and scattered showers”.7 Indeed, the phrase has a predictable prosodic pattern as follows: /↘sunshine / and scattered ↘showers/ with a low fall on the first tone unit and a higher fall on the second, as an echo of the first; it includes specific weather terms and has a fairly high information content; and it is an expression which is frequently encountered in the weather forecast. I will be looking more closely at both lexical and prosodic features of the weather forecast later on, but let us first look at the general characteristics of this particular type of media.The weather forecast constitutes a specific communication situation, according to the criteria proposed by Sandré (2013) when defining discourse types. She in fact quotes the weather forecast as an example of what Wichmann calls “goal-oriented” discourse (Wichmann 2000): « Certains genres ont un but très précis (le bulletin météo par exemple, qui a obligation de donner des indications météorologiques sur les jours à venir) » (Sandré 2013: 30). Sandré also identifies the time-space framework and the participatory framework as relevant for the analysis, where Wichmann’s classification refers to oppositions between public/private and monologue/dialogue. Using these criteria, I propose to define the weather forecast discourse situation which is under study as follows: a public goal-oriented situation involving regular studio recordings whose aim is to give information regarding the weather for the next few hours or days; the information is accompanied by visual representations, and given by just one person without any apparent interaction.As Silber-Varod and Kessous (2008) underline in their case study based on weather forecasts in Hebrew: “The goal of the speaker is to convey a maximum amount of information in a minimum amount of time and in the most comprehensible way possible.” Beyond the time constraint, the discourse situation represents a specific challenge as the speaker is a professional meteorologist who possesses technical information about the subject enabling him/her to use technical terms and representations. The listener, however, represents a target audience which has a priori no shared specialist knowledge, so there is a considerable competence gap between the speaker and the listener, whether the listener is a native speaker or not. What does the speaker do to bridge this gap and enable the listener to understand all this information?2.1 Visual cuesOne of the specificities of the weather forecast is their use of graphic representations, as we can see in Figure 1. The first section (green) recapitulates how they use immediately understandable charts or maps which demonstrate visually the situation the meteorologist is describing. The second section (orange) corresponds to more technical forms which need to be accompanied by a certain amount of comment and explanation to be understood. Figure 1: graphic representationsThe table shows how much the weather forecast has evolved since 1979 as Michael Fish was simply unable to use many of the static and immediately understandable representations which are available today; of course, today’s presenters make extensive use of them, thereby communicating well with the uninitiated target audience. But if Michael Fish had no other option but to use more technical representations, today’s meteorologists seem to vary considerably in what technical representations they use, and how much they use them. Yet, whatever style the meteorologist decides to adopt, these visual aids are always accompanied with explanations and he/she uses gesture (pointing to the appropriate part of the country or meteorological tendency), again helping the audience to follow the explanations. Moreover, he/she also makes frequent use of the verb “see” (particularly “we see”), which shows a definite attempt to communicate with the audience, even identifying with the listeners. This will be further studied in the section on the use of lexical choices, but it does already raise the question of how the speaker reaches the target audience in this particular oral discourse situation.2.2 A general patternLet us now consider what the general characteristics of the weather forecast are, as regards the “text” itself. According to Silber-Varod and Kessous (2008), “it is planned speech where a skilled reader reads out a previously constructed text.” This was indeed my own expectation when I set out to research this subject, because we tend to associate the weather forecast with the news which is clearly scripted. Yet I was surprised to find that in the corpus under study this was not the case. Crystal (1995: 296), who also lays emphasis on the time constraint, considers the weather forecast as unscripted and spontaneous discourse: “the visual material is prepared in advance, but during the broadcast the spoken commentary is spontaneous.” This spontaneity is at least partially reflected in the pace at which they speak.Figure 2: the corpus, pace for professional weather forecastersUnprepared speech such as we find in conversation can be very quick. The pace of the weather forecasters in our corpus is quick too (between 201 and 246 wpm), certainly quicker than what we would expect in a radio programme,8 for example. And indeed, I saw that this is one of the major differences between professional forecasters who speak from their notes (they have of course prepared the forecast themselves) and non professionals reading a script. Prince Charles only reads at