English intonation

ENGLISH INTONATION

• The definition of intonation
• The anatomy of English intonation
• The functions of intonation
• The functional value of the pitch.
• Sentence stress.
• The tempo of speech.
• Pauses.
• Rhythm.

INTONATION

Intonation is a specific organization of speech-sounds grouped in syllables and words and intended to produce meaningful utterances.

DEFINITION

• to superimpose [  su:pr I m  p qV z]
• inherit [ I n  her I t]
• prosody[  pr P s q di]: pitch, loudness, tempo
• timbre [  t x mbr q ]
• non-entity
• utterance

INTONATION on the perception level

Intonation is a complex unity of changes in voice pitch or tone, intensity or accent, and tempo, i.e. the rate of utterance and pausation.

PROSODY – synonym of INTONATION

“ prosody” and “intonation” include the same components but intonation is a broader notion, that’s why the term “prosody” seems to be more adequate.

TIMBRE

Pr. Vassiliev includes it as the fourth component of intonation.

By voice timbre we mean the colouring of voice.

Sentence (Utterance)

Sentence real = Sentence potential + Intonation

Intonation group ( an actualized syntagm) – a group of words which is semantically and syntactically complete.

Intonation patterns is the basic unit of intonation which is formed by pitch, loudness and tempo.

A potential and an actualized syntagm

“ I think he is coming soon”

a potential syntagm a potential syntagm

“ I think he is coming soon”

an actualized syntagm

Pitch-and-stress structure of the intonation pattern (or pitch-sentence stress pattern)

• Nucleus (focal point)
• Tail
• Head
• Pre-head

The Terminal Tone

The Pre-nuclear Part

Pitch-and-stress structure of the intonation pattern (or pitch-sentence stress pattern)

4

1

3

2

He is a very remarkable novelist.

Types of terminal tones

Simple tunes

Low Fall Low Rise

High Fall High Rise

Mid Fall Mid Rise

Mid Level

Complex tunes

Fall-Rise

Rise-Fall

Rise-Fall-Rise

Compound tunes

Rise + Fall

Fall + Rise

Types of pre-heads

Zero pre-head

Low pre-head

High pre-head

Good morning!

Hello!

Types of heads

Descending

Stepping

Falling

Scandent

Sliding

Ascending

Rising  

Climbing

Level

High

Medium

Low

Level Heads

• Low
• High
• Medium

All right!

Who ever saw …

What’s your favourite colour?

Descending heads

• Falling
• Stepping
• Sliding
• Scandent

What did you think of Mary’s flat?

Alice was beginning to get very tired.

I’ll get it rewired at once.

… and her brother and sister were asleep.

Ascending heads

• Rising
• Climbing

Did you tell Vincent about it?

Thank you very much!

“ That is too bad,” said the professor.

Combinations

Not at all!

High Head +

• Low Fall
• High Fall
• Low Rise
• High Rise
• Fall-Rise

calm, reserved

surprised, concerned

encouraging, very friendly

questioning

protesting, correcting

FUNCTIONS OF INTONATION

• to structure the information content of a textual unit;
• to differentiate the actual meaning of textual units;
• to structure a text, to define the number of terminal tones;
• to determine the speech function of a phrase;
• to convey connotational meaning of “attitude”;
• stylistic function of intonation.

The functional value of the pitch

• Syntactically distinctive function:

She washed and dressed her \ baby. (1)

She washed and dressed her \ baby. (2)

--- The meaning is different.

The communicative types of sentences:

• Statements: * I like music.
• Questions: * Can you prove it?
• Imperative sentences or commands: * Try it again.
• Exclamations: * Right you are!

a) Isn’t it wonderful! (a general question)

b) Isn’t it wonderful! (an exclamation)

• Semantically distinctive function:

I don’t give my books to anybody.

• \ anybody (= to nobody)
• \ any ⁄ body (= to those whom I don’t know)

• Attitudinally distinctive function:

→ Will you be \ quiet. (order)

→ Will you be ⁄ quiet. (request)

The pitch differentiates the connotational meaning.

----------------

Why? (no interest, detached)

Why? (interest, sympathy)

Why? (much concern)

Why? (concerned, hurt)

The pitch differentiates the attitudinal meaning.

Sentence-stress

Sentence-stress is a special prominence given to one or more words according to their relative importance in a sentence.

I can’t | tell you | anything about it.

I’d like them | to come | to my party.

(3 rhythmic groups)

3 types of sentence stress

• normal ( syntactic ) stress
• logical stress
• emphatic stress

• Rhythmic stress is a subtitle of normal stress.

Rhythm is alternations of stressed and unstressed syllables.

• Normal (syntactic) sentence-stress:

→ Very \ good.

→ Not very \ good.

If \ Mary ⁄ comes |→ let me \ know.

→ If she ⁄ comes |→ let me \ know.

• Logical sentence-stress

Compare:

a) I knew what he was going to \ say.

b) I \ knew what he was ֽ going to ֽ say.

• I want an English book.
• I want an English book.

You know what I’d like, I’d like a new car.

• Emphatic sentence-stress implies

the increase of the effort of expression.

I want an English book. (unemphatic, NS)

I want an English book. (emphatic, NS)

I want an English book. (unemphatic, LS)

I want an English book. (emphatic, LS)

Various distinctive functions

• logically distinctive function

• syntactically distinctive function:

Have you met my ⁄ brother | ⁄ Tom? (apposition)

Have you met my ⁄ brother Tom? (direct address)

Various distinctive functions

• semantically distinctive function:

You for get your self.

You for get yourself.

What are you working for? (purpose)

What are you working for? (reason)

• attitudinally distinctive function:

→ What shall I \ do?

→ What \ shall I do?

She said the bus was late. (You believe this)

She said the bus was late. (You don’t believe her)

A: What do you think of the film?

B: It’s quite interesting.

(= yes, it’s definitely interesting)

A: What do you think of the film?

B: It’s quite interesting.

(= but not very interesting)

TEMPO

The term “tempo” implies

the rate of the utterance and pausation .

The rate of speech can be fast (or rapid) ,

normal (or mid) ,

slow.

“ My mother thinks him to be a common labouring boy”, said Betty with a smile.

“ I’m not ready,” he said slowly.

PAUSE

By “pause” we mean

a complete stop of phonation .

PAUSES

Short Syntactic

Normal Emphatic

Long Hesitation

• A syntactic pause

delimitates the text syntactically.

• An emphatic pause

emphasizes the following part of the utterance.

She is the most _ charming girl in the group.

• A hesitation pause (in spontaneous speech) serves to gain time to think over what to say next.

HESITATION

Pauses: silent and filled .

with

• speech sounds: um, er .
• prolonged vowels: theee, tooo, ayyy .
• special phrases: you see,

frankly speaking,

let me think for a moment,

just, now, I think, …

• No stop of phonation but we feel a pause:

On Saturday I’ll go to Moscow.

Anyway, I must be off …

RHYTHM

A.M. Antipova defines rhythm

as a complex language system which is formed by the interrelation of lexical, syntactic and prosodic means.

Prosody creates similarity and isochrony of speech elements.

LANGUAGES

syllable-timed stress-timed

(French, Spanish) (English,German, Russian)

• ‘ One, ‘ Two, ‘ Three, \ Four.
• ‘ One and ‘ Two and ‘ Three and \ Four.

Proclitics - the adjoining unstressed words

when they precede the stressed words.

(on the wall)

Enclitics - the adjoining unstressed words

when they follow the stressed words.

(come with me)

• Piccadilly –

Piccadilly Circus –

close to Piccadilly;

• princess –

a princess royal