06/05/2022

English Intonation

English Phonetics and Phonology 2 • Introduction: tonality, tonicity, tone

• Tone units
• Nucleus placement
• Tone direction
Introduction to English intonation. Tonality. Functions of • Functions of intonation
Intonation
Readings:
UAB - Kreidler (1989), Chapter 9.
- Wells, Ch.1, Ch. 3
- F&O Ch. 12
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1. TONALITY: division into tone units

Introduction to Intonation
• Tonality: an utterance can be divided into tone units (= tone groups)
• Intonation: pitch changes over time (in an utterance)
/ ˈWhen you are ˈready / we can ˈleave/

• Part of suprasegmental phonology (prosody), which is concerned with • A tone group has one main pitch change or tonic syllable.
1) how an utterance is divided into word groups • Pauses may or may not be present between tone groups.

2) where the most prominent accent (pitch change) occurs within a • The phrasing function. Equal sequences of words may have different
word group tone units.
hand-out 9: a. tonality
Kreidler (1989), section 9.2, ch. 9
3) the direction of the pitch change
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The phrasing function (Kreidler Ex 9A) The phrasing function

• Different divisions result in differences in meaning.
• Divide into tone groups
-I’d like bread and butter or cheese.
-We’re going downtown this afternoon. -She told everyone that she knew the answer.
-The pool is used by club members only on Mondays.
-On the way home we´ll stop at the library if we have time.
-My brother who lives in Stirling is coming for a visit.
-Cape Ann Lighthouse was erected in 1910. My brother, who lives in Stirling, is coming for a visit.

-A lot of ships have reached harbor safely because of it.

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2. TONICITY: location of the tonic within a

Example of phonological and lexical disambiguation tone group
• The tonic syllable (pitch change) is usually on the last content
word (unmarked or neutral context).
I saw that gasoline can explode
• The tonic may be displaced to any other syllable for reasons of
1. I ‘saw that ‘gasoline  can ex‘plode contrast, emphasis, or signalling new info. (marked).
aI s Dt gslin  kn
IksplUd • Differences in tonicity or focus: Equal tone groups may differ in the
position of the tonic accent
I don’t like that
2. I ‘saw that ‘gasoline can  ex‘plode I don’t like that
aI s Dt gslin kn  I don’t like that
IksplUd I don’t like that

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• hand-out 9: b. tonicity 8

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3. TONE: the direction of the pitch change

Functions of intonation
• Differences in pitch direction
• Falling, rising, fall-rise, rise-fall
• 1. Attitudinal function:
• Tone indicates: (i) attitude, (ii) meaning, and (iii) relative importance of info. To express the attitude of the speaker tw the listener and the subject matter
(i) How was the film? (friendliness, involvement, interest)
-It was O \ K (enthusiastic) -It was O \ K (uncommunicative)
-It was O/ K (disappointed) -It was O K (but ...)
• 2. Grammatical function
(ii) This is my son, John. (2 readings) \ John = son / John = vocative To indicate grammatical and syntactic structure

(iii) When we are \ finished, we’ll / eat (When will we eat?) • placement of phrase, clause or sentence boundaries
When we are / finished, we’ll \ eat (What will we do when we’re finished?) • questions vs. statements
• grammatical subordination
• Hand-out 9: c. tone
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Functions of intonation
• 3. Discourse function
• The location of the tonic (tonicity) signals the relative importance of words
within a sentence.

• Rises and falls (tone) indicate the relative importance of sentences within
an utterance

For example, new vs. old information.

Note: these functions are not unique to prosody. They are also conveyed by other means in
addition to intonation, such as choice of vocabulary, gestures, body language

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