english tonality/tonicity

8/10/2019 English tonality/tonicity

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FILOZOFSKA FAKULTETA

NADSEGMENTNEZNAILNOSTIANGLEKEGAGLASOSLOVJA


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INTONATION

Intonation is the melody of speech. This means that the study of intonation is mainly concerned with the

rising and falling of the pitch of the voice. The prosodic characteristics of speech are:

PITCH (height of voice)

LOUDNESS/VOLUME RHYTHM

TEMPO/SPEECH RATE/SPEED

Intonation is concerned only with the pitch changes within an utterance and is thus a narrower than

prosody or suprasegmentals. Speech without intonation does not exist (language without intonation sound

literally inhuman giving a robot-like effect). Intonation is an integral part of any language therefore part

of the linguistic study. Intonation helps convey linguistic and pragmatic meaning it is a bridge between

grammar and meaning. It is important in communication because it provides additional meaning to what

is supplied by the words themselves (It wasnt so much what they said, but how they said it). Intonation

varies considerably from one language to another.

Intonation roughly performs 4 functions (has 4 different meanings): Emotional colouring, attitude (pragmatic) - tone Conveys grammatical/syntactic structure of an utterance (e.g. statements vs. questions) Textual function / discourse function (how text, either written or spoken, are structured

coherence, cohesion. In speech (especially spontaneous speech) intonation adds to theorganisation of a text)

S i li i i ( h h i i f h k di l )


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Milk comes from cows. || Wool comes from sheep. two pieces of information

Milk comes from cows, | and wool comes from sheep. = two IPs

MARKED TONALITY:

WhenIPs occur within a clause, phrase, word, or even syllable

boundaries

, orone IP covers more than 1 clause or sentence

(division into IPs does not followthe division of clauses):

Milk | comes from cows. I don't | like it. Bor | ing!

Delicious, | cool | milk. Abso | lutely | de | licious!

Marked tonality requires some sort of context.

1.1 Ambiguous syntactic structures

In certain cases the division into IPs can disambiguate the grammatical structure (the presence or absence

of intonation breaks signals the syntactic structure of a sentence).

Help keep the dog off! Help! | Keep the dog off! What's that in the road ahead? What's that in the road? || A head? Do you like paw

paw? -I'm sorry, || I don't know. I'm sorry, || I don't, || no. You can have cheese, | salad | or quiche. You can have cheese salad | or quiche. This will give teachers time | to prepare and mark work. This will give teachers time to prepare |

d k k


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2. CHUNKING GRAMMAR

Tonality varies considerably according to the style of speech. Speakers can insert intonation breaks almost

anywhere they want in order to make their message as clear as possible. However, there are some strong

tendencies exerted by the grammar over tonality. Some components of syntactic structure are more likely

than others to be made into separate IPs, set off by intonation breaks.

General rule 1

: intonation break after eachsentence

|| orclause

|

When I cough, | it hurts my throat.

First take the lid off, | and then unscrew the base. I'll tell you, | but you must keep it a secret.

General rule 2

: intonation breakanywhere

to make thegrammatical structure clear

He was looking up the street. (possibly ambiguous) He was looking | up the street. (direction) He was looking up | the street. (searching)

2.1 Vocatives

Vocatives are not an essential part of the clause structure (the clause would be grammatically complete

even without them). This explains why under some circumstances they are given their own IP. Vocatives

are treated differently depending on the position theyre in:


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Under the circumstances | we've got no choice.Technically | we have to reject it.

In themiddle

of a clause:may

have their ownIP

Well we could | this year | do something different.The rest of us, | unfortunately, | will have to accept it.

At theend

of a clause:

Adverbs of manner: integrated into the clause structureShe dances beautifully.I just can't take him seriously.I'll pay you back soon.

Sentence adverbials (adjuncts)

that modify the whole clause or sentence: their own IPApparently, | she's getting divorced.I'm rather disappointed, | frankly.

Ambiguous

She talked to me honestly.(honestlymodifyingtalked= How did she talk to me?)

