INTONATION

Margarita Vinagre Department of English Studies UAM

Lets consider the following example first:

Question: What is the difference in the way the following two sentences sound?
A. .

He is going tomorrow. He is going tomorrow?

Answer: !he "melodies# of the two sentences are different$

% % % %

!he melody of sentence A drops at the end& ma'ing it a statement. !he melody of sentence rises at the end& ma'ing it a (uestion. In languages like English, we call these sentence melodies intonations. All spoken languages have intonations.

?What is intonation
%)ntonation is a term used to refer to the distinctive use of different patterns of pitch that carry meaningful information. *itch is the rate of +i,ration of the +ocal folds. When we spea'& normally the pitch of our +oice is constantly changing. We descri,e pitch in terms of high and low.

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money

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One"s#lla$le utterance:
% !wo

common e-amples of one.sylla,le utterances are "yes# and

"no#. We ha+e a num,er of choices for saying these words using different pitch patterns. %!he two words can ,e said with the pitch remaining at a constant le+el /level intonation0 which is not common& or with the pitch changing from one le+el to another /moving intonation0 which is more natural. % o!ing Intonation: Rising intonation means the pitch of the +oice increases o+er time1 falling intonation means that the pitch decreases with time.

&#ntactic 'unction
%)f the same utterance is produced with different intonation& the meaning con+eyed will ,e different. !his difference is signaled ,y intonation patterns. %)n English& such different intonation patterns ha+e different s#ntactic functions. 2ne sentence can ,e a (uestion& a declarati+e statement& an e-pression of surprise& or an e-pression of dou,t. 3ompare$ %right? with a rising tone and right. with a falling tone %)n English& the utterance It is a cat will ,e regarded as a statement when there is a fall in pitch& and the same utterance will ,e regarded as a (uestion if the pitch rises.

&uprasegmental phonolog#

Stress $ applied to units larger than phonemes /.4 segmental phonology0& i.e. sylla,les )ntonation $ pitch of +oice plays an important part1 it is constantly changing during speech1 analysing intonation refers to listening to the spea'er5s pitch and recognising what it is doing

(itch

Defined in terms of high and low /ar,itrary choices for end.points of the pitch scale0 Auditory sensation e-perienced ,y the hearer We are not interested in all aspects of a spea'er5s pitch& ,ut in those that carry some linguistic information Spea'ers ha+e control o+er their own pitch of +oice& and the possi,ility of choice /this may ha+e linguistic significance0

Necessar# conditions for pitch differences to $e linguisticall# rele!ant

eing under spea'er5s control *itch differences must ,e percepti,le /great enough to ,e heard ,y a listener as differences in pitch0 Significance in linguistics lies in contrasts /a set of items a unit contrasts with0

'orm and function of intonation

)n the shortest piece of speech 6 single sylla,le A continuous piece of speech ,eginning and ending with a pause 6 utterance 2ne sylla,le utterances li'e 7yes8 and 7no8 E+en in one sylla,le words we can either remain at a constant pitch le+el or change it

Important definitions )*rom$ie+ ,-./0

!onality$ 9di+iding the flow of speech into tone groups or tone units9 !onicity$9locating the sylla,les on which ma:or mo+ements of pitch occur 9 !one$ 9identifying the direction of pitch mo+ements 9

!one

)t is the term used for the o+erall ,eha+iour of the pitch )t can ,e le+el or mo+ing !he latter is more common ;e+el tone does not sound natural When saying yes or no in a final manner& falling tone is usually used Whereas for (uestioning rising tone is used /compare yes<no and yes<no?0

Tone and tone languages

!one is mar'ed ,efore the sylla,le$

le+el =yes falling yes rising yes )n this way we can also mar' the high tone le+el and low tone le+el !his is not always the case for all languages i.e 3hinese& where the tone can determine the meaning of the word in (uestion =ma ma ma http$<<www.youtu,e.com<watch?+>g?,Hd@csABC

&peech ma# $e di!ided into tone units )Tonalit#01 2ach tone unit is composed of:
A

tonic sylla,le /o,ligatory0$ the sylla,le that carries the tone. those !he part of a tone unit that e-tends from the first stressed sylla,le up to /,ut not including0 the tonic sylla,le is called the head$ gi+e me those ill called to gi+e me those )f there is no stressed sylla,le ,efore the tonic sylla,le there cannot ,e a head$ in an hour /pre. head0

!he

pre"head is composed of all the unstressed sylla,les in a tone unit preceeding the first stressed sylla,le. !hey are found in two main en+ironments$ a0When there is no head /i.e. no stressed sylla,le preceding the tonic sylla,le0$ in an hour ,0When there is a head& as in the following e-ample$ in a little less than an hour pre.head head tonic sylla,le

Any sylla,les ,etween the tonic sylla,le and the end of the tone unit are called the tail$ loo' at it what did you say ,oth of them were here When it is necessary to mar' a stress in a tail we use a dot /%0$ what did you % say ,oth of them were %here

In s#nthesis:

