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INTONATION

Presented To:
SIR SOHAIL FALAK SHER

Presented By:
SADIA QAMAR
IRAM RUBAB

ISLAMIA UNIVERSITY,
BAHAWALPUR

INTONATION

Introduction

Linguistics is concerned primarily with the spoken word. Language is


first and foremost a spoken thing not a written one. Its appeal is to ear
not to the eye. Even, presently, there are some languages, which have no
written script. For efficient communication and for proper understanding
of the message it is essential to have an understanding of intonation.
The study of intonation went through many changes in the twentieth
century.
The most intensive development began during the 1940.
In United States the theory that evolved was based on pitch phonemes
(Pike. 1945).
It was developed in 1951 and then by Haliday (1967) and consequently
a good introduction to the theoretical issues is Cruttenden (1997).
We can divide language into languages which are toned and those which
are not, English falls into second category, that is, it is not a tone
language.

Stress: Stress is the degree of force


with which a sound or syllable or a
word is uttered.

Pitch: The rate of the vibration of


the vocal folds.

Tone languages

All the languages in the world use consonants and vowels to


build morphemes, which in turn join together to form words.
Thus the English word me is made up of a nasal consonant
followed by a high vowel.
If we change the consonant to a/b/ we would get a different word,
be, and if we change the vowel to a low vowel, we would also
get a different words, ma.
We may pronounce the word ma with various pitch patterns,
depending on the occasion. We may pronounce it with high pitch
if we are emphatic, we may say it with a rising pitch in a question
etc.

But these different pitch patterns do not alter the word in the
way that changing a consonant or changing a vowel does.
These different pitch patterns that do not change but merely
add to the basic meaning of words are called intonation.
Yet there are some languages in the world that use pitch
patterns to build morphemes in the same way consonant and
vowels are used. The best known such language is Chinese, as
illustrated in the figure below
(Wang 1973).

As the figure shows, the syllable ma when pronounced with a


falling pitch patterns means, to scold.
When pronounced with a rising pattern, the meaning is
hemp, when pronounced with a high level pattern, the
meaning is mother as in some dialects of English, and lastly,
when pronounced with a low dipping pattern, the meaning is
horse.
When pitch patterns are used in this lexical capacity i.e. to
build word and morphemes much as consonants and vowels
do, they are called tones.
And languages that use tones in this way are called tone
languages.
English is not tone language because different tones make no
difference in meanings.
However, it certainly gives different meanings when different
parts/syllables of the same words are stressed.

Tone unit and the structure of


tone unit:

Tone: Tone is the overall behaviour of pitch.


Pitch: Pitch is frequency of vibration of
vocal cords.
Tone unit:
For the purpose of analyzing
intonation, a unit greater than syllable one
syllable. Usually tone unit is always
composed of more than one syllable.

Analysis of Utterances to
Understand Tone Unit
One syllable utterance
You
This is one tone unit.
Note: Underlined syllable carry tone.

Three Syllable Utterance


Is it you?
This is one tone unit.
Note: the underlined syllable have more prominence.

The Structure of Tone Unit


The structure of tone unit comprises of:
Tonic syllable (TS)
Head
(H)
Pre-Head
(PH)
Tail
(T)

(i) Tonic Syllable

Tonic syllable is an obligatory component of tone unit. The


centre of the unit, around which everything else is constructed,
is the tonic syllable, or nucleus.

For example:
John, is it you?
In this example, there are two tone units because there are, two
tonic syllables in it. First is John, one syllable utterance)
second is it you? (Three syllable utterance).
It contains a high degree of prominence which is a property of
stressed syllable, so, tonic syllable contains.
Tone + Stress:
Tonic stress: The stress that tonic syllable is having is called
tonic stress.

(ii) The Head:


The head is all that part of a tone unit that extends from the first stressed
syllable up to the tonic syllable.

For example:
Give me,
those?
Head
TS
If there is no stressed syllable proceeding the tonic syllable, there
cannot be any head.

(iii)

The Pre-Head:

The unstressed syllable before the head is called pre-head.


For example
In an
hour
Pre-head
TS
Pre-head can be found in two situations.
When there is no head.
As in
For example:
In an
hour
PH
TS
b) When the head is after the unstressed syllable.
For example:
In a
little
less
than an,
hour
PH
H
TS

(iv) The tail


Any syllable that follows the tonic syllable or any
syllable between tonic syllable and of tone unit is called
the Tail.
For example:
Look at
it
TS Tail
I
might
buy it
H
TS Tail

Kinds of Tones and their function


Linguistics are not in complete agreement about the precise
number of tones which are used by speakers of English some
distinguish as many as eight, others work with four or five. The
following tones are the ones most usually encountered.
Fall
Rise fall
Fall rise
Rise
Level

1.

Fall

It is regarded as neutral tone and gives the impression of


finality.
Example:
A:
Have you attended the class?
B:
Yes
(It will be understood that the question is now answered
and that there is nothing more to be said.)

2.

Rise

This tone conveys an impression that something more is to follow.

For example:
A:

(wishing to attract BS attention.)


