Trường Đại học Mở Hà Nội Mở cơ hội học tập cho mọi người

UNIT 4: INTONATION

I. Aims and objectives of Unit 4:

This unit helps learners understand in details all aspects of rhythm unit and
intonation and how to use them in daily communication.

II. RHRYTHM UNIT

- Rhythm is the relatively equal beat between stressed syllables. It has often been
claimed that English speech is rhythmical and that rhythm is detectable in the regular
occurrence of stressed syllables.
Walk /down/ the path/ to the end /of the canal.
- The stress-timed rhythm theory states that the time from each stressed syllable to
the next will tend to be the same, irrespective of the number of intervening unstressed
syllables.
How /did you manage/ to be there/ in time?

My teacher’s/ in London/ this Friday/ for a conference /in Phonetics

When/ did you hear/ the story/ about John/ and the girl upstairs?

- A unit with a stressed syllable as its centre and any unstressed syllables which may
come before and after it is called a rhythm unit. Any unstressed syllable at the
beginning of a word group must go together with the following stress group.
- Any unstressed syllable at the beginning of a word group must go together with the
following stress group
- Whenever in doubt as to which rhythm unit unstressed syllables belong to, put them
after a stressed syllable, rather than before it.

II. INTONATION
* Definition
Intonation is the pattern of pitch changes that occurs over a phrase which may be a
complete sentence.
When he came, I greeted him
I bought some bananas, oranges, apples and grapes

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 Trường Đại học Mở Hà Nội Mở cơ hội học tập cho mọi người
* Importance of intonation
Together with lexical meaning, intonation also adds more meaning to the utterance.
Thank you (falling tune- real gratitude)
Thank you (level-off – businesslike)
Thank you ( rising tune- irony)
Text
* Function of intonation
+ Attitudinal function.
Intonation enables us to express emotions and attitudes as we speak, and this adds a
special kind of meaning to spoken language.
Really? Is that right?
+ Accentual function
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.
I want to know where he’s travelling to.
He was very boring

+ Grammatical function
The listener is better able to recognize 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 and sentences, the
difference between questions and statements and the use of grammatical
subordination may be indicated.
Those who sold quickly made a profit. (statement)
You are a student? (question)
Text
+ Discourse function
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.
You love her, don’t you?
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Since the last time we met when we had that huge dinner, I’ve been on a diet.
Text
* The basic English tunes
+ The falling tune - The glide down
The falling tune is the intonation pattern consisting of a fall in the voice from a fairly
high pitch to a very low one. If there is one important word, the voice falls within
the syllable.
On more than one syllable, the voice either falls within the stressed syllable or it
jumps from that syllable to the next.
Susan’s knocking at the door.
You can phone me at any time of the day or night.
Text
+ The first rising tune - The glide up
The glide up is the intonation pattern consisting of a rise at the end of a sentence but
the tune starts at a high pitch. All syllables, either stressed or unstressed, before the
rise (the stressed syllable of the last important word) are treated exactly the same as
in the glide down.
At the stressed syllable of the last important word, the voice rises from a low pitch
to one just above the middle of the voice.
Is it true that you’re changing your job?
Did you say it was your twentieth birthday today?

+ The second rising tune - The take off

The take-off is the intonation pattern that ends with a rise in the voice like the Glide
up but any words or syllables before the rise are low. We call it the take off because
like an aero-plane taking off, it starts by running along at a low level and finally rises
into the air.
The rise starts at the stressed syllable of the last important word. All the syllables
before the rise are said on the same low pitch as the beginning of the rise. Each
syllable after the rise is a bit higher.
I was only trying help him with it.
I wasn’t expecting him at six o’clock in the morning.

+ The falling-rising tune - The dive

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The dive is the intonation pattern consisting of a fall from a rather high pitch to a
low one and then a rise to about the middle of the voice. The fall-rise is also
connected with the stressed syllable of the last important word. If that syllable is
final in the group, the fall-rise is completed on that syllable. If there is one or several
syllables following, the fall and the rise are separated. The fall is on the stressed
syllable of the last important word and the rise on the last syllable of all.
Seventy of them.
If there are stressed syllables of unimportant words following the fall, the rise at the
end is from the last stressed syllable.
Mary would probably tell you

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