Unit 4: Intonation .

1. Introduction by Peter Roach: .

What is intonation? No definition is completely satisfactory, but any attempt at a definition

must recognise that the pitch of the voice plays the most important part. Only in very unusual
situations do we speak with fixed, unvarying pitch, and when we speak normally the pitch of
our voice is constantly changing. We describe pitch in terms of high and low, and some people
find it difficult to relate what they hear in someone's voice to a scale ranging from low to high.
We should remember that "high" and "low" are arbitrary choices for end points of the pitch
scale.

It is very important to make the point that the only things that should interest us are those
which carry some linguistic information. We have established that for pitch differences to be
linguistically significant, it is a necessary condition that they should be under the speaker's
control. There is another necessary condition and that is that a pitch difference must be
perceptible. Finally, it should be remembered that in looking for linguistically significant
aspects of speech we must always be looking for contrasts.

(A word of caution is needed in connection with the word pitch. Strictly speaking, this should be used
to refer to an auditory sensation experienced by the hearer. The rate of vibration of the vocal folds -
something which is physically measurable, and which is related to activity on the part of the speaker -
is the fundamental frequency of voiced sounds, and should not be called "pitch". However, as long as
this distinction is understood, it is generally agreed that the term "pitch" is a convenient one to use
informally to refer both to the subjective sensation and to the objectively measurable fundamental
frequency).

1.1. Form and function in intonation

To summarise what was said above, we want to know the answers to two questions about
English speech:
i) What can we observe when we study pitch variations?
ii) What is the linguistic importance of the phenomena we observe?

These questions might be rephrased more briefly as:

i) What is the form of intonation?
ii) What is the function of intonation?

We will begin by looking at intonation in the shortest piece of speech we can find - the single
syllable. A continuous piece of speech beginning and ending with a clear pause will be called
an utterance. In this chapter, then, we are going to look at the intonation of one-syllable
utterances.

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Two common one-syllable utterances are 'yes' and 'no. The first thing to notice is that we
have a choice of saying these with the pitch remaining at a constant level, or with the pitch
changing from one level to another. The word we use for the overall behaviour of the pitch in
these examples is tone; a one-syllable word can be said with either a level tone or a moving
tone. If you try saying 'yes' or 'no' with a level tone (rather as though you were trying to sing
them on a steady note) you may find the result does not sound natural, and indeed English
speakers do not use level tones on one-syllable utterances very frequently. Moving tones are
more common. If English speakers want to say 'yes' or 'no' in a definite, final manner they will
probably use a falling tone - one which descends from a higher to a lower pitch. If they want to
say 'yes?' or ' no?" in a questioning manner they may say it with a rising tone - a movement
from a lower pitch to a higher one.

1.2 Tone and tone languages

In the preceding section we mentioned three simple possibilities for the intonation used in
pronouncing the one-word utterances 'yes' and 'no. These were: level, fall and rise. It will
often be necessary to use symbols to represent tones, and for this we will use marks placed
before the syllable in the following way (phonemic transcription will not be used in these
examples - words are given in spelling):

Level _yes_no Falling \yes \no Rising /yes/no

This simple system for tone transcription could be extended, if we wished, to cover a greater
number of possibilities. For example, if it were important to distinguish between a high level
and low level tone for English we could do it in this way:

__ __
High level yes no
Low level _yes _n

There are many languages in which the tone can determine the meaning of a word, and
changing from one tone to another can completely change the meaning. For example, in
Kono, a language of West Africa, we find the following (meanings given in brackets):

__ __
High level ben (uncle) buu ("horn')
Low level _ben ('greedy') _buu ('to be cross')

Languages such as the above are called tone languages; although to most speakers of
European languages they may seem strange and exotic, such languages are in fact spoken by
a very large proportion of the world's population (South-East Asia (e.g. Thai, Vietnamese) are
tone languages, many African languages, particularly those of the South and West, and a

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considerable number of Native American languages. English, however, is not a tone language,
and the function of tone is much more difficult to define than in a tone language.

