PROSODYPRAGMATICS INTERFACE IN THE SITCOM DISCOURSE Magdalйna Bilб, Alena Kačmбrovб University of Prešov in Prešov ul. 17. novembra 1, Prešov, Slovakia, 08078 The 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. <...> Key words: prosody, tonic stress placement, speaker meaning, communicative intention, illocutionary force 1. <...> INTRODUCTION Austin’s beneficiary input in perceiving language was the idea that whatever is uttered at both carries a particular meaning and represents a particular activity. <...> This is to say that an utterance conveys a certain force which will subsequently result in a particular activity. <...> Leech [7] calls attention to the fact that it is advisable to differentiate between an illocutionary force and an illocutionary act. <...> He [7] understands an illocutionary force as a communication plan/aim implied in a speaker’s utterance; his understanding of an illocutionary act is such that it is the fulfilment of that particular communication aim. <...> An illocutionary force can be carried out by means of specific language means, though. <...> A certain discourse type needs language means that communicate its functions. <...> Our focus is audio-visual text, a film dialogue reflecting a conversational routine of a particular contextually embedded language and is both entertaining and attractive for viewers. <...> It mirrors linguistic behaviour in a particular communication act and the roles we take up in the social setting. <...> It is created with ambition to give the illusion of natural/idiomatic linguistic and non-linguistic behaviour. <...> Such collaborative work of a whole team may have a potential to add to the naturalness and credibility of film dialogue (cf [9]), which is why a common viewer may well perceive a film dialogue as spontaneous speech. <...> Prosody-Pragmatics Interface in the Sitcom Discourse scripted text means to its speakers. <...> The research plan consists of three steps: 1/ the identification of emphatic stress placement in the target language material, 2/ the identification of communication functions in the target <...>