She talked to me, | honestly.(honestlymodifyingShe talked to me= She DID talk to me, I assure you)


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2.4 Parallel structures

With parallel words or phrases, there is likely to be an intonation break after each component if there aremore than two components or if the components are heavy. The decision whether to treat eachenumerated item on a list as a separate IP is to a large extent left to the speakers perception of the contextof interaction. If the parallel words or phrases are placed in contrast by the speaker, then they too are likelyto be separated by an intonation break.

Parallel words and phrases:separate IP if emphasized

I come on Mondays, | Wednesdays | and Fridays. (emphasis)

I want to buy some fruit | some milk | and some bread. (emphasis)I can see a sort of tree | and the outline of a person. (emphasis)Im not going to repeat the mistake I made last time | this time. (contrast)

Ambiguous; some coordinated structures are potentially ambiguous, and can optionally bedisambiguated by the insertion of an intonation break:

old men and women (ambiguous: who is old?)old | men and women (= both are old)

old men | and women (= men are old)

Strings ofletters or numbers: one IP unless explicit/very clearA: How do you spell to seize?B: S, E, I, Z, E.

A: What was that again?B: S, | E, | I, | Z, | E.

With a string of letters or numbers there are equally two possibilities. If we think they will befamiliar with the hearer, or if there is no need to be particularly explicit, we run them together inthe same IP. If we think they may be unfamiliar to the hearer or need to be made especiallyclear, we can make the message easier for the hearer to process by placing an intonation breakafter each item,


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London and the southeast | will have showers. || The rest of the country | will be dry.

2.7 Topics

English has a fixed SVO (subject, verb, object) order of sentence elements. In this sequence the subject is

the topic or theme, while the rest of the clause is the comment or rheme. Sometimes the context of

interaction requires topicalization of other sentence elements, such as objects ot complements, which

means that they occur in the initial position of the clause preceding the grammatical subject. All such

instances require their own IP. In other words, a marked theme is always followed by an intonation break.

Topical status of the subject & other sentence elements is signalled:

In various syntactic ways

By choosing an appropriate tone

By giving it a separate IP

Cleft & pseudo cleft structures

As for Jeremy, | he can do what he likes. (subject)Martha | will have to wait. (subject)His rudeness | I shall ignore. || But his actions | I cannot forgive. (objects)More important | is the question of what we do next. (complement)I chose Veronica. (not cleft)

It was Veronica that I chose. (cleft)It was Veronica | that I chose. (cleft, with focus on I for contrast between my and someone elses choice)

Wh h d d l k | h ( d l f )


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Within each intonation break, we select one word as particularly important for the meaning. This is wherewe place the

nucleus

(or nuclear accent), the syllable that is more prominent than others and bear the

nuclear tone. The syllable is made prominent thoughpitch change, extra length and loudness. The nucleus isthe syllable where one of five English tones is realized.

The most important decision the speaker makes in selecting an intonation pattern is to decide where thenucleus goes: which is the word to be accented. In doing this the speaker chooses the tonicity of theintonation phrase. In an IP there may be other accents besides the nuclear accent. If so, the nucleus is thelast

accent in the IP. Any other accents come earlier in the IP and are called prenuclear.

Tonicity can be either: NEUTRAL tonicity means that the nucleus is places within the last lexical item in an intonation

unit. This also implies, that the information of the whole intonation unit is in focus (=broadfocus)

MARKED tonicity means that the nucleus is not placed within the last lexical item but within anitem which comes earlier in the intonation focus. In this case, only the section up to the nucleus is

in focus (=narrow focus).

2. NEUTRAL TONICITY

In order for an IP to be neutral in tonicity, the nucleus should occur on the last lexical item. Content words: adjectives, lexical verbs, nouns, adverbs

l l b d l b


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Im very annoyed with her.Ask her what that noise is.

Function words

: no N (=generally speaking, we accent content words but not function words)Function words are words whose meaning may need to be explained in a grammar rather than adictionary, and which may not have exact equivalents in other languages: pronouns, prepositions, articles,auxiliary verbs, modal verbs

2.3 Compounds

Single-stressed

compounds: N on thefirst element

Most compounds in English are single-stressed (=front-stressed), i.e. the main lexical stress goes on the firstelement.Its well past your bedtime.Put the grass in the wheelbarrow.

Wheres your grandmother?

Open compounds (two-word compounds)Is that my library book? They were playing video games.Ive lost my credit cards. I need some new running shoes.