a rate of 178 wpm, although he is used to public speaking, just not the weather forecast. L2 students9 read between 120 and 170 wpm, just one or two of them around 200 wpm. Likewise, when listening to a TV report on the weather,10 doubtless read from a script, the reporter only speaks at 153 wpm. If quick pace is one characteristic of unscripted discourse; another is that we make performance errors because we are trying to speak without hesitation, as fluidly as possible. For example, we hear “the Scotland” (the forecaster was going to say “the north” and changed her mind in mid-sentence), and “a amber warning”… but the forecaster generally just carries on regardless (there is a time constraint to be respected).11 Of course the sort of mistakes a professional forecaster makes are very different from those made by non-professionals: for example Prince Charles cuts a technical term in the wrong place: “and this weather ah front pushing northward”. Yet, it does happen that a Met Office broadcaster stumbles and decides to begin again, like Phoebe Smith in a January broadcast (15/01/14). Interestingly, the false start is recorded so we can see that the same information is given but formulated with subtle changes12 (but much the same prosody).2.3 On the lexical front: a varied registerWith regard to the discourse type, we expect an informative forecast involving a specialist lexical field, and indeed a study of the forecasts13 reveals some use of certain specialized terms, as shown in the following table.Figure 3: specialized terms / frequencySpecialized terms (frequency)Specialized compound terms/ MWUspressure (22)low pressure; high pressure; pressure chart; pressure patternsystem(s) (12)pressure systemfront(s) (9)cold front; warm front; weather frontfrontal (6)frontal systemband (9)band of rainisobars (7)tightly-packed isobarsdetail14 (6)As we see, the specialist lexicon involves many compound word formations such as “pressure” forming “low” or “high pressure”, “pressure system”. As the next figure shows, the specific lexical field, with words such as “rain”, “shower, “wind(s)” or “temperature(s)” are also largely represented, as are references to geographical location in the UK together with directional or descriptive adjectives like “south/ southern”, “north/ northern”.15 Figure 4: words referring to weather / frequency (1018 word types)Word (rank)N° of tokensWord (rank)N° of tokensWord (rank)N° of tokensrain (17)96Scotland (53)40south (14)100showers (32)57UK (53)40west (19)87weather (33)56England(54)39north (21)77temperatures - temperature (51)41 + 3Wales (93)24east (44)45cloud (58)37Ireland (105)21northern 49)42snow (70)31western (95)24sunshine (71)31southern (107)21winds – wind (88)26 + 18eastern (173)12central (239)7Likewise, there are numerous time references (“through the day/ morning/afternoon”) and prepositions are widely used to specify time and place. In fact, “through” is used some 54 times to refer to both time and space, and “across” is the tenth most frequent word in the corpus with over 100 tokens. There is also a predominance of verbs indicating movement, change or influence. Yet, despite the number of words referring to the specialist field, we in fact have a very variable register in terms of specialization or technicality. Crystal (1995: 385) refers to a mixture of “controlled informality and friendly authority.” Forecasters may speak of isobars, but they will talk about temperatures which struggle (the weather is often viewed as a battlefield where the elements are engaged in a fight), and we also hear certain set expressions like “we’re not out of the woods yet”16 to warn listeners that, despite improving conditions, the weather may continue to be unpleasant. A good example of the use of a clearly oral register is the example of the word “chilly” which is used to refer to cold(ish) temperatures. The word is an informal one, used conversationally, but we would not expect it to be used in a formal context. Moreover, the co-text of “chilly” frequently features adverbs like “fairly”, or “pretty”,17 which also correspond to an oral register;18 and it also appears in very colloquial expressions like “a little bit on the chilly side”.19 These are what Crystal terms “fuzzy expressions” (Crystal 1995: 169), which, he suggests, play a role in efficient communication by relating to what the “ordinary” person understands. Indeed, the target audience does not possess shared specialist knowledge which explains why forecasters choose to use so many expressions belonging to a common, and even informal, register, thereby bridging the competence gap.Another characteristic of the weather forecast is widespread use of collocations and set phrases.20 This implies that the listener is often capable of predicting the complete phrase just by hearing part of it, as in the case of “sunshine and scattered showers”. Indeed, “scattered” will almost systematically be found with either “rain” or “showers”; “blustery”, another word from a more informal register, can be found with “day”, “showers” or “wind”. If a native speaker is asked to give word associations, the reply will be almost instantaneous: “outbreaks” + “rain”; “patchy” + “fog” “sunny” + “spells”, “chilly” + “temperatures”. This makes the weather forecast easier for native speakers to understand as they can predict to a great extent, and in the case of certain collocations, the information is even doubled.21 For non-native speakers, however, this clearly constitutes a