HANOI UNIVERSITY

ENGLISH APARTMENT

ENGLISH PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY

FINAL ASSIGNMENT

TOPIC: INTONATION (FALL TONE)

Students: Nguyen Thi Kim Oanh - 1907010233

Pham Hoang Linh - 1907010159
Pham Minh Hieu - 1907010109

Hanoi, 11/2021
 OUTLINE
1. INTRODUCTION
- Definition
- Components of Intonation:
+ Tonality
+ Tonicity
+ Tone
2. BODY
2.1. Features of fall tone
2.2. Usage
- Statements
- Wh-questions
- Exclamations
- Commands
2.3. Types of fall tone
2.3.1. Rise - Fall
2.3.2. High Fall
2.3.3. Low Fall
3. Sample
4. Conclusion
5. References
6. Percentage of Contribution
1-Introduction
While we commonly remark that several people talk in a flat manner, it is
palpable that no one speaks in a monotone way. People all bend their
speech, making intonational contours. According to Philip Carr, intonation
is the utilization of pitch variation which is produced by changing the
tension of the vocal folds in speech and is the application of pitch contours
to speech segments that often contain more than one word. In the book
named “ Intonation and Grammar in British English”, Halliday stated that in
each English speech, three unique significant choices, or sets of options, are
made, which might be grouped under the name of " intonation " and
typically are. These are: first, the distribution into tone groups, including the
number and location of tone group boundaries, which is called “tonality”;
second, the placement of the tonic syllable... including the location of the
pretonic and tonic sections within each tone group, which is called “
tonicity”; and third, the selection of primary and secondary tone, which is
called “tone”. Not all components of the melody are equally important in
intonation; the pitch related to accented syllables is often more essential
than the pitch linked with unstressed syllables. This contrast is recognized
in the British analysis system, which is based on a structure of phrases
("tone groups") with at minimum one accented word containing pitch
fluctuation. If there is greater than one, the last is called the "nucleus," and
the pitch variation correlated with it is called the "nuclear tone." The overall
description of these nuclear tones is as follows: fall, rise, fall-rise, and rise-
fall. Phillip Carr stated that as the syllable is spoken, the rate of vibration of
the vocal folds reduces, leading to a pitching change from higher to lower,
thus producing a falling tone. Contrary to falling tones, rising tones are
produced as a pitch changes from lower to higher. A rise-fall tone is
produced as the pitch rises and then falls. A fall-rise tone is released when a
pitch falls and then rises. In this research, we place heavy emphasis on
falling tones to answer the question “ What are the features of falling
tones”  and then give examples to explain it more clearly.
2 - Features of the English falling tone
2.1.  Phonetic features 
According to John C.Wells (2006) , in terms of phonetic features, the
level of the voice pitch in the falling nuclear tone begins with a high
level and then drops in the end. The opening point can be between mid
and high pitch but the end is low. On the other hand, some upward
movement can occur before the pitch becomes low in the end. 
In uncomplicated cases the fall happens in a single syllable, John
C.Wells (2006) showed that we can find it in cases which contain the
nuclear syllable as the only syllable in the intonation phrase or when the
nuclear syllable is the last syllable taking place in the intonation phrase.
For example, in sentences such as 

\Oh! 

Everything was \fine

In addition, syllables after the nucleus are called “a tail”. When they
come after a falling nucleus they are often low-pitched because the fall
tone begins at a high pitch level and then decreases in the end where the
tail occurs.
\Perfect !

To find out the anatomy of the intonation, the ToBI which stands for
Tones and Break Indices is one of the systems used to analyse intonation
and notation. ToBI was applied mainly for work in the field of speech
technology and speech corpora. Although it can be adjusted to any
language, ToBI is used specially in American English. It includes 4
factors as tone tier, break index tier, orthographic tier and miscellaneous
tier to examine the intonation.  
2.2. Usage
Fall tone is the default tone in statements, exclamation, commands and
wh- questions (John C.Wells, 2006)
Statements
A statement with major information includes a fall and it means that the
speakers know the information and want to share it with other people
( Paul Tench, 2011). According to John C.Wells (2006), although some
simple statements can have other tones, most statements include a fall
tone. Statements can be said to have a fall tone except some specific
reasons to use a different tone. With the use of a fall tone, we express
sentences confidently, certainly and wholeheartedly. In addition, fall
tone also indicates finality. 
Here are my \keys
Her name is \Katherine

Wh questions
Wh questions are questions which are created with question words as
who, why, when, which, what, where and how and in these questions,
speakers expect specific answers compared to yes-no questions (John
C.Wells, 2006). In addition, Paul Tench (2011) wrote that Wh- questions
frequently involve a fall because the speakers want to know fully about
the objects they talked about after having some basic information.
Where is the \dog ? (they know about the dog but not where it is)
Which is your \car ? ( they know about the existence of the car but not
its appearance)

Exclamations
Exclamations imply expressions of excitement, anger and surprise. In
addition, these expressions are considered as the easiest type of utterance
for EFL ( English as a Foreign Language) learners. Exclamatory falls are
useful resources for people who want to practise falling tones. 
Welcome to \VietNam
What a \play

Commands
When speakers have the ability to demand people in circumstances like
parents with children, the manager with the employees, they use a fall in
their sentence as a way to show dominance 
Call the \police 
Come \here
 
2.3 Secondary falling tones

2.3.1 Rise- fall

Rise- fall

A rise-fall involves a complicated pitch movement that begins

with a rise from a mid pitch to a high pitch, followed by a fall
from high to low, and finally a low pitch. Before the upward-
downward movement begins, the first mid pitch may be
somewhat extended. The first ascent is the most noticeable
phase.
For examples:
Beau^tiful! 