Are you still at high school? At ten we have a physics class. Nested compounds (one of the elements of the compound may itself consist of more than one

element. If the outer compound is single-stressed, the nucleus will still go on the first element:

C d d b ll

["[" d d] b ll]


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3. THE OLD AND THE NEW

3.1 Information status

The location of the nucleus is strongly affected by whether the words in the utterance contain old or newinformation. Information status is the status of how we want to express our ideas, pieces of information. Inaddition to syntax, it represents additional help in conveying the information structure.

The nucleus is always located onnew information.

When all pieces of information are new

information, the N is on the last lexical item:Yes madam? -Id like a gin and tonic.

If the last lexical item containsold information

, the N moves to the left and is placed on the firstlexical item which does contain new information

How about a gin and tonic? -Id prefer a vodka and tonic.

Repeated words

, even if they contain new information, do not become N.A green chair and a blue curtain. BUT: A green chair and a blue chair.Tina Rodman and Jane Stuart. BUT: Tina Rodman and Jane Rodman.

3.2 Synonyms, hypernims, hyponyms

Old information can also be repeated usingsynonyms

:no N

h ll h h l h h h d h l d ( h h l h d h l d )


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Narrow focus: only part of the IP is in focus

The nucleus shows where the focus domain ends. In bellow examples the focus domain is just the itemMary, and the intonation indicated that we are concentrating attention on the relevant part (Mary):Who brought the wine? - Mary.

-Mary did.-Mary brought the wine.-I think it was Mary that brought the wine.

5. Contrastive focusA particular kind of narrow focus. It is used to put two items in contrast; these two items can be eithergrammatical or lexical. Any following material within the same IP is unaccented:

You may have started your essay,| but have you finished your essay? (contrast between started and finished)Philip| can run faster than Jim can.I know what Peter wants,| but what do you want?I can send a fax to him,| but I cant receive one from him.

The speaker can make an explicit or implicit contrast between two pieces of information. The aboveexamples are all examples of

explicit

contrast; they presuppose a previous context in which these sentencesare uttered. If the contrast is

implicit

, the hearer is left to infer the other term in the contrast:I dont know what youre complaining about. (implicit contrast between the addressee (you) and some other possiblecomplainant who may have better grounds for complaint than the addressee).


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Emphatic: may attract N

Ill write to him myself.

Shes not very enthusiastic herself.

Reciprocal pronouns each other, one another): do not attract N

I think we all ought to help one another.At least Phil and Sue are talking to each other.

Indefinite pronouns someone, anything etc.): do not attract N

Can you see anyone?Can I get you anything?Ive just read something really funny.

6. Nucleus on function words

In some cases the nucleus always falls on a function word even when the focus is broad.

Polarity questions tags

Yes, no, sure, definitely, no way as direct answers to yes-no questions take N

A: Have you finished?B: Yes. / Definitely. / Oh sure. / No. / Not really.

A sentence fragment without yes or no: N on the auxiliary

A: Have you finished?

h


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Thats Mary. Whos she with?A: You know my essay?

B: Yes, what about it? Wh + to be

Direct or indirect wh-questions with the pattern: wh-word + be + pronoun: N on be

How are you?Tell me how you are.

Who is it?

Tell me who it is.How would it be if we met for lunch?The man over there who is he?

When was it that you came back from Canada?

Function words with N

Function words which regularly attract N: too, as well, either, anyway, anyhow

A: Im going to the library.B: Oh, Ill come, too.

Were going to the beach. Why dont you come along as well?I dont like Jim, and I dont like Tammy, either.This idea may not work, but lets try it anyway.

Anyway, why were you looking at my letters?She doesnt smoke - not nowadays, anyhow.


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I dont believe it, she explained.

Adverbs of time place In final position (although they contain new information) do not attract N

I had an unexpected visitor yesterday.Does a Mr. Pomfrey live here?Did you see Big Brother on television last night?Theres a fly in my soup.

In final position when they are obligatory: they attract N

Put it on the table.Write the details in the book.

7. PHRASAL VERBS

Phrasal verb: verb + particle (adverb or preposition) = primary stress on the particle N on theparticle

How are you getting on ?The prisoner broke down.The next month she passed away.Ill leave you to carry on, then.