1.3 Complex tones and pitch height

We have introduced three simple tones that can be used on one-syllable English utterances:
level, fall and rise. However, other more complex tones are also used. One that is quite
frequently found is the fall-rise tone, where the pitch descends and then rises again. Another
complex tone, much less frequently used, is the rise-fall in which the pitch follows the
opposite movement. We will not consider any more complex tones, since these are not often
encountered and are of little importance.

Each speaker has his or her own normal pitch range: a top level (the highest pitch normally used
by the speaker) and a bottom level (that the speaker's pitch normally does not go below). In
ordinary speech, the intonation tends to take place within the lower part of the speaker's
pitch range, but in situations where strong feelings are to be expressed it is usual to make use
of extra pitch height. For example, if we represent the pitch range by drawing two parallel
lines...

1.4 Some functions of english tones

We will now see if it is possible to state in what circumstances the different tones are used
within the very limited context of the words 'yes' and 'no' said in isolation. We will look at
some typical occurrences; no examples of extra pitch height will be considered here, so the
examples should be thought of as being said relatively low in the speaker's pitch range.

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Fall \yes\no
This is the tone about which least needs to be said, and which is usually regarded as more or
less "neutral". If someone is asked a question and replies yes or no it will be understood that
the question is now answered and that there is nothing more to be said. The fall could be said
to give an impression of "finality".

Rise /yes/no
In a variety of ways, this tone conveys an impression that something more is to follow A typical
occurrence in a dialogue between two speakers whom we shall call A and B might be the
following:
A (wishing to attract B's attention): Excuse me.
B:/yes (B’s reply is, perhaps, equivalent to “what do you want?”)

Fall-rise ⋎yes⋎ no
The fall-rise is used a lot in English and has some rather special functions, which could
perhaps be described as hesitation "limited agreement" or "response with reservations".
Examples may make this clearer:
A: I've heard that it's a good school.
B: ⋎yes (B’s reply would be taken to mean that he would not completely agree with what A said)

Rise-fall ^yes ^no

This is used to convey rather strong feelings of approval, disapproval or surprise. It is not
usually considered to be an important tone for foreign learners to acquire, although it is still
useful practice to learn to distinguish it from other tones. Here are some examples:

A: You wouldn't do an awful A: Isn't the view lovely! A: I think you said it was the
thing like that, would you? B: ^yes best so far.
B: ^no B: ^yes

Level _yes _no

This tone is certainly used in English, but in a rather restricted context: it almost always
conveys (on single-syllable utterances) a feeling of saying something routine, uninteresting or
boring. A teacher calling the names of students from a register will often do so using a level
tone on each name, and the students are likely to respond with when their name is called.

1.5 Tones on other words

We can now move on from examples of 'yes' and 'no' and see how some of these tones can be
applied to other words, either single-syllable words or words of more than one syllable. In
the case of polysyllabic words, it is always the most strongly stressed syllable that receives the

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tone; the tone mark is equivalent to a stress mark. We will underline syllables that carry a tone
from this point onwards.

Examples:

Fall (usually suggests a "final" or "definite" feeling)

\stop \eighty a \gain

Rise (often suggesting a question)

/sure /really to/night

When a speaker is giving a list of items, they often use a rise on each item until the last, which
has a fall, for example:
You can have it in /red, /blue, /green, or \black

Fall-rise (often suggesting uncertainty or hesitation)

⋎some ⋎nearly per ⋎haps Fall-rise is sometimes used instead of rise in giving lists.

Rise-fall (often sounds surprised or impressed).

^oh ^lovely i^mmense

2. Intonation by Collins: .

Variation in speech melody is an essential component of normal human speech. Indeed, if it’s
absent for any reason listeners reject the speech and claim it to be literally inhuman
(‘robot-like’). This is a major problem which has to be faced by a person who has had the
larynx removed owing to cancer or some other disease. Equipment is available which can
produce a voicing buzz but this as yet still cannot mimic realistically the pitch variation of
natural speech.

Pitch refers to human (subjective) perception, i.e. whether one perceives sounds as ‘high’ or
‘low’. The most important physical factor in determining pitch is the frequency (i.e. speed of
vibration) of the vocal folds; in general terms, the higher the frequency, the higher the
perceived pitch, and vice versa.
Many students find it difficult to judge whether pitch is rising or falling; the following simple
analogy may help.

