STRESS & INTONATION

BBA English II
Michael Lohan
Syllables
• To understand word stress, it is useful to understand
syllables. Every word is made up of syllables. Each word
has one, two, three, or more syllables.

Word No. syllables

Dog Dog 1
Quiet Qui – et 2
Expensive Ex – pen – sive 3
Unexceptional Un – ex – cep – 5
tion - al
Pronunciation
Pronunciation patterns in languages differ.

For example, Italian is a syllable-timed language and as

such every syllable is pronounced e.g. Ca–na-da (in
English CANada) .
In English whenever a word has 2 syllables or more, one of
them is more accentuated: meaning it is louder and longer,
like the word GR-ma-tic. Therefore English is a challenge
as stress patterns are mostly unpredictable. When you
learn a new word you also need to learn the stress pattern.
Five general rules to help stress the right
syllable.
1 With most nouns and adjectives with 2 syllables, the stress is
on the first syllable, e.g. PRE-sent. EN-gine, IN-crease, RE-cord.

2. With most verbs with 2 syllables, the stress is on the last

syllable, e.g. to pre-SENT, to in-CREASE, to ad-MIT, to be-GIN.
3.Words ending in –tion, -sion, -cian are usually stressed on the
second last syllable, e.g. e-du-CA-tion, con-cen-TRA-tion, mu-SI-
cian, ( TE-lev-is-ion is an exception)
4 Words ending in –c the stress is usually on the second last
syllable, e.g. e-co-NO-mic, me-CHA-nic, dra-MA-tic.
5. Words ending in –ee and –oo are usually stressed on the last
syllable, e.g. em-ploy-EE, gua-rant-EE, degr_EE, shamp-OO, tatt-
OO, tab-OO. ( com-MIT-ee and COF-fee are exceptions)
Intonation
What is Intonation?
Intonation is the use of the voice (pitch in particular) to
convey a range of functions such as
• signalling the differences between statements and
questions
• indicating the attitudes and emotions of the speaker
• focusing attention on important elements of the spoken
message
Bansal (ibid. 21) observes

concerning the use of sentence stress and intonation in Indian English as follows:

The sentence stress in Indian English is not always in accordance with the

normal RP pattern and the characteristic rhythm is not maintained. The

division of speech into sense groups and tone groups is sometimes faulty,

and pauses are made at wrong places. The location of the intonation

nucleus is not always at the place where it would be in normal English.

The rising tone sometimes used at the end of statements must sound

unusual to the RP-speaking listeners.

Pitch
As English is a stress-timed language, the pitch changes affect
the communicative meaning of the language but they don’t affect
the meaning of the words necessarily. Unlike Chinese where the
pitch actually changes the lexical item, or meaning of the words.
Take the symbol /si/ in Cantonese for example: a high pitch
means” silk”, but a low pitch means “time”, and a middle pitch
means” to try”.
It is important to keep in mind however that the word class (type of
word)can change as a result of a change in stress position in a
word, for example, (to) imPORT (verb) IMport (noun).
Other languages such as French, Spanish and Hindi are syllable-
timed languages so this accounts for the heavy English accents
that many native speakers of those languages retain even after
years of speaking English and the acquisition of flawless grammar.
Examples of how pitch is used
He found it on the street?
[ hiː ˈfaʊnd ɪt | ɒn ðə ↗ˈˈstɹiːt ‖ ]
Here the rising pitch on street indicates that the question
hinges on that word, on where he found it.
Yes, he found it on the street.
[↘ˈjɛs ‖ hi ˈfaʊnd ɪt | ɒn ðə ↘ˈstɹiːt ‖ ]
Here the pitch falls on street.
How did you ever escape?
[↗ˈˈhaʊ dɪdjuː | ˈɛvɚ | ə↘ˈˈskeɪp ‖ ]
Here, as is common with wh- questions, there is a rising
intonation on the question word, and a falling intonation at
the end of the question.
Pitch range
We describe pitch in terms of high and low

Everybody has the ability to increase or decrease their

pitch, but levels vary: one speaker will normally speak with
a different overall pitch to another and if for example a
speaker tries to talk while riding fast on a horse, his or her
pitch will make a lot of sudden rises and falls as a result of
the irregular movement: this is something which is outside
the speaker’s control and therefore is not linguistically
significant. Everybody can however, under normal
circumstances, control the range of pitch to change the
meaning of what is being said.
• Interestingly, pitch is one of the earliest things that
children acquire when learning to speak.

Look at this video of two English babies speaking to each

other:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?list=RD_JmA2ClUvUY&v=
_JmA2ClUvUY

While not making any real sense, it actually sounds like a

real conversation: the intonation patterns are shockingly
similar to real language.
Effect Pitch has on Meaning
• How is the meaning of an utterance affected by different
pitch or tone*patterns?
A level tone on a one-syllable word (Yes or No) can
express boredom, disinterest and came across as
offensive.
A falling tone(descending from a high to a low pitch) is used
to express a definitive, final statement.
A rising tone sounds more-open, or questioning.
• Question: What is the difference in the way the following
two sentences sound?
• A. You are going tomorrow.B. You are going tomorrow?
Answer: The ‘pitch’ of the two sentences is different:
The pitch of sentence A drops at the end, making it a
statement. The pitch of sentence B rises at the end,
making it a question.
Full stops, question marks, and other punctuation in writing
help the reader to know about the intonation. So Intonation
(or melody) of the entire sentence acts (in part)as a
substitute for punctuation.
• 1. She dressed and fed the baby.