Excuse me.
B:
Yes
(BS reply is, perhaps, equivalent to what do you want?)
A:
Do you know John Smith?
B:
Yes
(Inviting A to continue with what she intends to say about John
Smith. The response with a fall would make it difficult for A to
continue).

3. Fall rise
This tone shows limited agreement, uncertainty,
and doubt.
For example:
A: I have heard that its a good college.
B: Yes
(B does not completely agree and A would
probably expect B to go on to explain why he
was reluctant to agree).

4. Rise Fall
This is used to convey rather strong feelings of
approval, disapproval or surprise. This tone is
used rarely in English.
A: You wouldnt do on awful thing like that,
would you?
B: No
A: Isnt the view lovely!
B: Yes

5.

Level

This tone is neutral and uninterested.


High level
Yes
No
Low level
Yes
No
It is used in English language in a restricted context. It
almost always conveys a feeling of routine,
uninteresting or boring.

For example:
A teacher calling names of the pupils from a register.

Uses of Tones
The tone-units and kinds of tone units have
already been discussed. Now we will try to
establish a correlation between the various types
of sentences (tone units or tone groups) and the
tones with which they are generally said. Thus,
we will see which types of tones are used to say
which type of tone units.

a.
Falling Tone (neutral tone& impression of finality)
The following types of sentences are generally said with a falling
tone.
a)

b)

c)

Statements which are complete and definite,


e.g. Hes just been promoted.
Wh questions which are matter of fact and intended to be neither polite nor
impolite.
e.g. Where are you going?
What are you doing?

Commands
e.g Shut the door.

d)

Invitations
e.g. Come over for a cup of coffee.
Come and dine with us.

e)

Exclamations

What a fine weather!


How beautiful:
f) Tag questions forcing the listner to agree with the speaker.
e.g. You are coming today arent you?
He cant help it / can he?

Rising Tone (something more is to follow)


The rising tone is used with the following tone groups:
i.
Yes / No type questions
e.g. Was he present yesterday?
ii.
Statements intended to be a questions.
e.g. you wont come?
He isnt going.
iii.
Non terminal tone group.
e.g. if you dont come in time . (Ill have)
iv.
Terminal tone group said as an after thought.
e.g. youre going away/I suppose.
b.

v.

iv.

iv.

vii.

Request
e.g. pass me the dish, please.
Command intended to sound like a request.
e.g. close the door,
Dont be late.
Wh questions showing politeness friendliness, warmth,
personal interest.
e.g. How are you?
What is your name, child?
Repetition questions which repeats some one elses question
or wants him to repeat some information.
e.g. what did I say?

i.
ii.

iii.

iv.

v.

c. Falling-Rising Tone (limited agreement uncertainity


and doubt)
The following tone groups are generally said with the
Incomplete
statement
falling-rising
tone: leading to a following tone group.

Statement intended to be a correction of the information received.


e.g (he has three sons) He has four
Statement intended to be a warning reproach or to express concern.
e.g you, mustnt go like this (warning)
Be careful (concern)
Imperative meant to be a pleading request.
e.g dont get on my nerve
Statement which shows a kind of reservation on the part of the
speaker.
Hes good (I cant trust him)
I can do it tomorrow (but not today)

d. Rising-Falling Tone (strong feelings of


approval, disapproval or surprise)
i.

ii.

iii.

iv.

The following tone groups are said with the rising-falling


tone:
Statement showing enthusiastic agreement.
e.g Yes, of course
Question showing suspicion, indignation incredulity, or
mockery.
e.g what has he been doing? (Suspicion)
Will he be able to do it? (Mocking, suspicion)
Imperative expression petulance, haughtiness
e.g Go and break your head (haughtiness)
Exclamation expressing sarcasm, irony.
e.g How good for you (sarcasm)
oh, really (sarcasm)

Intonation

No completely satisfactory definition can be given for this


term but give a rough idea J. Sethi defines it as:
Different pitches of the voice combine to form patterns of
pitch variation, or tones, which together constitute the
intonation of the language.
The intonation of the language thus refers to the rise and fall
of the pitch of the voice when we speak. One of the most
important tasks in analyzing intonation is to listen to speakers
pitch and recognize the tone.
Speakers are said select from a choice of tones according to
how they want the utterance to be heard.
Tone is carried by the tonic syllable whereas intonation is
carried by the tone unit. A tone unit is consisted of
Pre-head, head, tonic syllable, and a tail.
(PH)
(H) TS
(T)

CONCLUSION
So to conclude the whole discussion the importance of intonation
has been veiled of. A learner who learns a new language has not
only to grasp the grammar of that language but also the
intonation pattern to prove himself a good communicator.
In the twentieth century, it was for a long time hoped that
scientific study of intonation would make it possible to state what
the function of each different aspect of intonation was, and that
foreign learner could then be taught rules to enable them to use
intonation in the way that native speakers use it. Few people now
believe this to be possible. But it is certainly possible to produce
a few general rules. However these rules are certainly not
adequate as a complete practical guide to how to use English
intonation. But at least by learning something there must be some
improvement and a better performance.

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