comprehension barrier because they do not make these associations, and in any case the words are unfamiliar to them. Indeed, McCarthy and O’Dell devote a section of their work on collocations to the weather forecast (McCarthy and O’Dell 2005: 30-31).2.4 A multi-modal situation: between the speaker and the audienceConnecting with the target audience is obviously a real issue, and using an informal register is one way of doing this. It is so widespread that one is tempted to speak of interaction between speaker and listener, although this is, of course, impossible in view of the participatory framework. There is, however, a real attempt to relate to the listener in a variety of ways.In this multimodal oral situation, gesture is used, although it mostly accompanies what can already be seen on the screen: pointing to a place, or showing a movement. This is often associated with the demonstratives “this” and “that”, and the forecaster clearly identifies with the audience using the pronoun “we”.22 But subjectivity goes beyond using the first person. Forecasters use sensory verbs like “feel” to show how the weather conditions they are predicting will affect the listener (as well as themselves). Value judgements are also made, as in Example 12: “temperatures are still pretty good for the time of year….”. Adjectives like “disappointing” (Examples 3 and 6), “lucky” (Example 3) or adverbs such as “unfortunately” (Examples 10 and 11) or “thankfully”, (Example 8) all show a definite point of view23 regarding the conditions which are described. This analysis suggests that the way the forecast is expressed reflects the audience’s expectations rather than the neutral informational perspective which might be expected in this discourse situation. Finally, forecasters make extensive use of oral discourse markers to link and/or structure their discourse: “so”, “and”, “but”, “well” often occur at the start of an intonational phrase. From a lexical perspective, then, we have a mixture of the formality associated with a specialist context, together with a considerable number of oral markers. There is a certain degree of identification with the listener on the part of the forecaster. The weather forecast is not read from a script; it is communicated in oral mode, which brings us to the study of prosodic features. Beyond the choice of words, how and why does the forecaster use prosody to communicate with the target audience? What patterns can be found?3 Prosodic patternsAs regards this corpus, the first pattern we saw is the jingle at the beginning of all the Met office forecasts, signalling the beginning (and end) of each update. When we first hear the tune, we expect the weather forecast update to begin and tune in to receive a certain type of information. In my analysis, I shall study prosodic patterns in relation to this information, to see how they affect our perception of the forecast.The recordings were first considered from an auditory / perceptual perspective, as well as from a visual perspective, then the audio extractions were viewed using PRAAT so as to appreciate the potential relevance of certain perceptual features, especially pitch24 (pitch height, pitch movement, relative pitch differences, and maintained pitch height).25 Intonation patterns will be analyzed in terms of pitch movement (fall, rise) and the nucleus (Wells 2006; Ashby and Maidmen, 2005). Likewise, I will use the IP (intonational phrase) as the basic unit for my study which aims to explore what prosodic features are used in this type of discourse, particularly in so far as they relate to discourse structure, topic change and highlighting.Indeed, weather forecasts as a “genre” present two potential difficulties. First, the information content is by definition repetitive and varied at the same time, because the forecaster refers to the same weather conditions or to the same places at different times or on different days. This can be confusing for any listener.26 Second, as has already been stated at the beginning of the article, forecasters have a very quick pace. The analysis will enable us to determine how far prosody plays a role in helping us follow this very quick pace, and what its role is as regards overall discourse structure.Quick pace is often said to present a comprehension difficulty, which implies that slower elocution is easier to follow. However, this is not necessarily true. In the case of Prince Charles reading the weather forecast, for example, although he is considerably slower, he is not easy to understand because the prosodic markers he uses correspond to the type of discourse he is accustomed to producing (public speaking including topics for debate). He therefore uses prosody to emphasise certain words,27 but not to structure the different parts. We therefore lose the prosodic cues we expect in this type of discourse situation. I shall now attempt to define what this prosodic style is.3.1 Prosodic cues and discourse structureThe situation implies going from one topic to another (different aspects of the weather, different parts of the country), like presenting the news headlines. New topics can be introduced by an oral connector (and, but…) which is usually produced on a much higher pitch than the preceding words. This process, known as pitch reset (Wichmann 2000), can be seen in Figure 5.Figure 5 - Example 3: Phoebe Smith 15/01 – discourse markers and pitchThe IP begins very high and gradually lowers over the phrase, reflecting expected declination and