The rise-fall pitch movement is dispersed throughout the

nuclear syllable and the first or first two syllables of the tail if
there is a tail following a rise-fall nucleus. The lowest pitch
may not be achieved until the tail's second syllable.
As can be observed, the first syllable after a rise-fall nucleus in
a polysyllabic tail may possibly be the highest-pitched syllable
in the whole IP. Despite this, it is unaccented, as seen by the
fact that its vowel might be weak.

2.3.2 High fall

The high fall is a more forceful form of the falling tone. It's
commonly employed in exclamatory phrases in casual circumstances
to convey keen interest and friendliness.
For examples:

OH \HELLO! How \GREAT! What a pi\TY!

The high fall tone starts significantly higher than the falling tone and
gradually descends towards the lower portion of the usual speaking
range, albeit not necessarily as low as the falling tone. The
emphasized syllable on which the high fall occurs is spoken louder
and with a heavier emphasis.

Though this tone is prevalent in everyday conversation, language

learners should use it with caution and not too often since it is forceful
and expressive and may indicate a wide range of powerful emotions,
from admiration and joy to disgust and terror, depending on the
circumstances.

2.3.3 Low fall

Lowering the pitch to the lower end of the typical speaking range and
using the low fall as the sentence's last tone can convey a variety of
emotions, including disappointment, sadness, hopelessness,
compassion, sincerity, responsibility, fear, and menace, depending on
the context. The low fall may be forceful when powerful emotions are
conveyed.

The speaker frequently pronounces the words less loudly, in a quiet

voice, and sometimes even close to whispering, as the low fall begins
considerably lower than the falling tone.

The unemphatic low fall can be used at the conclusion of a phrase in a

group of words added as an afterthought after the last fall, or in the
author's words at the end of the sentence (if it is necessary) .
 
For example: 
I thought I had seen your glasses in the \bathroom, in the \bathtub. 
"\Stop it!" a man's voice behind her shouted \ angrily.

If the speaker wants to signal the conclusion of his or her entire

utterance (after speaking for a while), the entire last sentence might be
spoken at a lower level with low-falling intonation and a low fall at
the end.
3 - Sample Transcription
We used a paragraph in “Cinderella” as a sample to make our research of
falling tone clearer.
“Sud/\denly(1), a fairy godmother appeared and said:
- Don’t cry, Cinderella! I will send you to the \ball!(2)
 But Cinderella was \sad(3). She said:
- I don’t have a gown to wear for the \ball!(4)
The fairy godmother waved her magic wand and changed Cinderella’s
old clothes into a beautiful new \gown(5). The fairy godmother then
touched Cinderella’s feet with the magic wand. She had beautiful glass \
slippers.(6) 
- How will I go to the grand \ball(7)? asked Cinderella. 
The fairy godmother found six mice playing near a pumpkin, in the
kitchen. She touched them with her magic wand and the mice became
four shiny black horses and two coachmen and the pumpkin turned into
a golden \coach(8). Cinderella was over\joyed(9) and set off for the ball
in the coach drawn by the six black horses. Before leaving, the fairy
godmother said:
 - Cinderella, this magic will only last until \midnight!(10) You must
reach home by \then!”(11).
1. Rise-fall: The pitch of the voice starts high at the syllable “sud”
and then falls at the syllable “den”. It makes the listeners become
surprised.
2. High fall: it shows the great passion of the speaker
3. Low fall: it illustrates the disappointment of the character
4. Rise-Fall: it describes the disapproval of the speaker
 5. Low fall: it is the last fall in the conclusion of a phrase in a group
of words
6. Low fall: it is the last fall in the conclusion of a phrase in a group
of words
7. High fall: it shows great interest
8. Low fall: it is the last fall in the conclusion of a phrase in a group
of words
9. High fall: it describes great excitement
10. High fall: it shows the involvement of the speaker
11. High fall: it conveys the involvement of the speaker

4 - Conclusion
There is no denying that falling intonation is so essential for clear
communication in English. Falling intonation is most commonly used on
normal, neutral statements and information questions. Falling intonation
is used for asking and giving information in a normal, quiet, unemphatic
style. At the same time, falling intonation conveys certain emotions,
such as completion, finality, confidence, and it sounds more categorical,
confident, and convincing when compared with other kinds of intonation
in light of its features. Researchers have shown that falling tones of
intonation are not only important in the aspect of speaking for people to
understand one another but also necessary in terms of accurate grammar
when communicating. Thus, it is important to master this particular
intonation pattern as a first priority as English learners first embark on
this language.
5 - References

Carr, P. (2019). English phonetics and phonology: An introduction. John

Wiley & Sons.
Hirst, D., & Di Cristo, A. (1998). A survey of intonation systems.
Intonation systems: A survey of twenty languages, 144.
Tench, P. (2011). Transcribing the Sound of English: A Phonetics

Workbook for Words and Discourse. Cambridge University Press.

Wells, J. C. (2006). English Intonation: An Introduction. Cambridge

University Press.

Yavas, M. (2020). Applied English Phonology. John Wiley & Sons.

Lindsey, G. A. (1985). Intonation and interrogation: Tonal structure and
the expression of a pragmatic function in English and other languages.

6. Percentage of Contribution
Nguyen Thi Kim Oanh: 100%
Pham Hoang Linh: 100%
Pham Minh Hieu: 100%