Intonation of the English language

Intonation of the English language

Intonation is a language universal. There are no languages which are spoken as a monotone without any changes of prosodic parameters.

Intonation is a complete unity of non-segmental or prosodic features of speech. They are melody pitch of the voice, sentence stress, temporal characteristics duration, tempo, pausation, timbre, rhythm.

Intonation organizes a sentence, determines communicative types of sentences and clauses, divides sentences into intonation groups, gives prominence to words and phrases.

In practical courses of English phonetics emphasis is naturally made on the so-called grammatical functions of intonation:

1 The constitutive function: forming words, syntagms, sentences and supra-phrasal unitie

2 The distinctive function: distinguishing between words and word combinations with the same phonemic composition, communicative types of a sentence. They are statements, questions, explanations, commands, requests, parenthesis.

Emotional function of intonation is to express is to express attitudinal meaning – sarcasm, surprise, impatience, delight, shock, anger, interest, and other semantic nuances.

Informational function of intonation helps to draw attention to what meaning is given and what is new in an utterance. The word carrying the most prominent tone in a syntagm signals the part of an utterance that the speaker is treating as new information: I’ve got a new pen, I bought three books.

Textual function of intonation helps larger units of meaning than the sentence to contrast and cohere. In radio news-reading, paragraphs of information can be shaped through the use of pitch. In sports commentary, changes in prosody reflect the progress of the action.

Psychological function of intonation helps us to organize speech into units that are easier to perceive and memorize.

Indexical function of intonation: serves as a marker of personal or social identity.

Intonation can also serve as a typical feature of different registers of speech or styles of speech.

Intonation also reflects such extra-linguistic factors as age, sex, personality traits, status, social identity of the speaker, his emotions.

Prosodic parameters:

1 Pitch – the fundamental frequency of vibration of the vocal cords is perceived as pitch. The higher the frequency, the higher the pitch. And vice versa. So during the pronunciation of a sound or larger segments pitch is either lowered or raised, or sustained. And in this way can form various configurations. If it varies within a sound or a rhythm group the configuration is referred to as “tone”. If the unit is higher than the corresponding configuration is a “tune” melody.

2 Range – diapason. This term is used to denote the whole band of frequencies which it is possible for the individual to produce from the lowest to the highest. Normally we speak only within one-third of our total pitch range. Even emotionally coloured pitch is realized within the limits of the normal voice range, only at times going beyond it.

3 Loudness is the product of the amplitude of vibration of the vocal cords brought about by differing intensity of air-pressure from the lungs.

There are some more prosodic parameters, pauses of different length, tempo of speaking, a stress or accent and rhythm.

4 Pause – the absence of voice or phonation. Any piece of connected discourse is split up into smaller portions paragraphs, sentences, sense groups. In this case a pause is a complete cessation of phonation. In actual speech pauses may differ in length.

a The one-unit pause is denoted by a vertical line It is equivalent to one beat or cycle of a person’s normal rhythm of speech. It is used to separate two sense-groups or syntagms.

The two-unit pause is denoted by two vertical lines. It is approximately twice as long as the one-unit pause. It is used to separate two sentences.

c The three-unit pause is marked by three vertical lines. It’s approximately three times as long as the one-unit pause. It’s generally used to separate two paragraphs.

An interval within an intonation group is marked by /

In rapid speech a one-unit pause will naturally be shorter than in slow speech. It may be longer or shorter depending on the tempo of the utterance.

Pauses are usually divided into filled and unfilled, corresponding to voiced and silent pauses. Their length is relative to the tempo and rhythmical norms of a person. The exception is the co-called “end-of-utterance”  pause which length is controlled by the person who is about to speak.

Functionally, there may be distinguished syntactic, emphatic and hesitation pauses.

Syntactic pauses separate phrases, intonation groups.

Emphatic pauses serve to make especially prominent certain parts of the utterance, e.g.

he is the most ? charming girl I’ve ever seen.

Hesitation pauses are mainly used in spontaneous speech to gain sometime to think over what to say next. They may be silent or filled, e.g.

he is rather a … good student.

Where does she live – Um, not very far from here.

5 The timbre of the voice quality is a special colouring of the speaker’s voice. It’s used to express various emotions and moods.

6 Sentence stress is a greater prominence of words, which are made more or less prominent in an intonation group. The special prominence of accented words is achieved through the greater force of utterance and changes in the direction of voice pitch, constituting the nuclear tone.

The difference between stress and accent is based on the fact that in the case of stress the dominant component is loudness, in the case of accent it is pitch. Degrees of stress in an utterance correlate with a pitch-range system. Nuclear stress is the strongest, it carries the most important information. Non-nuclear stresses are subdivided into full and partial. Full stress occurs only in the head of an intonation group, partial stresses occur also in the pre-head and in the tail. Partial stresses in the pre-head are most frequently of a low variety.