Phrasal verb: verb + adverb + preposition N on the adverbShe felt that her mother-in-law always looked down on her.


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Various intonation models of the English language recognize different number of nuclear tones. However,regardless of the intonation model, it seems that the English language uses five different pitch movements

or tones. Anything else is just a variation of these tones1

:

1.

(low/high)FALL

()2.

(low/high)RISE

()3. FALL-RISE

()4. RISE-FALL

()5. LEVEL

()

The high/low fall, the high/low rise and the level tone are all simple tones (include one pitch movement).The fall rise and rise-fall tones are complex tones (include two pitch movements).

`

wonderful _

wonderful

wonderful?

wonderful? wonderful wonderful >wonderful

pitch

range

high fall low fall high rise low rise fall-rise rise-fall level

FALLING TONES

For the simple fall () the pitch of the voice starts relatively high, i.e. between the mid and the high part


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RISING TONES

For the simple rise () the pitch of the voice starts relatively low, i.e. between the low and the mid part of

the pitch range, and then moves upwards to the mid to high part of the pitch range. The differencebetween the fall and the rise is that the latter has a rising tail, the former a low level one.

3. LOW RISE

(7 )The voice rises during the word from a low to a medium pitch or a little above.

EXAMPLE: 7Chicken? 7All of us?

4. HIGH RISE

(' )The voice rises during the word from a medium to a high pitch.

EXAMPLE: 'Chicken? 'All of us?


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EXAMPLE: Wonderful. Take physics then.

MID-LEVEL

7.LEVEL

( > )The voice maintains a pitch between high and low, neither rising nor falling.

EXAMPLE: >Actually.

DIFFERENT MEANINGS OF ENGLISH TONES

Intonation is multi-functional. It is difficult to discuss the grammatical meanings of tones separately fromthe attitudinal and discourse meanings when discussing the grammatical meaning of tones, we have to


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When thefall-rise

is used in statements it means that the IP which bears this tone is part of a largersyntactic structure. In addition to this non-finality, the fall-rise often expresses semantic non-finality where

the remaining part of the message is implied in the context of interaction. The implication is usually acontract or a reservation. Sometimes the implied message is explicitly pronounced in the following IP:

No matter"what you say,| Im"going to buy it.Well I"like his acting. (But not his singing)Daddy thinks| its"too expensive. (But Mummy may not agree.)

We"could meet on Monday| but"later Im away.

2. QUESTIONS

The default tones used in various questions are different.

WH-QUESTIONSdefault:

fall

"Which way is the Covent Garden?

YES-NO QUESTIONSdefault:

rise

Have you"ever been to Slovenia?

TAG QUESTIONSrise

(asks for information; suggests)


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"Stop that noise!

"Come to Daddy!"Dont worry."Blow your nose, dear.

INTERJECTIONSdefault:

fall

marked:rise

(encouraging)

Thank you.Mygoodness!

A: Oh mary!B: Yes?

GREETINGS

default: fall (formal, businesslike)rise (personal, encouraging)

Good morning.Good morning.

FAREWELLS


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THE HEAD

The first pitch-prominent pre-nuclear segment is called the head = the head begins with the stressedsyllable of the first accented word (before the nucleus).

Wheres John?head nucleus

The pre-head and head may occur together or separately, or they may not be present at all if the nucleus isthe first syllable of a word group.

There are four different types of head:

1. THE HIGH HEADAll syllables are said on the same rather high pitch. The high head is always level (the high levelhead).

It was" easier than I expected.

The high head is symbolized by placing the mark ["] before it. If there are other accented words inthe head they have [] before their stressed syllables:

"Why did you tell me you couldnt`come?


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Everyones bound to see itsometime. Dontfall.

4. THE RISING HEADIts first syllable is low in pitch and any following syllables gradually carry the pitch higher. It onlyoccurs before the high-fall tone.

Itsabsolutely in`tolerable.

The symbol for the rising head [] is placed before the stressed syllable of the first accented word

in the head. The stressed syllable of any other accented word in the head is marked with []:

How did you manage to do`that?

Dont`pay him.