slowing towards the end.28 This is followed by much higher pitch for the next piece of information (highlighted).29 This is typical of the way information structure is conveyed through prosody, and corresponds to Wichmann’s findings for beginnings and ends (Wichmann 2000). Moreover, in this extract, as well as the very obvious pitch reset from “through the day” to “but”, the connector is also preceded by a pause which contributes to highlighting this topic change. We also see that after “but”, the forecaster narrows the previous focus of the information (“many of us”) down to “some of us”. By producing “but some of us” on the same level, as high maintained pitch, the speaker shows the difference with the previous information, implied in the lexical choice of connector, “but” thereby highlighting the contrast between “many” and “some” both lexically and prosodically. In the next example (Example 9), we again see how high pitch marks the beginning of an IP which then lowers over the rest of the IP, but here pitch also enables the speaker to highlight information. Throughout the corpus, prosodic prominence30 is used to emphasize significant facts31 (events, locations, tendencies), to contrast them, to show new tendencies and changes, but also continuation. This is the case here with very high pitch on “still”, drawing attention to the fact that the subsequent information is similar to what we already experience.32 Figure 6 - Example 9: Margaret Emerson 12/02/14 - the focusing functionPitch movement associated with the nucleus33 of the IP is also significant as the information corresponding to the nucleus is always prominent to some degree. Moreover, the choice of tone influences our perception of the message. Indeed, in this example, the nuclei for the first two IPs are respectively “breezy” and “showers”. The falling nuclear movement on “breezy” starts high, making it very prominent, whereas the second has only a low fall, implying that this is not as important as the information given previously. It is this type of marker which enables the listener to tune in to the most significant facts. The other word which stands out in terms of pitch is “also”, thereby highlighting additional different information which here contrasts with the conditions given previously. This variability in weather conditions frequently occurs and is reflected prosodically by this type of highlighting.34 Example 11 is similar to the preceding ones in several ways. First, as we see in the next figure, high pitch is used at the beginning of the IP on “unfortunately” which indicates the change in topic. We also have focus on the words “unsettled”, “further” and “turning”, which is reflected in terms of pitch. Figure 7 - Example 11: Marco Petagna 18/02/14 – focusing and commentingFor “further”, we have another example of highlighting to show continuation, in this case, of rain; conversely, “turning” indicates a change in trend. And for “unsettled”, there is a falling pitch movement as the word is the nucleus of the IP; indeed, it captures the essential information regarding weather conditions. Yet the prosodic cues in this example are a little more complex. In the first IP, with high pitch on the stressed syllable of “unfortunately” indicating the change in topic, this change is underlined by the fact that, after the high pitched stressed syllable, on the rest of the word and what follows “…unately over the next few days” the tone is maintained at a constant mid pitch level (circled in yellow). This prosodic feature involving two or three distinct steps, over the IP maintained at constant level is widely used35 and serves to structure the discourse. This phenomenon is referred to in Ashby and Maidment who point out that this use of what they call “key” “is sometimes very evident when newsreaders are changing from one news item to another”, (2005: 171). The same applies to the weather forecast.3.2 Lexical and prosodic cues: commenting and projectingBeyond marking topic change, the choice of the word “unfortunately” implies that the following information will be negatively perceived, as suggested in the first part of this article. This enables the listener to predict to some extent what is to come, thereby facilitating comprehension. This type of comment on the information given is also present at the end of this extract, but this time with no lexical cue. The change in trend, “turning quite windy”, is said with a rising tone on “windy”,36 as if the forecaster was apologizing for the bad conditions he is predicting. In the last example, we find both lexical and prosodic cues working together to express a particular perspective. Again, the first word of the IP, “temperatures”, is associated with high pitch to show topic change; what follows is quite low but the words “up into double figures” express a positive trend: first as “up” indicates they are higher, and second, the idiomatic expression “double figures” is positively connoted, so a native speaker is guided in his/her interpretation of the precise information which is then given: “thirteen or fourteen” degrees Celsius.Figure 8 - Example 13: Margaret Emerson 21/02/14 commenting and projectingThe next phrase “we could well see” implies a projection. The inclusion of “well” and the way that this word is highlighted with much higher pitch allows the forecaster to imply that the prediction is very probable, and in this instance, desirable. Indeed, it is immediately followed by figures which are to be understood as positive (“double figures”), even though in absolute terms they would not be perceived as such. The positive nature of the temperatures is clearly shown by the prosodic cues corresponding to the number “fourteen”, which is the nucleus of this IP. Indeed, the very high fall on “fourteen” reflects both perhaps the surprise of the speaker and certainly her enthusiasm. 