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English Pronunciation for Communication

14.Intonation Units

of English

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Some concepts you have to know:

Intonation unit is also called intonation-group,tone group, and usually corresponds to sense group.

An intonation unit may contain several syllables, the last stressed syllable is usually a marker of the highest importance and has the focus stress.

On this syllable, there takes place a change of pitch.

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Structure of English Intonation

P = Pre-head

H = Head

N = Nucleus

T = Tail

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Elements in an intonation unit

The nucleus: the stressed syllable of the last 调核 prominent word in a tone unit

The tail: any syllable or syllables that may 调尾 follow the nucleus

The head: the part of a tone unit that extends from 调头 the first stressed syllable up to the

nucleus The pre-head: any unstressed syllable or syllables th

at 调冠 may precede the head - or the nucleus, if there is no head

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We are LEARNing a FOReign LANGuage. P H N T P = Pre-head H = Head N = Nucleus T = Tail

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Structures of an intonation unit

PH NT: We are learning a foreign language.

PH N: I am afraid we can't go. P NT: We hope so. P N: It was at night. H NT: When are they coming? H N: Peter has arrived. NT: Look at him. N: Help!

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Mark out the elements in the following intonation units.

P H N T : She'll be able to do it properly. P H N : It was a very dark night. P N T : He said so. P N : They'll be late. H N T : Isn't John going? H N : Go ahead. N T : Pardon? N : Thanks.

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Mark out the elements in the following intonation units.

P H N T : She'll be able to do it properly. P H N : It was a very dark night. P N T : He said so. P N : They'll be late. H N T : Isn't John going? H N : Go ahead. N T : Pardon? N : Thanks.

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The Stress Rules

1. Stress tends to fall on content words within an utterance.

2. Only a word’s stressed syllable carries the sentence stress.

3. Within an intonation unit, there may be several words receiving stress but only one has the nucleus.

4. New information tends to receive prominence and generally occurs towards the end of an utterance.

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Unit 15 Functions & uses of English Intonation

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The Use of English Intonation

The falling tone

-- indicating `definiteness' and `completeness'.

Types of sentences:

Ordinary statements

WH questions

Imperative sentences (strong commands)

Exclamatory sentences

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The rising tone

- indicating `uncertainty',

`incompleteness' or `politeness'.

Types of sentences:

Yes-no questions

Statements intended as questions

Statements intended to be soothing or encouraging

Repetition questions

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The falling-rising tone

- showing contrast, implication, disagree-

ment, contradiction, or warning, etc.

Types of sentences:

Statements where contrast is implied

Statements which imply reservation

Statements which show disagreement or contradiction

Warnings

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Utterances Question Statement

1. He left already.

2. Sally’s moving.

3. John missed his flight.

4. It’s snowing in New York.

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Utterances Yes-no Choice

1. Are you coming Friday or Saturday?

2. Can you meet us at eight or nine?

3. Would you like beer or wine?

4. Are you going to Spain or Portugal?

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The functions of intonation Intonation and stress work together to express mea

ning,and make it easier for a listener to understand what a speaker is trying to convey.

The following are important functions: 1. The attitudinal function 2. The accentual function 3. The grammatical function 4. the discourse function of intonation

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The attitudinal function It is used to convey our feelings and attitudes, for exam

ple, happiness, gratitude, anger, boredom, etc.

Within tone, for example, the fall could be said to be more often associated with completeness and definiteness; the rise is more often associated with incompleteness and uncertainty or questioning, while the fall-rise is said to have feelings of hesitation, contrast, reservation or doubt.

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The accentual function The placement of tonic stress is a function ofintonation. The location of the tonic syllable is ofconsiderable linguistic impor-tance. The mostcommon position for this is on the last lexical wordof the tone unit. For contrastive purpose, however,any word may become the tonic syllable.

I arrived in London at last. I arrived in London at last. I arrived in London at last.

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The grammatical function

The following sentence is ambiguous when written and the ambiguity can only be removed by using differences of intonation:

' Those who ' sold quickly ' made a profit.↘↗ ↘

(A profit was made by those who sold quickly.) ' Those who sold ' quickly ' made a profit.↘↗ ↘

(A profit was quickly made by those who sold.)

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Another example is the use of a rising tone with a statement, i.e. the changing of a statement into a question simply by changing the tone from falling to rising:

You're a ↘ student.

You're a ↗ student?

They 're going to 'have a picnic.↘

They 're going to 'have a picnic.↗

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The discourse functionThe speakers tend to focus the listener's attention on aspectsof the message that are most important. The placement ofnucleus or tonic stress depends on the “information content”:the more predictable a word’s occurrence is in a givencontext, the lower its information content is.

The telephone’s ringing.The kettle’s boiling.

-- Did you say a lighter shade? -- No, a brighter shade.

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