Intonation

Gerald Kelly
 Intonation refers to
the way in which the
voice goes up and
down in pitch when
we speak, the melody
of speech.
 Structure of the intonation phrase /IP/ tone unit
Onset Nucleus
The syllable that sets the
pitch that stays constant up The syllable where the main
to the nucleus pitch movement in the
utterance occurs

Head
All the syllables following
the onset until the nucleus

Pre-head
All of the syllables before Tail
the onset All the syllables that follow
the nucleus
Pre-head Head Tail

I wish I under'stood it
' Onset Nucleus
(Tonic)

Pre-tonic segment Tonic segment

 Analyse the following Intonation Phrases. The mark ['] signals the
onset and nucleus is underlined. Mark the Pre-head, head and tail.

Never I 'just don’t agree with you.

Amazing We’ve had a wonderful holiday.
'Thirty-five. There’s a'nother train coming.
I 'don’t believe it. 'When will you decide?
Is that what you think? It's impossible.
 Remember!
An IP can only have one nucleus, so if
there's more than one syllable that leads
to pitch movement in a sentence, we
need to divide it, that is another IP.
Dividing into IPs is called "Chunking".
 Useful definitions
Pitch held from the onset syllable
Key to the tonic syllable.

Tone Main pitch movement within a tone

unit.
Tones are represented with arrows

Fall Fall-rise
Grammar and
intonation
Gerald Kelly
 Falling Rising
WH questions Yes/No questions

Statements Question tags (uncertainty)

Imperatives Lists (finishing with a fall)

Question tags (no answer)

 at some
e a lo ok
et's tak s
L exa m pl e
Discourse and
intonation
Gerald Kelly
 What does
it mean?
A discourse approach to intonation examines
how the stresses we make and the tones we
use relate our utterances to the surrounding
language. Intonation changes according to
what the speaker understands is
new or shared knowledge.
Proclaiming tones Referring tones
Fall Fall-rise

New information Shared knowledge

Opinions believed to be
true Checking

Asking for new information

Let's t
ake a l
ook at
exampl some
es