INTONATION

Intonation is the melody of speech. We study how the pitch of the voice rises and falls, how the speakers use
this pitch variation to convey linguistic (the literal meaning of a word) and pragmatic meaning (the meaning
depending on the context I use, I give the meaning of the word). It involves the study of the rhythm of speech, and
the study of how the interplay of accented, stressed, and unstressed syllables functions onto the intonation patterns.

WHY IS THE STUDY OF INTONATION USEFUL FOR THE STUDENTS?

Learners concentrate on the segmental phonetics that are the sounds of the language. But most learners also
learn about word stress. Intonation also known as prosody or suprasegmental. So, any intonation pattern is possible
in English; but different intonation patterns have different meanings. The difficult is that the pattern the learner uses
may not have the meaning he intends. Speakers of English assume that when it comes to intonation, you mean what
you say.

INTONATION IN DISCOURSE

ROLES OF INTONATION:

1. Attitudinal function → It expresses our attitudes and emotions. We do this by tone.

2. Grammatical function → Intonation helps identify grammatical structure in speech. We use intonation to
mark the beginning and the end of the grammatical units such as the clause and the sentence. We do this by
using tonality. Also, we use intonation to distinguish clause types, and to disambiguate grammatically
ambiguous structures. We do this by using a tone.
3. Focusing function → Intonation helps to show what information in an utterance is new or known. We use it
to highlight some parts of the message and to emphasize them. We do this by using tonicity.
4. Discourse function → Intonation signals how sequences of clauses and sentences go together. It functions
like the division of written text into sentences and paragraphs.
5. Psychological function → Intonation helps us organize speech into units that are easy to perceive, memorize
and perform. We use tonality.
6. Indexical function → Intonation acts as a marker of personal or social identity.

Teaching pronunciation uses grammatical and attitudinal function as means of understanding the intonation system.

PROSODIC FEATURES

The prosodic features of speech are the pitch, loudness, and speed. These combine to make up the rhythm of speech
.and are combined with the pause to break up the low of speech.

- Stress → is realized by a combination of loudness, pitch and duration. Some languages are stress placement
lexically, this means, that is the way to distinguish between different words in the dictionary.
 - Tone → is another prosodic characteristic, being realized mainly by differences in the pitch of the voice (high
level, mid-level, low level, rising or falling).

o A high pitch→ results from the vibration of the vocal folds in the larynx.
o A low pitch → from a slow vibration.
o A rising pitch → an acceleration in the rate of vibration.
o A falling pitch → a slowing down.

IS ENGLISH A TONE LANGUAGE?

English uses tone for intonation, but the choices of tone does not alter the lexical identity of the word.

- The lexical meaning: the meaning as shown in a dictionary.

- The non-lexical meaning: a fall may indicate definiteness, a rise may indicate incompleteness, and a fall-rise
may indicate implications.

English makes use of tone intonationally. In fact, the intonation contributes the complex part of English prosody.
By combining different pitch levels (unchanging pitch heights), and contours (sequences of levels, changing pitch
shapes) we express a range of intonational meanings: breaking the utterance into chunks, distinguishing between
clause types, focusing on some parts of the utterance, indicating which part of our message is background
information and which is foreground, signaling our attitude to what we are saying.

Like other prosodic characteristics, intonation is universal, but partly language specific. Languages differ in the
intonation patterns they use, and in the extent to which they rely on intonation to convey aspects of meaning. The
patterns of rises and falls may have different meanings in different languages.

- Low-rise tone: has implications of non-finality, or uncertainty.

- High tone: highlights the pronoun, suggesting a contrast between its referent and some other person
involved.

A DISCOURSE- PRAGMATIC APPROACH TO INTONATION

The intonation system is a pragmatic nature, that is, it contributes to the discourse by using intonational cues to
link the information to a world or context that the hearer can make sense of. It is connected to do about it and to the
context of use of the language. So, it is the language in the grammatical function in isolation and the expression of
the attitude that you provide.

SYSTEMS OF THE BRAZIL MODEL:

1. Diving speech into units: Tone units refer to units of organization in speech that we recognize as having an
equivalent function to that of sentences or clauses in writing. Tone units are guided by speaker’s perception
of semantic or syntactic chunks of language such as:
- Piece of information.
- A question
 - One clause
- Division of complex clauses - Items in a list.
- Adjuncts such as however or finally
- Semantic sense: It contains several complete units of information. Also, there are norms and
conventions that the speaker decides how to divide. So, the norms and conventions are expected because
the speaker are likely to agree where the divisions are going to appear and that has to do with culture,
context, and situation.

2. Highlighting prominent information within tone units: there is a difference between prominence and lexical
stress:
- Prominence → the sentence stress.
- Lexical stress → word stress.

3. Choosing the pitch pattern on the unit’s tonic syllable: the tonic syllable carries the tone choice for the unit;
that is, the primary rising, falling, or level pitch movement in the unit. The pitch movement is usually the
syllable in the word that the hearer recognizes as the easiest to hear in terms of length, loudness, and pitch,
and it is always the last prominent syllable in the tone unit.

- Common ground: is the assumed background between speakers, it may be unknown such as when
two strangers begin a conversation, or it may be considerable such as in the case of interaction between
family members.