2.1 Tone languages

Pitch variation has an important role to play in communication, supplying meaning additional
to that conveyed by the segmental phonemes. We can distinguish two significant ways in
which pitch functions: namely (1) (lexical) tone and (2) intonation.

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In many languages, it is possible to use pitch differences to distinguish the dictionary (lexical)
meaning of words. This function of pitch is known as tone and such languages are termed tone
languages. Tone languages may make use of different numbers of pitch levels. Two levels
(high and low) or three (high, mid and low) are common.
Languages like these, which use a tone system of two or three significant pitch levels, are
called register tone languages. In the Far East, contour tone languages are more common.
These chiefly employ falling and rising pitches; examples are to be found in the languages of
China, including the most widely spoken variety, Mandarin Chinese.

It is thought that most of the world’s languages employ tone, and certainly, the vast majority of
African, Far Eastern and American Indian languages are tonal. Europe in fact is rather odd in
having few tone languages. Nevertheless, a few do exist: Serbian, Croatian, Norwegian and
Swedish all have a partial tonal element.

2.2 Intonation variation

Most European languages do not use pitch to indicate dictionary meaning. For instance, you
can say the English word “yes” on a number of different pitch patterns, yet it continues to
mean yes and can’t be made to mean anything else. In English (and the vast majority of
European languages), pitch variation is confined to intonation.

Intonation is crucial to human communication, supplying types of meaning additional to what

is supplied by the words themselves. Think how often you hear people come out with statements like:
‘It wasn’t so much what he said – it was more the way he said it.’

Intonation works differently in different languages (e.g. a French person’s intonation when speaking
English sounds very characteristically French). Furthermore, each accent of a language has its own
particular intonation. Accents such as Welsh English, Birmingham Englishand Irish English all have
different and easily recognisable types of intonation. Worldwide, we find the same thing over and over again.
To give just two examples: many people are aware that the English of the southern states of the USA differs
strikingly from General American in terms of intonation.

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3. Intonation by Cynthia (Intonation 2): .

Intonation: deals with pitch changes associated with utterances. Pitch is a subjective
perception of the frequency of vibration of the vocal folds.

* For wh- questions native speakers use the same pitch as for statements, that is, a falling pitch
Why is it important? Types of meanings:

● Grammatical meaning. E.g. different tones for types of questions.

● Status of information. E.g. main or subordinate, finished or unfinished.
● Attitude. E.g. Certainty, reservations, doubts...
● Feelings. E.g. confidence, happyness, sadness, boredom, enthusiasm...
● Relational. E.g. how “open”, friendly or “closed” we’re to the listener, to communicate
empathy or shared feelings

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3.1 The three Ts
As concerns intonation, speakers of English repeatedly face three types of decisions as they
speak. They are: how to break the material up into chunks, what is to be accented, and what tones
are to be used. These linguistic intonation systems are known respectively as tonality, tonicity
and tone. We refer to them as the three Ts.

TONALITY
The first matter a speaker has to decide is the division of the spoken material into chunks.
There will be an intonation pattern associated with each chunk. These chunks are known as
tone units/ intonation phrases or IPs. Each tone unit/ IP in an utterance has its own
intonation pattern (or ‘tune’).(Various authors use various other names for the IP, including,
‘tone group’ and ‘intonation group’.)

In general, we make each clause into a separate tone unit/IP. (The symbols | and || represent
the boundaries between IPs.):
Because I love languages | I’m studying intonation. ||When I’ve finished this book, | I’ll know a
lot more about it.

The speaker does not inevitably have to follow the rule of an IP for each clause.
There are many cases where different kinds of chunking are possible.
For example, if a speaker wants to say: We don ’t know who she is, it is possible to say the
whole utterance as a single IP (= one intonation pattern): We don’t know who she is. But it is
also possible to divide the material up, in at least the following possible ways:
● We don’t know | who she is.
● We | don’t know who she is.
● We don’t I know who she is.
● We | don’t know I who she is.
Thus the speaker may present the material as two, or three, pieces of information rather
than as a single piece.

