INTONATION

A Part of Suprasegmental Phonology

Realised in speech through pitch.

Pitch ======= Overall behaviour of the tone

Tone== perceptible frequency variations of the vibration of the

speaker´s voice

Pitch: -high
-low
The fundamental frequency of speaker´s voice changes its pitch into
higher and lower frequencies, into the changing tone behaviour.

The intonation can be studied in 2 levels:

1) In its form
2) In its function

1) The form of intonation

The hierarchy of the speech-flow segmentation:

utterance – tone group – foot – syllable – phoneme

tone group (= tone-unit)

pre-head - head - NUCLEUS - tail

These stupid questions were difficult.

Pre-head: unstressed syllables preceding the 1st stressed one

Head: the first stressed syllable up to the tonic syllable
Nucleus: the tonic syllable and the nearest syllable
Tail: all the remaining syllables in the utterance

Tone groups are combined into utterances….. text

Tone: - Moving
- Level

Types of moving tones: 1) Simple

2)Complex
1) Simple tones:

Rise Tea?
/

Fall Tea.
\

2) Complex tones:
Fall-rise Jane

ˇ
Rise-fall Jane

ˆ
 The functions of intonation:
a) attitudinal f. - to express e.g. surprise, enthusiasm, annoyance …
- and the attitude towards the listeners, topic, setting
b) accentual f. - to underline the most important part of information
c) grammatical f. - to distinguish statement, question,
command, exclamation …
d) discourse f.- The speaker marks new information with the use
of tones to be clearly recognised from the old given shared
knowledge (Theme- Old, Rheme- New)

ad b: accentual function:

Usually the last lexical item functions as the nucleus, i.e.

These questions were difficult.
But also possible:
These questions were difficult.
These questions were difficult.
These questions were difficult.

The final position of nucleus is felt as

“natural“ and “non-contrastive“.
But even the final nucleus can become contrastive,
by means of using stronger stress.
e.g.:
Peter has gone to school. (not to the cinema)
I met him last week. (not last month)

ad: grammatical function:

tone group boundaries:

Those who sold quickly | made a profit.

Those who sold | quickly made a profit.

(quoted: Roach, p. 195)
The functions of Tones in the discourse
(fluent speech and communication)
(1) Falling tone \
* statements
I like phonetics.
\
* WH- questions (doplňovací)
What did you say?
\
* tag-questions, if no disagreement is expected
Phonetics is interesting, isn´t it.
\
* exclamations and commands
It´s nonsense. Close the door !
\ \
(2) Rising tone /
* polar questions (YES - NO) (zjišťovací)
Do you like it?
/
* tag-questions of the “information-seeking type“
You´re tired, aren´t you?
/
(3) Falling-rising tone V

* unfinished statement
When you come home, you´ll see it.
V

* uncertainty, doubt
It may be true.
 V
(4) Rising-falling tone ^
* pleasant surprise
That´s the end.
^
-strong feelings….
I certainly want a new mobile phone!
^

(5) Level tone -

* lack of interest, no intention to communicate
Are you interested? No
_