The ITI Delta

Strangers on a Train
A: Going far?
B: Brighton. You?
A: Brighton. Holiday?
B: Work? You?
A: Work? Husband?
B: Alone.
A: Mario’s? 7?
B: Why not?
The ITI Delta

How does the change of intonation on each sentence in the pair change
its meaning?

↗↘

1. A: Those who sold quickly made a profit.

↗

B: Those who sold quickly made a profit.

↗↘

2. A: The police threatened to arrest those who were drinking after midnight.
↘

B. The police threatened to arrest those who were drinking after midnight.

↘

3. A: We didn’t go to the cinema because it was raining.
↘

B: We didn’t go to the cinema because it was raining.

↘

4. A: She wouldn’t kiss anybody.
↗

B: She wouldn’t kiss anybody.

↗

5. A: When danger threatens your children call the police.
↗

B: When danger threatens your children call the police.
The ITI Delta

Tone units

• Can you break this up into 5 tone units?

and then nearer to the front on the

left there’s a bit of forest coming
down to the waterside and then a bit
of bay

Roach, P. (2009) English Phonetics and Phonology 4th Ed. Cambridge

 The ITI Delta

What are the functions of intonation?

Kenworthy considers 2 – foregrounding & backgrounding

Crystal suggests 6 - emotional / grammatical / informational (discourse)

/ textual (contrast & cohesion in text) / psychological
(to aid memory in chunking) / indexical (marking
social or personal identity)
Roach – most widely considered – suggests 4

Function Comments Examples

Grammatical - Wh qus – falling ↘
 Where do you live?
↗
 Are you a doctor?
↗ ↘
 Would you like tea or coffee?
↗ ↗ ↗ ↘
 I’ve got a pen, a pencil, a ruler and a book.
Attitudinal “John’s getting married.”
↘
 Really?
↗↘
 Really?

Accentual ↘
He bought a car.
↘
He bought a car.

Discoursal ↘
- He’s going to Cadiz in Portugal.
↗ ↘
- But Cadiz is in Spain.