THE TONE UNIT

”Speech units consist of a number of utterances (the largest units that we shall consider); each
utterance consists of one or more tone-units; each tone unit consists of one or more feet; each foot
consists of one or more syllables, each syllable consists of one or more phonemes” (Roach, 2009)

● For the purposes of analysing intonation a unit generally greater in size than the
syllable is needed , this unit is called the tone-unit (in its smaller form the tone unit
may consist of only one syllable)
● Examples: one-syllable utterance: /you
● Another utterance: Is it /you (3 syllables, 1 tone unit)

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A syllable which carries a tone is called a tonic syllable (tonic syllables have a high degree of
prominence); a tonic syllable not only carries a tone but also a type of stress that is called
tonic stress (=nuclear stress, please go to the topic on sentence stress and the nuclear stress
rule).

The tone-unit and the tonic syllable:

1. Each tone unit contains only one tonic syllable (obligatory).
2. Tonic syllables are also known as nucleus.
3. Each tone unit carries one change of tone.
4. The tonic syllable is the last prominent syllable in the tone unit.*
5. Tonic syllables must have a high degree of prominence.

*Stress in a conversation (from Unit 3)

● New information usually gets the main stress.
● New information is usually placed at the end of the sentence.
● The most important word has the tonic stress.
● The peak prominence is usually given to the last content word in a tone unit.

The structure the tone unit

Composed of:
● A tonic syllable (obligatory)
● Optional elements which precede the tonic syllable (pre-head, head)
● Optional elements which follow the tonic syllable (tail)

(Pre-head) (Head) Tonic Syllable (Tail)

● PRE-HEAD (PH): everything before the Head
● HEAD (H): everything from the first stressed syllable up to (but not including) the tonic
syllable.
● TONIC SYLLABLE (TS): most prominent syllable (the one that carries a tone and a tonic
stress)
● TAIL (T): everything after the TS.

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1. Tonic syllable (TONE UNIT)
● One-syllable utterance: tonic syllable (one tone unit) \those
2. The head
● The part of the tone unit that extends from the first stressed syllable up to but not
including the tonic syllable.
The head tonic syllable
‘Give me \those
3. Pre-head
All the unstressed syllables in a tone unit preceding the first stressed syllables. (From the
first stressed syllable up to the tonic syllable)
1. When there is no head
Pre-head tonic syllable In an \hour
2. When there is a head
Pre-head head tonic syllable In a ‘little ‘less than an \hour
4. The tail
● Any syllable between the tonic syllable and the end of the tone unit.
Tonic syllable tail
\Look at it
\both of them were here

TONE UNIT STRUCTURE

(PH) (H) TS (T)
In a ‘little ‘less than an \hour I think

Where’s the pre-head? Where’s the head? Where's the tail?

CUES TO SIGNAL THE END OF A TONE UNIT

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The end of a tone unit

There’s a close relation between clauses and tone units (meaning that they will correspond
with clauses).

4. Tonicity by JC Wells .

English intonation, tone unit and its structure (JC Wells)

Speakers use intonation to highlight some words as important for the meaning they wish to
convey. To highlight an important word we accent its stressed syllable (or one or both of its
stressed syllables, if it has more than one). That is to say, we add pitch prominence to the
rhythmic prominence that a stressed syllable bears.

The nucleus is the most important accent in the IP. It indicates the end of the focused part of
the material. In terms of pitch, it is marked out by being the place where the pitch change or
pitch movement for the nuclear tone begins.

In this example the nucleus is the syllable -dic-. It does not

matter what nuclear tone is used: the point is that the
tone movement begins on this syllable. In this way both
the syllable -dic- and the word ridiculous are accented.
(Some authors call it the 'tonic' rather than the nucleus.
Other names are intonation centre and sentence accent
or even 'sentence stress)

The nucleus is usually placed at the end of the IP unless there are special reasons for it to go
somewhere else.

At this point we need to consider the anatomy of the IP as a whole. The part
of the IP that follows the nucleus is called the tail. By definition, the tail

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contains no accented syllables. If the nucleus is located on the last syllable in an IP, there is no
tail:

If an IP contains an accent in the part before the nucleus, the first (or only) such accent is
called the onset. The part extending from the onset to the last syllable before the nucleus is
called the head:

In this example the onset is the syllable -mark-. There is a

pitch change there, making the syllable stand out. In this way
the syllable, and therefore the word remarkably, are
accented. The syllables -markably constitute the head.

