Prosody. General character of english intonation. (Lecture 7)

1.

Prosody. General Character of
English Intonation

2.

Topics to cover
Introduction to the problem of prosody
Variations in language types in the use of pitch
The form of English intonation
Structure of intonation group: nuclear stress,
terminal tone and pauses
Weak forms of auxilliary words
Functions of intonation
Schools of prosody (approaches to studies of
prosodic phenomena)

3.

Intonation as a language universal
On perception level
Intonation is a complex whole, formed by
significant variations of pitch, loudness, tempo
(rate of speech and pausation forming its rhythm)
On the acoustic level
pitch correlates with the fundamental frequency of
the vibration of the vocal cords;
loudness correlates with the amplitude of vibrations;
tempo is a correlate of time during which a speech
unit lasts

4.

Definition
Intonation is a complex unity of four components,
formed by communicatively relevant variations in:
1) voice pitch, or speech melody;
2) the prominence of words, or their accent;
3) the tempo as rhythm and pausation of the
utterance;
4) voice-tamber (quality of voice)
Intonation pattern (pitch movements, loudness
changes, tempo changes) is a basic unit of
intonation

5.

Prosody
Prosody is the study of the tune and rhythm of
speech and how these features contribute to
meaning.
Prosody and intonation relate as general notion and
its part.
A phonetic study of prosody is a study of the
suprasegmental features of speech.
Prosodic features: vocal pitch, loudness and rhythm.

6.

Prosodic features
Tones: simple (fall, rise, level), complex (rise-fall,
rise);
fall-
Pitch range categories: normal, wide, narrow;
Accent: primary and secondary; tempo can be normal, fast
and slow;
Pauses are unit, short, long and extra-long;
Voice quality (tambre) features are modal, creaky, breathy,
husky, resonant, falsetto, tremulous, and harsh;
Rhythm: clipped or slurred, constant or variable, glissando
or staccato.

7.

Pitch and types of languages
Tone languages
Intonational languages
Pitch accent languages

8.

The form of English intonation
Tone unit or phonological phrase
||He will phone you | when | all | the children are back. ||
Ph
H
Ts
T
key: Ph = pre-head ; H = head; Ts = tonic syllable;
T = tail

9.

Tone units
Nuclear tone: change in the pitch of the semantically
important word
Terminal tone is formed by the nucleus and the tail:
Tom saw it (statement) - Tom saw it? (general question)
Didn't you enjoy it? (general question) - Didn't you enjoy
it! (exclamation)
Will you be quiet? (request) - Will you be quiet?
(command).
The opposition of terminal tones in a language is
phonologically relevant.

10.

English intonation patterns
Downdrift (DECLINATION LINE)
Falling intonation is the unmarked intonation
pattern in English (-/+)

11.

Elements of tone unit
PreHead
1.
2.
3.
4. I’ll
5. I’ll
6. I
7. I
Head
Nucleus Tail
Do.
Do
What should I do?
ask what to
do.
ask what to
do
do.
do
something.
about it.
it.

12.

Pitch range and pitch levels

13.

Pre-nuclear patterns

14.

15.

Tempo of speech
normal
slow
fast
Variation important in terms of phonostylistics:
quick everyday speech, normal educated speech in
formal environments and slow tempo in classenvironment, specific rhetorical effects.

16.

Pausation
Pause is a complete stop of phonation.
1. Short pauses which may be used to separate
intonation groups within a phrase.
2. Longer pauses which normally manifest the end
of the phrase.
3. Very long pauses, which are approximately twice
as long as the first type, are used to separate
phonetic wholes.

17.

Functional types of pauses
Syntactic pauses: separate phonopassages, phrases,
intonation groups
Emphatic pauses: make prominent certain parts of
the utterance
e.g. She is the most ⌇charming girl I've ever seen
Hesitation pauses: used in spontaneous speech
e.g. She is rather a ... good student.
– Where does she live? – Um, not very far from here.

18.

Patterns
Unit boundary can be indicated
by a percievable change of pitch (stepping down
or up)
Presence of junctural features (pauses, segmental
phonetic variations in tempo, aspiration etc.)
Changes are formalized (standardized) as patterns.

19.

Speech rhythm
Recurrence of stressed syllables at equal intervals is
speech rhythm.
Regular alternation of:
acceleration // slowing down
relaxation // intensification
length // brevity
similar // dissimilar elements
System of similar adequate elements.

20.

Rhythmic group
RHYTHMIC GROUP
a speech segment which contains a stressed
syllable with preceding or/and following
unstressed syllables attached to it;
one or more words closely connected by sense
and grammar, but containing only one strongly
stressed syllable and being pronounced in one
breath.

21.