3.3 Prosodic cues: pattern and variationThe end of this extract, “by the time we get to Sunday” is said with much slower pace, thereby indicating the end of the topic, and in this case, the end of the weather forecast update. I shall now conclude by commenting on the table in Figure 9 which recapitulates the prosodic cues that have been found in this analysis. There is considerable variation in these cues, but some appear to be of particular significance and form a regular pattern.Figure 9: recap of prosodic featuresThe first column includes a list of what is marked by prosodic cues in the weather forecast. The first two lines (in dark blue) concern the way forecasters structure the information they are transmitting overall, and how they go from one topic to a different one. The findings are relevant both in terms of topic change between IPs and within an IP. The most significant prosodic cue is high held pitch which is used to indicate a change as well as to highlight a particular topic within a given IP. Topic change is also frequently associated with pitch reset: low pitch at the end of the previous IP contrasts with high pitch at the beginning of the next IP. And within IPs, we often have slower pace at the end, as seen in the last example, or pitch declination over the IP, as seen in the first one. The next five items (in green) concern the informational contents themselves and what the forecaster is saying about them. High pitch is systematically used for highlighting, as expected, whether it be the information itself, who is concerned by it (the scope), or how important it is (degree). Likewise, high pitch is used to indicate trends, be they continuing or changing, as well as for markers of additional elements. Finally, the last line (pale blue) concerns the prosodic cues used by forecasters to comment on the information they give. This once again involves high pitch which is clearly the most significant prosodic marker in this type of discourse situation. ConclusionIn this analysis, I have tried to determine what the main characteristics of the weather forecast are, and there does indeed seem to be a regular pattern with a great many recurrent features, so they should be predictable. The forecast includes an enormous amount of, sometimes technical, information and we may wonder how significant it is that most people are usually just interested in one place or perhaps two, not in the whole forecast. Visual cues obviously help follow the information even if our interest is in one specific area, but happily, the specialist makes an effort to connect with the audience in other ways too. From a linguistic perspective, our analysis has shown that forecasters use a number of techniques which enable the audience to be receptive to important facts. First, as we have just seen, they use prosodic patterns to highlight information structure, as shown in the last table. The listener can therefore perceive when a new topic is being addressed, and focus on the most important facts as well as know who they concern, to what extent they will be affected, and how sure the forecast is. Widespread use is made of set expressions and collocations referring to the weather which are completely predictable for a native speaker and often have a reinforcing effect as the other word(s) is/are predictable in the context (“sunny spells and scattered showers”). Lastly, oral markers are often used, and an informal register including a number of idiomatic expressions so as to relate to the listener’s everyday way of speaking. The technical information is therefore presented within a more commonplace linguistic framework which is intended to make the listener feel more at home, thereby improving receptivity.I should like to consider these findings in the light of the difficulties encountered by non-native speakers. To what extent could an understanding of lexical and prosodic characteristics help improve their comprehension of this notoriously difficult type of discourse? Their first difficulty is probably the fast pace. Greater familiarity with the prosodic cues which are used should enable them to understand better the overall information structure. This obviously needs to be associated with a knowledge of the specialist terminology, the lexical field in general and a good knowledge of the geography of the UK.37Yet, this is not enough for an understanding of the weather forecast… Paradoxically, the many idiomatic expressions, collocations, and informal words which are so prevalent in this type of programme and which make it easier for a native speaker, enabling them to predict to some extent what is to follow, are almost certainly a considerable source of difficulty for the non-native. The many words like “chilly”, expressions such as “on the cards”, collocations or set expressions like “scattered showers” and “outbreaks of rain” are unfamiliar and so add an extra difficulty. This must encourage us, as teachers, to work on oral English from a wide perspective, including prosodic, lexical and grammatical aspects, and highlight the many features which are specific to oral discourse. 