INTONATION.

PARTS OF
INTONATION PATTERNS
 INTONATION IS A CONPLEX UNITY OF
VARIATIONS IN:
PITCH (the changes in the pitch of the voice in
connected speech);
SENTENCE STRESS ( the greater prominence of one or
more words among other words in the sentence):
TEMPO (the relative speed with which sentences and
intonation-groups are pronounced):
TIMBER (a special colouring of voice which shows the
speaker;s emotions, i.e. pleasure, displeasure, sorrow, etc).
INTONATION SERVES TO:

FORM SENTENCES AND INTONATION

GROUPS
DEFINE THEIR COMMUNICATIVE TYPE
TO EXPRESS THE SPEAKER’S THOUGHTS
AND EMOTIONS
 SENTENCE STRESS
• STRESSED PARTS OF SPEECH
Notional parts of speech: nouns,
adjectives, verbs, adverbs,
numerals;
Modal verbs (interrogative and
negative);
Auxiliary verb(interrogative and
negative)
• UNSTRESSED PARTS OF SPEECH
Structural parts of speech:
articles, particles, prepositions,
conjunctions;
Modal verbs;
Auxiliary verbs;
Personal and possessive
pronouns
Long sentences, simple extended, compound and complex, are
subdivided into intonation groups. Each intonation group is
characterized by a certain intonation pattern.
• Parts of the intonation pattern:
The pre-head includes unstressed syllables preceding the
first stressed syllable.
The head includes the stressed and unstressed syllables
beginning with the first stressed syllable up to the last
stressed syllable.
The nucleus is the last stressed syllable.
The tail includes the unstressed syllables after the nucleus.
We ‘like to ‘play in the ‘garden.
•We – pre-head
•like to play in the gar… -- head
•gar… -- nucleus
•…den – tail
 There are two major nuclear tones in
English:
• Falling Tone. Falling tone is a sharp fall of
the pitch of voice in the nucleus. It is final,
categoric and definite in its character.

• Rising Tone. Rising tone is a sharp rise of the

pitch of voice in the nucleus. It is non-final,
non-categoric and indefinite in its character.
 Falling tone is used:
• in statements:
I 'go to 'school 'every \day.
• in special questions:
'Where do you \live?
• in orders and
commands:
'Open your \books!
• in exclamations:
'What a 'nice \day!
• in the 1st part of tag-
questions:
He is a \student,| isn’t he?
• in the 2nd part of alternative
questions:
Is he a student |or a \pupil?
 Rising tone is used:
• in general questions:
'Do you 'like /apples?
• in requests:
'Help me 'do the /task, please!
• in the 2nd part of tag-questions:
He is a student,|/isn’t he?
• in the 1st part of alternative
questions:
'Is he a /student| or a pupil?
• in sentences which are
grammatically finished but
the sense of which is not
complete:
I 'wanted to /tell you…
• in sentences with
enumeration:
I 'like /apples,| /oranges |and
\grapes.
GRAPHIC REPRESENTATION OF
INTONATION
___________ Two parallel lines (staves) represent the upper & the lower
___________ limits of human voice.
__ A dash represents the stressed syllable.
• A dot represents the unstressed syllable.
___________ A downward curve represents
___________ the Falling tone
____‫______ر‬An upward curve represents the Rising tone
| One vertical bar represents a short pause between intonation groups.
|| Two vertical bars represent a long pause at the end of the sentence.