Proclytics and enclytics
The 'doctor 'says it’s not quite ↘serious = 1
intonation group [4 rhythmic groups]
ðə 'dɔ ktə 'sez its 'nɔ t kwait \siə.ri. əs

22.

Rhythmic arrangement of speech
1) Negro Harlem | became | the largest | colony | of
coloured people. (Semantic viewpoint)
2) Negro Harlem | became the | largest | colony of |
coloured people. (enclitic tendency)

23.

Weak form of the auxiliary words
Under normal conditions pitch, length, loudness is
applied to content words only.
Arriving Kennedy airport Tues 03.45 p.m.
I am ARRIVING at KENNEDY AIRPORT on
TUESDAY 03.45.

24.

Strong forms of function words
1. at the end of the sentence,
e.g. What are you looking at?
Where are you from?
I’d love to.
2. used for emphasis,
e.g. Do you want this one? - No.
Well, which one do you want? - That one.
3. used for contrast,
e.g. He is working so hard. - She is but not he.

25.

Weak form of function words
1. the weakening or centralizing of the internal
vowel to [ə], e.g must [məst].
2. the reduction of a short vowel + consonant
sequence to a syllabic consonant [ænd] – [n], fall
out of unstressed internal vowel
e.g. bread and butter, fish and chips, etc.; from
[frəm] - [frm], [fm]
3. loss of an initial consonant sound,
them [ðəm] - [əm], his [hiz] - [iz];
4. loss of a final consonant,
e.g. and [ənd] - [ən], of [ɔ v] - [ə].
e.g.

26.

Functions of intonation
David Crystal Prosodic Systems and Intonation in
English:
Emotional function
Grammatical function
Informational function
Textual function
Psychological function
Indexical function

27.

Functions of intonation
Peter Roach:
attitudinal,
accentual,
grammatical and
discourse

28.

Accentuation function
Tonic stress:
They are working.
Joan has not seen him.
The children are in the playground.
Contrastive (emphatic) stress:
She travelled from London.
She travelled from London.
She travelled to London.
She travelled to London

29.

Intonation and illocutionary force
Falling intonation

30.

Low rise and High rise

31.

Grammatical function of intonation
(a) Rioting [young men] and [women] were
arrested.
Rioting [young men and women] were arrested,
(b) They are [cooking apples].
They [are cooking] apples.

32.

Attitudinal functions
QUESTION TAGS:
e.g. ‘George is a `lawyer, `isn't he? or
‘George is a `lawyer, /isn't he?
VOICE QUALITY (tamber)
PITCH RANGE:
(a) I am so glad to see you.
(b) Hello!

33.

Pitch range

34.

Discourse function
NEW information VS GIVEN information
E.g.
John: Do you 'like ' tripe?
Mary: I ' loathe tripe, (or / ' loathe it)
Not * I 'loathe `tripe
Turn-taking in a dialogue

35.

Communicative function
1. To structure the information content of a textual
unit.
2. To determine the speech function of a phrase.
3. To convey connotational meanings of "attitude"
such as surprise, annoyance, enthusiasm,
involvement, etc.
4. To structure a text.
5. To differentiate the meaning of textual units.
6. To characterize a particular style or variety of oral
speech which may be called the stylistic function.

36.

Schools of prosody
British Schools: syntactic approach; affective or
attitudinal approach; discoursal approach
M. Halliday: five simple and two compound
primary tones in English

37.

Tone 1: falling tone - "polarity known ... the unmarked
realisation of a statement" (also a question with known
polarity)
Tone 2: rising tone - "polarity unknown ... the unmarked
realisation of a yes-no question"
Tone 3: low rising - "not yet decided whether know or
unknown... dependent on something else"
Tone 4: falling-rising - "seems certain, but turns out not to
be. It is associated with reservations and conditions"
Tone 5: rising-falling - "seems uncertain, but turns out to be
certain. It is used on strong, especially contradicting
assertions ... It often carries an implication of 'you ought to
know that"

38.

Tone 1 (falling) "That's a dog." - statement
Tone 1 (falling) "Is Fido a dog?" - question with
known polarity
Tone 2 (rising) "Are you coming?" - I don't know if
you are coming but want to know. cf. Tone 1
(falling) "Are you coming?" - this is a bit more like a
command.
Tone 3 (low-rising) "I think I'll come tomorrow." but not really sure.
Tone 4 (falling-rising) "Bill is coming if he's
allowed." - conditional statement.
Tone 5 (rising-falling) "You ought to know that."

39.

American Schools
Phonemic or levels approach to intonation: extrahigh, high, mid and low.
Difference of pitch are treated as secondary
phonemes.
Pike (1945):
pitch heights are used to characterise intonation
contours (contours are sequences of pitch
height);
a systematic approach to speaker attitude;
the interdependence of intonation, stress,
quantity, tempo, rhythm and voice quality.8