7 Rhythm – is the regular alternation of stressed and unstressed syllable. It is so typical of an English phrase that the incorrect rhythm betrays the non-English origin of the speaker. The units of the rhythmical structure of an utterance are rhythm groups. Unstressed syllables have a tendency to cling to the preceding stressed syllables, in this case they’re called enclitics, or to the following stressed syllables – proclitics.

Each sense group of the sentence is pronounced at approximately the same period of time. Unstressed syllables are pronounced more rapidly. The greater the number of unstressed syllables, the quicker they are pronounced. Proclitics are pronounced faster than enclitics.

Rhythm is connected with sentence stress. Under the influence of rhythm words which are normally pronounced with two equally strong stresses may lose one of them, or may have their word stress realized difficulty, e.g.

?Picca?dilly – ?Piccadilly ?Circus – ?close to ?Picca?dilly

?prin?cess – a ?princess ?royal

8 Tempo – the term “tempo” implies the rate of the utterance and the pausation. The rate of speech can be normal, slow and fast. The parts of the utterance which are particularly important sound slower, unimportant parts are commonly pronounced at a greater speed than normal.

Intonation pattern

Each syllable of the speech chain has a special pitch colouring. Some of the syllables have significant movements of tone – up and down. Pitch movements are inseparably connected with loudness. Together with the tempo of speech they form an intonation pattern which is the basic unit of intonation.

Intonation patterns serve to actualize syntagms in oral speech.

Syntagm – is a group of words which is semantically and syntactically complete. In phonetics actualized syntagms are called intonation groups.

An intonation pattern contains one nucleus and may contain other stressed or unstressed syllables, normally preceding or following the nucleus. The boundaries of intonation pattern may be marked by stops of phonation temporal pauses.

Intonation pattern consists of the following units:

unstressed and half stressed syllables preceding the first stressed syllable constitute the pre-head of the intonation grou stressed and unstressed syllables up to the last stressed syllable constitute the head or scale of the intonation grou the last stressed syllable, within which fall or rise in the intonation group is accomplished, is called the nucleu the syllables or one syllable, that follow the nucleus, constitute the tail.

According to Roger Kingdon the most important nuclear tones in English are:

These tones are called KINETIC or MOVING because the pitch of the voice moves upwards or downwards, or first one and then the other, during the whole duration of the tone.

Roger Kingdon also distinguishes STATIC TONES, in which the voice remains steady on a given pitch throughout the duration of the tone: the HIGH LEVEL

TONE, the LOW LEVEL TONE.

Moreover the pitch can change either in one direction only a SIMPLE TONE and more than one direction a COMPLEX TONE.

The meanings of the nuclear tones are difficult to specify in general terms. Roughly speaking the falling tone of any level and range expresses certainty, completeness, independence.

Thus a straight-forward statement normally ends with a falling tone since it asserts a fact of which the speaker is certain. It has an air of finality.

A rising tone of any level and range on the contrary expresses uncertainty, incompleteness or dependence. A general question, for instance, has a rising tone, as the speaker is uncertai of the truth of what he is asking about.

1. The English Low Fall in the nucleus starts somewhat higher than the midlevel and usually reaches the lowest pitch level. It is represented graphically with a downward curve on the tonogram.

The use of the Low Fall enables the speaker to convey in his utterance an impression of neutral, calm finality, defmiteness, resoluteness. Phrases with the Low Fall sound categoric, calm, neutral, final.

2. The English High Fall in the nucleus starts very high and usually reaches the lowest pitch. The High Fall provides a great degree of prominence, which depends on the height of the fall.

The use of the High Fall adds personal concern, interest and warmth to the feature characteristic of the Low Fall. The High Fall sounds lively, interested and airy in statements. It sounds very emotional and warm, too.

3. The English Low Rise in the nucleus starts from the lowest level and reaches the medium level the nuclear variant. If the nucleus is followed by a tail, it is pronounced on the lowest level and the syllables of the tail rise gradually the nuclear-post-nuclear variant. The two variants of the Low Rise the nuclear and the nuclear-post-nuclear are pronounced in a different way and consequently they have different graphical representations on the tonogram, but the same tone marks in the text.

The Low Rise conveys a feeling of non-finality, incompleteness, hesitation. Phrases pronounced with this tone sound not categoric, non-final, encouraging further conversation, wondering, mildly puzzled, soothing.

4. The English High Rise in the nucleus rises from a medium to a high pitch, if there is no tail. If there are unstressed syllables following the nucleus, the latter is pronounced on a fairly high level pitch and the syllables of the tail rise gradually.

The High-Rise expresses the speakers active searching for information. It is often used in echoed utterances, calling for repetition or additional information or with the intention to check if the information has been received correctly. Sometimes this tone is meant to keep the conversation going.