/pre.head0

/head0 tonic sylla,le /tail0

O3

/*H0

/H0

!S

/!0

Tonicit#: locating the s#lla$les on which ma4or mo!ements of pitch occur )tonic s#lla$les0 A tonic sylla,le is$

!he most prominent sylla,le !he anchor point for tone Dot necessarily highest pitch

(itch mo!ement in the tail

tonic sylla,le$ where pitch mo+ement ,egins tail$ sylla,les after the tonic sylla,le

.my Ehampster li5es 6ritne# &pears .my <hampster li5es 6ritne# &pears .my +hampster li5es 6ritne# &pears

*omplex tones and pitch height

Each 'all$

of these tones may e-press particular attitudes$

neutral statement 3ise$ neutral (uestion& dou,t 'all"3ise$ scepticism 3ise"'all$ emphatic statement Le!el$ ,oredom& disinterest )n ordinary speech intonation tends to ta'e place within the lower part of the spea'er5s pitch range. 2nly with strong feelings we use e-tra pitch height.

'all: neutral statement+ conclusion

E.g. Ha+e you seen Ann? Fes. /Galling intonation indicates ") ha+e answered your (uestion and do not intend to add anything else#0

3ise: 7uestioning+ dou$t+ desire to continue con!ersation

E.g. Ha+e you seen Ann lately? FesH /Iising intonation indicates ") want to continue the con+ersation& ) am curious#0

3ise"'all: emphatic statement+ irritation+ command

Do ) really ha+e to clean my room? FesJ

'all"3ise: surprise+ scepticism

Ann and *eter were on good terms at the party? FesJ

Le!el: $oredom+ lac5 of interest

3an you remem,er *eter Bac'son& the cost consultant for our company in !aiwan? !he other day in the office ) in+ited him for dinner& he#ll ,e coming tomorrow. Fes.

We shall $egin $# considering the fall: here is a tone unit solel# composed of a tonic s#lla$le

Things $ecome more complicated when we add s#lla$les

In this case there are no stressed s#lla$les $efore the tonic: %I said is the pre-head

8ere we ha!e added a stressed s#lla$le+ %told+ $efore the tonic+ which is called the head1 Notice how the intonation rises from the pre"head

8ere we ha!e added s#lla$les after the tonic+ this is called the tail1 Note how it tends to follow the intonation pattern of the tonic1

This is o$!iousl# not the onl# possi$le realisation of this sentence1 If we put the main stress on %told+ it changes the pattern completel#

In a similar wa# a rising tonic s#lla$le will condition its tail: here %when is the tonic s#lla$le

Again when we come to complex tone we find the tail following the tonic s#lla$le: for a fall"rise the fall occurs on the tonic and the rise at the end of the tail

No matter how man# s#lla$les there are in the tail+ the rise finishes on the last

While diagrams are immediate and clear+ a more practical s#stem of s#m$ols has $een de!eloped to denote innotation

&tressed s#lla$les in the head are noted with a !ertical tic5

) want to go to the dentist5s.

&tressed s#lla$les in the tail are noted with a dot ) want to go to the dentists to%morrow %morning

9ou$le !ertical lines di!ide tone units

) want to go to the dentists to%morrow %morning )+e got a terri,le toothache

2xercises

Di+ide the following utterances into tone units and decide where the tonic or nucleus might fall in each tone unit$ K. !he first student to finish can go early ?. Sadly& Maurice has gone away L. !he person who was watching me left a tic'et ,ehind C. Alan couldnMt ma'e it so Nen too' his place

Answers
K. ?. L.

C.

<<!he first student to finish<< can go early<< <<Sadly<< Maurice has gone away<< << !he person who was watching me <<left a tic'et ,ehind<< <<Alan couldnMt ma'e it <<so Nen too' his place<<

ore exercises

http$<<www.englishmediala,.com<pronunciatio n<upper.intermediateO?Pintonation O?Pe-ercise.htm http$<<www.tolearnenglish.com<e-ercises<e-erc ise.english.K<e-ercise.english.QRC.php http$<<eolf.uni+.fcomte.fr<inde-.php?page>S?

Intonation practice
)ntonation K& ?& L T C. http$<<www.youtu,e.com<watch?+>g?,Hd@csABC http$<<www.youtu,e.com<watch?+>UhQ'UsBcuL' http$<<www.youtu,e.com<watch? +>'VPwi!Pt?rcTfeature>related http$<<www.youtu,e.com<watch? +>(;WB,QLm'yATfeature>channel )ntonation /a ,it strongJ0 http$<<cornwalltu,e.com<+iew.php? +ideo>@fwpgMdW'UETfeature>youtu,e=gdataTtitl e>)ntonation

*ractice pitch cur+es http$<<www.llas.ac.u'<materials,an'<m,PVK<pa ge=?K.htm

en:amin Xander& director de la Ioyal *hilarmonic or(uesta $ http$<<+ideo.google.es<+ideoplay?docid>. Q?PP?SKSQKQLYCRLPPCThl>esZ