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Unit 6 Intonation

Intonation is a complex unity of variations in pitch stress, tempo and timbre.

The pitch component of intonation is the changes in the pitch of the voice in connected speech.

Utterance stress is the greater prominence of one or more words among other words in the same sentence (or utterance).

Tempo is the relative speed with which utterances and intonation—groups are pronounced in connected speech.

Speech timbre is a special coloring of the voice which shows the speaker's emotions.

Intonation serves to form sentences, to define their communicative type, to express the speaker's thoughts, to convey the attitudinal meaning.

Long sentences, simple extended, compound and complex, are subdivided into intonation-groups. Intonation-group division de­pends on the meaning of the sentence, the grammatical structure of the utterance and the style of speech. The number of intonation-groups in the same sentence may be different.

e.g.: In June, July and August our children don't go to school.

In June, July and August our children don't go to school.

The end of each sentence is characterized by a relatively long pause. The pauses between intonation-groups are shorter, they vary in length. There may be no pauses between intonation-groups at all.

Each intonation-group is characterized by a certain intonation pattern. Intonation patterns consist of one or more syllables. The syllables can be unstressed, fully stressed (carrying a full static stress), partially stressed (carrying a partial static stress) and kinetically stressed. Static tones are pronounced on a steady pitch level and can be high, mid and low ( m – full high, m – full mid, m –low partial, m–high partial) Partially stressed syllables are shorter in length and prominence than fully stressed syllables. Kinetic stresses are characterized by a varying pitch, when the voice goes downwards, upwards or both.

Intonation patterns containing a number of syllables consist of the following parts: the pre–head, the head, the nucleus and the tail.

The pre-head includes unstressed and half-stressed syllables preceding the first stressed syllable. The head includes the stressed and unstressed syllables beginn­ing with the first stressed syllable up to the last kinetically stressed syllable. The last kinetically stressed syllable is called the nucleus. The unstressed and half-stressed syllables that follow the nucleus are called the tail,

e.g.: It was a very sunny day yesterday.

It was a ...- the pre-head.

... very sunny - the head.

... day ... - the nucleus.

... yesterday - the tail.

The most basic types of heads are the Gradually Descending Stepping Head and the High Level Head.

In the Gradually Descending Stepping Head each fully stressed syllable beginning with the second is lower in pitch than the preceding one. Unstressed syllables are said on the same pitch as the preceding fully stressed syllable. This head is mostly used in reading aloud and formal speech.

e.g.: You can certainly ask him to wait in the sitting-room.

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In the High Level Head all the syllables are said on the same rather high pitch. Only the first stressed word gets a full static tone, all the other syllables are unstressed and partially stressed. This head is used in conversational speech.

e.g.: He keeps making the same error.

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In English notional words (nouns, adjectives, verbs, etc.) are generally stressed. Form-words and most pronouns (personal and possessive mainly) are generally unstressed. But any part of speech may be stressed if it is semantically important.

e.g.: What is he going to do? - He is in the communicative centre.

What is he going to do? – He is in the communicative centre.

The rises and falls that take place in the nucleus or start with it are called nuclear (kinetic, dynamic) tones (or tunes).

The nucleus is the most important part of the intonation pattern as it defines the communicative type of the utterance, determines the seman­tic value of the intonation-group, and indicates the communicative centre of the intonation-group or of the whole utterance. The communicative centre is associated with the most important word or words of the intonation-group or of the utterance.

The most common and useful nuclear tunes in English are:

- Falls: High Fall, Mid Fall and Low Fall;( m, m, m )

- Rises: Low Rise, Mid Rise and High Rise;( m, m, m )

- Fall-Rises: Unit FR and Divided FR;( m, m m )

- Rise-Fall (only in emotional speech).( m )

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