The part before the onset is called the prehead. By definition, the prehead contains no
accented syllables. In the example the prehead is It was reー.

If an IP contains no accented syllables before the nucleus, there is no head. If it contains no

unaccented syllables before the first accent (onset or nucleus), there is no prehead.

The boundaries of prehead, head, nucleus and tail do not necessarily coincide with word
boundaries, although they always coincide with syllable boundaries. Although every IP
contains a nucleus, not all IPs contain a prehead, a head or a tail.
For most utterances, the speaker can select from a wide range of possible intonation
patterns. Depending on the circumstances and the meaning, the nucleus can be put in
various places. For example, the statement We're planning to fly to Italy could be said as:

Here, the nucleus is It- and the tail is -aly. The onset is plan-, and the head is planning to fly to.
The prehead is We're.

However, the same statement could also be said in any of the following ways, depending on
the circumstances under which it is uttered. (The underlining shows the location of the
nucleus. The mark ‘ shows the accented syllables.)

● We're 'planning to 'fly to Italy,

● We're ‘planning to fly to Italy.
● ‘We're planning to fly to Italy.

The question of tonicity (or nucleus placement) is the topic of chapter 3.

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Tone. Having decided the tonicity-that is, having selected a suitable location for the nucleus -
what kind of pitch movement (what tone) is the speaker going to associate with it?

For example, a speaker wanting to say You mustn't worry can choose between several possible
tones:

However, there are some exceptions to the NUCLEAR STRESS RULE. First of all, the nuclear
stress may be fronted in sentences like the following:

The políce are coming!

The kítchen’s on fire!
There´s a spíder in the bath

What these sentences have in common seems to be that verbs are intransitive and they
describe a “coming on the scene” or “sudden happening”. Such sentences are sometimes
referred to as EVENT or PRESENTATION SENTENCES.

Other exceptions to the nuclear stress rule include:

1. Sentence adverbials (e.g. those which modify the whole sentence) and adverbials of time:
I go to Mánchester usually. It wasn’t a very nice dáy unfortunately (the adverbials “usually and
unfortunately are distressed”).
2. Afterthoughts – vocatives, direct speech markers:
Don’t you agrée, Peter? (“Peter” is distressed)
3. Old information at the end of the sentence (remember the ANAPHORA RULE):
Why don’t you invite John to the party? Because I don’t líke John (this “John” is old information
and so it’s distressed).

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We had a long wáit. You mean we had a véry long wait (this “wait” is old information and so it’s
distressed

Pitch Range: .

Pitch range is the amount of pitch displacement or movement that we use when we talk.
There’s a low pitch range and a high pitch range.
A voice with a small pitch range sounds flat and monotone while a voice with a large pitch
range sounds animated. Even though pitch range depends on the speaker there is a general
tendency for English speakers to use a broader pitch range than Spanish speakers. Pitch range
differences can prompt misinterpretations.

A Spanish speaker would interpret the mid pitch to a low pitch movement as a normal and
even polite response. However, this same pitch pattern would be considered rather rude and
distant by an English speaker. If a broader pitch range is produced, (it shows a glide from a
high pitch to a low pitch), this intonation would be understood as polite and considerate in
English but would sound too lively and possibly over-emphatic to a Spanish speaker.

If we apply the same pitch patterns to English and Spanish sentences, we will see that pitch
range differences are interpreted differently in the two languages. Whereas in Spanish a
high-falling pitch (HL) sounds too lively and may even be interpreted as a clarification to a
wrong assumption, in English the same pitch pattern can be considered the unmarked type of
declarative.

Similarly, a mid-falling pitch (ML) corresponds to a neutral declarative intonation in Spanish,

but it sounds very cold, distant and rude in English. In the following examples, It can even
trigger the opposite meaning and indicate that the food was not lovely at all.

It is important for Spanish speakers to be aware that pitch range differences can lead to
misinterpretations of the intended meaning and therefore they should make an effort to
expand their pitch range when they speak English.

