INTONATION

I> DEFINITION II> FUNCTIONS III> INTONATION CONTOURS

I> DEFINITION
term used to refer to variations in pitch of a speakers voice [Finch, 2000: 86] Pitch is a mental phenomenon. Its physical basis is the sound frequency of speech. Speech disturbs the air around us. The rate of that disturbance is called sound frequency. We interprete the changes in frequency which occur naturally in speaking as changes in pitch, as a consequence, perceive our voice to be continually riding and falling. [Finch, 2000: 86]

 In English, tones do not differentiate words; do not operate above individual segments/words but above strings of words. These word strings over which a tone pattern operates are called tone unit (sense unit, breath group, contour) (Conventionally) structure of a tone-unit (brackets indicating optional components): (pre-head) (head) tonic/nuclear syllable (tail) The centre of the tone-unit, around which everything is constructed=the tonic syllable, or nucleus: Theres `no `needs to be` so upset about it. The tonic syllable (= TS) carries not only a type of stress that is called tonic stress but also the tone of the tone-unit the tonic syllable is more prominent that any other syllables in the tone-unit. The tonic syllable is the only obligatory component in the tone-unit.

 The head (= H) is all that part of a tone-unit that extends form the first stressed syllable up to (but not including) the tonic syllable. The pre-head (= PH) is composed of all the unstressed syllables in a tone-unit preceding the first stressed syllable. The tail includes any syllables, either stressed or unstressed, between the tonic syllable and the end of the tone-unit. Toneunits are sometimes separated by a silent pause and sometimes not; pause-type boundaries can be marked by double vertical lines like this( ) and non-pause boundaries with a single line ( l ). PH H TS PH TS PH H and thennearer to thefront on theleft l theres abit of TS T H TS T ,forest coming down to the wa terside PH H TS and then a bit of bay [Roach, 2002: 166] The above passage contains five tone units.

How to distinguish a tonic syllable from a nontonic (stressed) syllable Within a tone unit (tone group), there is always some part that is especially prominent. This is the part that the speaker wants to show to be the most important in the message. The part that is prominent is called tonic. The tonic always starts on a salient syllable (that is, at the beginning of a foot) and this syllable is known as the tonic syllable. (the tonic syllable is marked by underlying.) Therefore, a tonic (stressed) syllable is different from a stressed syllable in the following significant points: The tonic syllable is both stressed and prominentlonger and louder than the other stressed syllables. `Give me `those Both give and those are stressed but those is more prominent.

 The tonic syllable carries the main burden of the pitch movement in the tone unit, and it does this in one of the two ways:
-It covers the widest pitch range. For example, if the tone unit is on a falling tone, the tonic syllable will have a greater falling movement than any of the other syllables. That is, the tonic syllable will fall more steeply, and over a wider range:

For whom the `bell `tolls Toll has a greater falling than bell It occurs immediately following a pitch jump, where instead of a continuous rising or falling movement there is a jump up or down between syllables `Peter spent his `weekend at the `sports club There is a jump up of the pitch right after the. The` tide `falls Theres a steep fall of the pitch right after tide.

II> FUNCTIONS OF INTONATION

II.1> Grammatical function

Intonation as a grammatical indicator: In relation with sentence type, there are the following intonation contours: Rising: Yes/no questions/Question tag with less certain expression Falling: Declarative/Whquestion/Imperative/Exclamation/Question tag expressing confirmation Rising-falling: Multiple interrogative Underhill [1994: 83-84]

 E.g.: - 2You are a 3student1 ( declarative statement, signals speaker certainty)

- 2You are a 3student3 (question, signals uncertainty) - - 2Those who 3sold2 2quickly made a 3profit1

(A profit was quickly made by those who sold) - 2Those who sold 3quickly2 2made a 3profit1

(A profit was made by those who sold quickly)

II.2> Attitudinal function

Falling: assertive, positive Thats NICE Rising: polite, enquiring Its not imPORtant Fall-rise: reservation, doubt, uncertainty Im not SURE Rise-fall: emphatic, impatient, sarcastic.

Its up to YOU. How NICE. Level: neutral, uninterested

Its OK

Intonation helps to produce the effect of prominence on syllables that need to be perceived as stressed, and in particular syllable marks out the word to which it belongs as the most important in the tone-unit in the utterance. E.g.: - I walked to the party. Is different from - I walked to the party. Is different from - I walked to the party.

II.3> Accentual function

II.4> Discourse function

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. E.g.: A: Have you got any free time this morning? B: I might have later on if that meetings off. A: They went talking about putting it later B: You cant be sure. Sentences form part of some larger act of conversational interaction between 2 speakers; the sentences contain several references that presuppose shared knowledge (that meeting: both 2 speakers know which meeting is being spoken about)

III. INTONATION CONTOURS (N. Stageberg) III.1 Pitch

- We use four levels of relative pitch as phonemes to make distinctions in meaning: 4. extra-high 3. high 2. normal (middle) 1. low
The normal pitch of your speaking voice is level 2

E.g.: 2 3 1 Im going home.

Level 4 is used for special emphasis or strong emotion, for example, excitement, surprise, great enthusiasm, or disbelief. It is the pitch level often used in contrastive or emphatic stress. It is rather sparingly used. Level 3 is stressed syllable Level 1 is used when we lower our voice. Normal conversation moves between middle and high pitch.

English makes use of pitch variation over the length of an

III.2 Terminal juncture

- Pitches combine into patterns to make meaningful melodies over the whole phrase or sentence. These melodies have three methods of closure, which are called terminal junctures or merely terminals. - Terminal juncture is the relationship between one sound and the sound that immediately precedes and follows it. - 3 types of terminals:
Fading (Falling) terminal: Rising terminal Sustained terminal

Types of intonation contours

- Patterns of pitch, with their accompanying terminals, are called intonation contours. - In symbolizing contours you should indicate the pitch levels at three places: + the beginning of the grammatical unit + the beginning of the syllable bearing the primary stress (tonic syllable). Primary stress is somewhere between every two terminals. It usually accompanies pitch level 3. + the end of unit before the terminal

III.3. Intonation contours

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