5. The Fall-Rise is called a compound tone as it actually may present a combination of two tones: either the Low Fall-Low Rise or the High Fall-Low Rise. The Low Fall-Rise may be spread over one, two or a number of syllables; the High Fall-Rise always occur on separate syllables.

If the Low Fall-Rise is spread over one syllables, the fall occurs on the first part of the vowel from a medium till a low pitch, the rise occurs on the second part of the vowel very low and does not go up too high: e. g. ?No the undivided variant.

If the fall and rise occur on different syllables, any syllables occurring between them are said on a very low pitch, notional words are stressed:

e. g. I ?think his face is fa?miliar the divided variant.

The falling part marks the idea which the speaker wants to emphasize and the rising part marks the addition to this main idea.

The Fall-Rise is a highly implicatory tone. The speaker using this tone leaves something unsaid known both to him and his interlocutor. It is often used in statements and imperatives. Statements with the Fall-Rise express correction of what someone else has said or a contradiction to something previously said or a warning. Imperatives pronounced this way sound pleading. Greetings and leave-takings sound pleasant and friendly being pronounced with the Fall-Rise:

e. g. He is ?thirty. – He is ? thirty- ?five a mild correction.

We’II ?go there.–- You ?shant. a contradiction.

I must be on ?time. – ?Youll be ?late a warning.

Its all so ?awful. – ?Cheer ?up. pleading.

Good ?night, Betty. – ?Good ?night, Mrs. Sandford. friendly.

6. The Rise-Fall is also a compound tone. In syllables pronounced with the Rise-

Fall the voice first rises from a fairly low to a high pitch, and then quickly falls to a very low pitch; e. g.:

Are you sure – ?Yes.

The Rise-Fall denotes that the speaker is deeply impressed favorably or unfavorably.

Actually the Rise-Fall sometimes expresses the meaning of even. E.g.:

You arent ?trying. You arent even trying.

This nuclear tone is used in statements and questions which sound impressed, challenging, disclaiming responsibility, imperatives pronounced this way sound hostile and disclaiming responsibility. E.g.:

Dont treat me like a baby. – Be ?sensible then.

Has he proposed to her — Why should you ?worry about it

Did you like it – I simply ?hated it.

Im awfully sorry. – No ?doubt. But its too late for apologies.

7. The Mid-Level tone in the nucleus is pronounced on the medium level with any following tail syllables on the same level. Its tone mark in the text is and it is marked on the tonogram with a dash: –.

The Mid-Level is usually used in non-final intonation groups expressing non-finality without any expression of expectancy. E. g.:

Couldnt you help me At present | Im too busy.

What did Tom say Naturally, | he was delighted.

The English dialogic speech is highly emotional, thats why such emphatic tone as the High Fall and the Fall-Rise prevail in it. It is interesting to note, that the most frequently occurring nuclear tone in English the Low Fall occupies the fourth place in dialogic speech after the High Fall, the Fall-Rise and the Low Rise.

Parenthetical and subsidiar information in a statement is also often spoken with a rising tone, or a mid-level tone, because this information is incomplete, being dependent for its full understanding on the main assertion Encouraging or polite denials, commands, invitations, greetings, farewells, etc. are generally spoken with a rising tone.

A falling-rising tone may combine the falling tones meaning of assertion, certainty with the rising tones meaning of dependence, incompleteness. At the end of a phrase it often conveys a feeling of reservation; that is, it asserts something and at the same time suggests that there is something else to be said.

At the beginning or in the middle of a phrase it is a more forceful alternative to the rising tone, expressing the assertion of one point, together with the implication that another point is to follow.

The falling-rising tone, as its name suggests, consists of a fall in pitch followed by a rise. If the nucleus is the last syllable of the intonation group the fall and rise both take place on one syllable — the nuclear syllable. Otherwise the rise occurs in the remainder of the tone unit.

Where the Rise of the Fall-Rise extends to a stressed syllable after the nucleus we signal the falling-rising tone by placing the fall on the nucleus and a rise on the later stressed syllable.

In English there is often clear evidence of an intonation-group boundary, but no audible nuclear tone movement preceding. In such a circumstance two courses are open: either one may classify the phenomenon as a further kind of head or one may consider it to be the level nuclear tone. The weight of evidence seems to force the second solution, for the following reasons:

1. The final level tone is always more prominent than the others.

Also the syllable on which it occurs is lengthened substantially, and there is a clear rhythmic break between what precedes and what follows.

2. This tone nearly always occurs on the last lexical item which is not obligatory in spontaneous speech before a phonetic boundary and this is distributionally similar to a nuclear tone.

3. In subordinate structures this tone may be replaced by a rising-type tone.

4. In non-subordinate structures this tone has a particular range of meaning boredom, sarcasm, etc. which is very similar in force to other nuclear semantic functions.