• 2. She dressed and fed the baby.

• 3. She gave her dog biscuits.

• 4. She gave her dog biscuits.

• 5. The parable shows what suffering men can create.

• 6. The parable shows what suffering men can create.

• 7. He doesn’t beat his wife because he loves her.

• 8. He doesn’t beat his wife because he loves her.

• 9. He also translated the book

• 10. He also translated the book.

•
THE TEST SENTENCES INDICATING TONE GROUP BOUNDARIES

• 1. She dressed and fed the baby.

• 2. She dressed/and fed the baby.

• 3. She gave her dog/biscuits.

• 4. She gave her/dog biscuits.

• 5. The parable shows/what suffering men/can create.

• 6. The parable shows/what suffering/men can create.

• 7. He doesn’t beat his wife/because he loves her.

• 8. He doesn’t beat his wife because he loves her.

• 9. He also translated the book

• 10. He/also translated the book.

•
THE STANDARD MEANINGS OF THE TEST SENTENCES

• 1. Both actions were performed on the baby

• 2. She dressed herself and then fed the baby.

• 3. She gave biscuits to her dog.

• 4. She gave dog biscuits to a lady.

• 5. Men who are suffering can create something

• 6. The suffering that men can create.

• 7. He doesn’t, reason is his love for her.

• 8. He does, but for some other reason than love.

• 9. In addition to his writing it/or translating other books.

• 10. In addition to other people who translated it.

How many syllabules are in each sentence?

• The beautiful Mountain appeared transfixed in the

distance.

• He can come on Sundays as long as he doesn't have to

do any homework in the evening .
Number of syllables
• The beautiful Mountain appeared transfixed in the
distance . (14 syllables)
• He can come on Sunday s as long as he doesn't have to
do any homework in the evening . (22 syllables)

•
Timing of each sentence
• Even though the second sentence is approximately 30%
longer than the first, the sentences take the same time to
speak. This is because there are 5 stressed syllables in
each sentence. From this example, you can see that you
needn't worry about pronouncing every word clearly to be
understood. You should however, concentrate on
pronouncing the stressed words clearly.
Intonation
• Intonation exists in all languages.
• Based on how we say things rather than what we say.
• Acts as a device to indicate the meaning intended – the
emotional meaning.
• It functions as a tool to indicate the feelings of the
speaker.
• Wrong intonation causes misunderstanding.
• It is as important as word choice and awareness of its
importance aids communication.
INTONATION

Say ‘Hello’
- to a friend you meet regularly
- to a friend you haven't seen for 10 years
- to a neighbor whom you don't like
- to a 6 month old baby
- to someone doing what he shouldn't
- to know if someone is listening (phone)
•3
Teacher: Sheela, say ‘Hello’ to me.
Student: ‘Hello’ ( neutral, polite tone )
Teacher: Sheela, now say’Hello’ to a friend. U
Student: ‘Hello’ ( much more upbeat tone )
Teacher: Sheela, say ‘Hello’to an infant!!!
Student: “Hello”( exaggerated fall-rise tone )
Teacher: Sheela, say “Hello” to . . . . . .
Say it to mean it
• It’s raining! ( What a surprise!)
• It’s raining! ( How annoying!)
• It’s raining! ( That’s great!)
Say ‘ How are you?’
• to someone you haven't seen for 20 years.
• to someone who has recently lost a member of the family.
• to someone who is in hospital.
• to a colleague at the beginning of the day.
Say it in different ways
• I never watch TV.
• What have you done?
• I thought she might consider a new handbag.
• I thought she might consider a new handbag.
• I thought she might consider a new handbag.
• I thought she might consider a new handbag.
• I thought she might consider a new handbag.
• I thought she might consider a new handbag.
• I thought she might consider a new handbag
• I thought she might consider a new handbag. Not someone
else.
• I thought she might consider a new handbag. I am not sure.
• I thought she might consider a new handbag. Not another
person.
• I thought she might consider a new handbag. It's a possibility.
• I thought she might consider a new handbag. She should
think about it. it's a good idea.
• I thought she might consider a new handbag. Not just a
handbag.
• I thought she might consider a new handbag . Not something
else.
Intonation
• INTONATION HOW WE SAY THINGS rather than WHAT
WE SAY
• Intonation exists in all languages. Concept is neither new
nor difficult.
• Native-speaker-level is not the goal.
• The pattern of rises and falls in pitch.
• A device to indicate the meaning intended - the emotional
meaning .
• A tool to indicate the feelings of the speaker.