- Tones:

o Falling tone → the information is complete, the material that the speaker considers is new. o Rising tone:
something more to say, the speaker assumed known, previously suggested material.
o Neutral tone→ is used for semi-ritualized or routinized language that is generic rather than specific to a
particular interaction.
4. Choosing the pitch level on prominent syllables: The final system comprising discourse intonation is key and
termination.
- Key and termination → describe the systematic way in which speakers use the pitch range of their voice.
- Key → choice is marked on the first prominent in the unit.
- Termination → is marked on the tonic syllable.
 THE THREE TS

- Tonality→ is associated with the division of the chunks. These chunks are known as intonation phrases or
Ips. Each IP in an utterance has its own intonation pattern. We make each clause into a separate IP (|). Every
IP contains a nucleus, not all Ips contain a prehead, head or tail.

- Tonicity → Speakers use intonation to highlight some words as important for the meaning they wish to
convey.

These words on which the speaker focuses the hearer’s attention. To highlight an important word we accent it, we
accent its stressed syllable. We add pitch prominence (a change in pitch) to the rhythmic prominence that a stressed
syllable bear.

- Tone → is a kind of pitch movement.

- Nucleus → is the most important accent in the IP. It indicated the end of the focused part of the material. It
is the last accented syllable acting as pitch movement. Also, the nucleus is placed at the end of the IP.
- Tail → The nucleus can be followed by one or more unaccented syllables forming the tail. But, if the nucleus
is located on the last syllable in an IP, there is no tail.
- Onset → the part before the nucleus.
- Head →The part extending from the onset to the last syllable before the nucleus. But, if an IP contains no
accented syllables before the nucleus, there is no head.
- Pre head → The part before the onset, it contains no accented syllables. But if it contains no accented
syllables before the accent (onset or nucleus), there is no prehead.

TONES:

- Falls → tends to indicate that the information conveyed is, or complete. It is used for statements,
exclamations, commands, and wh-questions.
- Rise or fall rise →tends to indicate that there is something more to come. The yes-no questions are used
with a rise, and a fall-rise often signals implications.
- The neutral tone → is the tone used if there are no special circumstances.

TONE UNITS

Tone units is the division of meaningful groups of words. Tone units are marked using some combination of
prominence and pausing.

PROMINENCE:

The feature of prominence is marked by increased pitch, length, and volume of the primary stressed syllable
in the prominent word, it signals a meaningful choice by the speaker to emphasize information. A complete tone unit
comprises one prominent syllable called the tonic syllable and it also contains a prominent onset syllable.
FUNCTIONS:

- Highlighting new information

- Establishing a contrast.
- Contradicting a previous contribution.
- Showing enthusiastic agreement.

PAUSING:

Pausing is the most important cue to separating tone units.

RHYTHM:

It is related to tone unit structure and prominence patterns. Within an ESL context the rhythmic properties
of different languages have been described by stress-timed. It defined languages in which regular beat occur on
stressed syllables and unstressed syllabled are “squeezed” between them. In a language with a syllable-timed
rhythm, the beats occur on each syllable and syllables tend to be more equal in length.

The “bridge” represents an onset prominence at the beginning of the unit and a tonic syllable (nucleus) at
the end of the unit, with non-prominent syllables in the middle.

TONE CHOICE

Pitch and pragmatic meaning

Tone choice is typically described as having primary grammatical function, that a statement ends with a
falling pitch, and a yes-no question ends with a rising pitch. We can posit overall pragmatic functions for rising and
falling tones choices that allow us to explain their grammatical functions without relying on syntactic structure.

Pragmatic assumptions associated with particular tone choices:

FALLING TONE RISING TONES LEVEL TONE OR FLAT

New information Shared background Making no assumptions

I have finished talking. Continue talking Language sample

I’m highlighting my role as Solidarity I am not hearer on my hearer

authority.

Exclusivity. Inclusivity Neutral

 Tones that end in a falling movement are designated as proclaiming tones( ; ). They have an overall
semantic sense of declaring the material or information in the unit as new, asserted, or incontrovertible. They
correlated with the verb such as assert, tell, complete, command, instruct.

Tones that end in a rising movement are designated as referring tones ( ; ) and declare the material
or information in the unit as in some way already conversationally in play. The referring tones can be corrected with
verbs such as remind, reflect, include, confirm, or continue.

Question types and falling and rising tones

- Final rising tone → in yes/no questions. The rising tone choice reflects the speaker’s desire to have this
perspective confirmed. Also, we can use the rising tone to express someone who is sure.
- Final falling tone → in wh-questions. The speaker is requesting new information. Also, we can use the falling
tone to find out something.

The function of the level tone

The neutral tone is realized as either a sustained level pitch or a tone with a slightly rising pitch. This is a
unique tonal cue within the five choices because, unlike the rising and falling tones, it does not mark information as
either know or unknown but as outside the communicative value of the message. The interactive context between
the speaker and the hearer is suspended, and this allows the speaker to signal that he is temporarily withdrawing
from marking informative context.

Tonal composition

Tonal composition describes the pattern of tone choices that occur in a particular discourse genre. One of
the ways in which we recognize the difference between a news broadcast and a classroom lecture in a speaker’s
typical patterns as well as other conventionalized syntactic and lexical expressions.

Teachers are concerned with communicating new informational content with the predominance of falling
tones and demonstrating how this new information can be integrated with what students already know with rising
tones. Neutral tone choices were scattered throughout the presentations when teachers gave formulaic instructions,
read information from a textbook or from the board.