FALL-RISE

and
RISE-FALL TONES
FUNCTIONS OF INTONATIONS

REPORTERS:
MARY ROSE JASPE
ANNABELLE MARCON
KIMBERLY MORENO
RENALIE OBENA
 INTONATION

Intonation describes how the voice rises and falls in speech. The

three main patterns of intonation in English are: falling intonation,
rising intonation and fall-rise intonation.
 Falling intonation
Falling intonation describes how the voice falls on the final stressed syllable of a phrase or a group of
words. A falling intonation is very common in wh-questions.
• Where’s the nearest p↘ost-office?
• What time does the film f↘inish? OK, here’s the magaz↘ine you wanted.
We also use falling intonation when we say something definite, or when we want to be very clear about
something:
• I think we are completely l↘ost.
• OK, here’s the magaz↘ine you wanted
 Rising intonation

Rising intonation describes how the voice rises at the end of a sentence. Rising
intonation is common in yes-no questions:
• I hear the Health Centre is expanding. So, is that the new d↗octor?
• Are you th↗irsty?
 Fall-rise intonation
Fall-rise intonation describes how the voice falls and then rises. We use fall-rise intonation at the end of
statements when we want to say that we are not sure, or when we may have more to add:

• I do↘n’t support any football team at the m↘om↗ent. (but I may change my mind in future). I
• t rained every day in the firs↘t w↗eek. (but things improved after that).
We use fall-rise intonation with questions, especially when we request information or invite somebody to
do or to have something. The intonation pattern makes the questions sound more polite:

• Is this your cam↘er↗a?

• Would you like another co↘ff↗ee?
 FUNCTION OF INTONATION

All vocal languages use pitch pragmatically in intonation—for instance for emphasis, to

convey surprise or irony, or to pose a question. Tonal languages such
as Chinese and Hausa use intonation in addition to using pitch for distinguishing words.
Many writers have attempted to produce a list of distinct functions of intonation.
• attitudinal function (for expressing emotions and attitudes)
Example: a fall from a high pitch on the 'mor' syllable of "good morning" suggests more
excitement than a fall from a low pitch

• grammatical function (to identify grammatical structure)

Example: it is claimed that in English a falling pitch movement is associated with
statements, but a rising pitch turns a statement into a yes–no question, as in He's going
↗home?. This use of intonation is more typical of American English than of British.
• focusing (to show what information in the utterance is new and what is already
known)
Example: in English I saw a ↘man in the garden answers "Whom did you see?" or
"What happened?", while I ↘saw a man in the garden answers "Did you hear a man in the
garden?"
• discourse function (to show how clauses and sentences go together in spoken
discourse)
Example: subordinate clauses often have lower pitch, faster tempo and narrower pitch
range than their main clause, as in the case of the material in parentheses in "The Red
Planet (as it's known) is fourth from the sun"
• psychological function (to organize speech into units that are easy to perceive,
memorize and perform)
Example: the utterance "You can have it in red blue green yellow or ↘black" is more
difficult to understand and remember than the same utterance divided into tone units as
in "You can have it in ↗red | ↗blue | ↗green | ↗yellow | or ↘black"
• indexical function (to act as a marker of personal or social identity)
Example: group membership can be indicated by the use of intonation patterns adopted
specifically by that group, such as street vendors or preachers. The so-called high rising
terminal, where a statement ends with a high rising pitch movement, is said to be typical
of younger speakers of English, and possibly to be more widely found among young
female speakers.
THANK YOU and GOD BLESS !!!