General functions of intonation: .

i) Intonation enables us to express emotions and attitudes as we speak, and this adds a special
kind of "meaning" to spoken language. This is often called the attitudinal function of
intonation.

ii) Intonation helps to produce the effect of prominence on syllables that need to be perceived
as stressed, and in particular the placing of tonic stress on a particular syllable marks out the
word to which it belongs as the most important in the tone-unit. In this case, intonation

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works to focus attention on a particular lexical item or syllable. This has been called the
accentual function of intonation.

iii) The listener is better able to recognise the grammar and syntactic structure of what is being
said by using the information contained in the intonation: for example, such things as the
placement of boundaries between phrases, clauses or sentences, the difference between
questions and statements, and the use of grammatical subordination may be indicated. This
has been called the grammatical function of intonation.

iv) Looking at the act of speaking in a broader way, we can see that intonation can signal to the
listener what is to be taken as "new" information and what is already "given", can suggest when
the speaker is indicating some sort of contrast or link with material in another tone-unit and,
in conversation, can convey to the listener what kind of response is expected. Such functions
are examples of intonation's discourse function.

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Tasks about intonation:

What is pitch?
Pitch is the frequency of vibration that we perceive from the speaker.
It is a subjective perception of the frequency of vibration of the vocal folds

Different changes in pitch

They can be constant (constante level, not normal) or moving tone ¿?

What kind of pitch goes from a higher movement to a lower one

The falling tone

Written exercise

In the following sentences and bits of dialogue, each underlined syllable must be given an
appropriate tone mark. Write a tone mark just in front of the syllable.

1. This train is for Leeds, York and Hull.

Rising, Rising, Falling

2. Can you give me a lift? Rising

Possibly. Where to? Fall-rise (hesitation), fall

3. No! Certainly not! Go away! Fall, fall, fall

4. Did you know he'd been convicted of drunken driving? Rise

No! Rise-fall

5. If I give him money he goes and spends it. Rise, fall

If I lend him the bike he loses it. Fall
He's completely unreliable. Fall

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Listening Track tones (Hewings, track 40)

1 - 4; 2- 3 X 1; 3- 2 ; 4 - 3 ; 5 -2; 6 - 1 X 3; 7 - 4 level tone ; 8 - 3 ; 9 - 2; 10 - 3 X

2. Indicate the structure of the tone units in the following dialogues (TS, H, PH, T) and its
tone with "\", "/" or "\/"

1.

A. Is the book/ interesting?

B. It is \very interesting (old info → likely not to have nuclear stress)

2.
A.Hi \ Craig!/||\ How are you?/
B. Not so\ good,\|| I have a terrible\ cold.
A. You should be at home in\ bed.
B. \Yeah,| I'll follow your ad\vice.
A. And have you/ taken anything?
B. \No, || I \haven't.| I need to visit the \doctor.
They tend to put the tonic syllable in a noun (if a noun precedes a verb we’re likely to have
the nucleus on the noun rather than on the verb)
3.
A. I would like just a cup of \boiled water.
B. Good \heavens!| How frightfully Spartan you \ are! (emphatic stress)
A. It's been provedto be very good\/| for the |di \gestion/.
B. I don't doubt for a\ moment || that you're perfectly \right.
* Aux verbs in the negative carry sentence stress
4.
A. I'm \bored.
B. You're \always bored.
A. That 's not true.
B. It \is true. || \Anyway|| do you want to go /out tomorrow?

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* If we have an adverb of time at the end, it’s not going to contain the nucleus. The primary
stress in phrasal verbs is on the article and that’s why they usually contain the tonic syllable.
A. To/night?
B.\ Not tonight.|| \Tomorrow.
A. Well, O\K || What do you have in mind ex\actly?
B. Go \dancing
A. I\ can't go dancing || I have a terrible pain in my \foot.
B. You \could || if you really /wanted to...

5.
A. You /know,|| I've lived in \Spain.
B. Where ex\actly|| in the /south?
A.\Yes,|| not in Ma/drid,|| in Se\ville.
B. That's a co\incidence.|| My \daughter lives in Seville!
A. \Which of your daughters?
B. My \eldest daughter.

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