THE TAIL

All syllables following the nucleus are called the tail. The seven nuclear tones correspond to the seven tuneendings:

high fall ending rise-fall ending low rise ending high rise ending


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22

THELO W

D R O P

THEHIGH

DROP

THE

TAKE OFF

THELO W

BOUNCE

THE

SWITCHBACK

THELONGJUMP

THEHIGH

BOUNCE

THE

JACKKNIFE

THEHIGH

DIVE

THE

TERRACE

PRE HEAD

(low) (low) (low) (low) / (high) (low) (low) (low) (low) (low) (low)

H EAD

(high) (high) (low) (high) (falling) (rising) (high) (high) (high) (high)

TON E

low fall high fall low rise low rise fall-rise high fall high rise rise-fall high fall + low rise mid-level

STATEMENT

no head :

detached, cool,

reserved, full, grimwith head :

categoric, weighty,

judicial

conveying a sense

of involvement,

light, airy

encouraging

further

conversation,guarded, reserving

judgement,

deprecatory

soothing,

reassuring, hint of

great self-confidence; in

echoes:

questioning

grudgingly, admitting,

reluctantly or

defensively dissenting,concerned, reproachful,

hurt, reserved;echoes:

astonished

protesting, as if

suffering under a

sense of injustice

questioning, trying

to elicit a

repetition, butlacking any

suggestion of

disapproval or

puzzlement;non

final: casual

impressed, awed,

complacent, self-

satisfied,challenging,

censorious,

disclaiming

responsibility

appealing to the

listener to

continue with thetopic of

conversation;

expressing

gladness regret,

surprise

in non final word

groups: marking

non-finality,without conveying

any impression of

expectancy; calling

out to someone as

from a distance

W H Q U ES T ION

no head :

detached, flat,

unsympathetic

with head :

searching, serious,

intense, urgent

brisk, businesslike,

considerate, not

unfriendly, lively,

interested

n on the

interrogative

word: wondering,

puzzled

otherwise: very

calm but resentful

n on the

interrogative word:

puzzled;echoes:

disapproving;

otherwise:

sympathetically

interested

echoes : greatly

astonished;otherwise:

interested and

concerned as well as

surprised

protesting,

somewhat

unpleasantly

surprised

n on the

interrogative word:

calling for a

repetition;n on

the following int.

word: echoing;

non echo

questions:

tentative, casual

challenging,

antagonistic,

disclaiming

responsibility

very emotive,

expressing

plaintiveness,

despair, gushing

warmth

in non final word

groups: marking

non-finality,

without conveying

any impression of

expectancy

YES NO

QUESTION

no head :

uninterested,

hostile

with head :

serious, urgent

willing to discuss

but not urgently,

sometimes

sceptical

disapproving,

sceptical

genuinely

interested

echoes : greatly

astonished;otherwise:

interested and

concerned as well as

surprised

willing to discuss

but protesting the

need for settling a

crucialpoint

eitherechoing the

listeners question

or light and casual

impressed,

challenging,

antagonistic

very emotive,

expressing

plaintiveness,

despair, gushing

warmth

in non final word

groups: marking

non-finality,

without conveying

any impression of

expectancy

C OM M A N D

no head :

unemotional,

calm, controlled

with head : very

serious, very

strong

suggesting a

course of action

and not worrying

about being

obeyed

beginning with

dont: appealing to

the listener to

change his mind;

calmly warning,

exhortative

soothing,

encouraging,

calmly patronising

urgently warning with a

note of reproach or

concern

recommending a

course of action

but with a note of

critical surprise

querying all or

part of the

listeners

command or

interjection, but

with no critical

intention

disclaiming

responsibility,

sometimes hostile

pleasing,

persuading

in non final word

groups: marking

non-finality,

without conveying

any impression of

expectancy

INTERJECTIONS

no head : calm,

unsurprised,reserved

with head : very

strong

mildly surprised,

not so reserved orself-possessed as

with the low-drop

sometimes

reservingjudgement,

sometimes calm

airy, causal, yet

encouraging, oftenfriendly, brighter

than when said

with the take-off

scornful protesting,

surprised

querying all or

part of thelisteners

command or

interjection, but

with no critical

intention

impressed,

sometimes a hintof accusation

intensely

encouraging,protesting

in non final word

groups: markingnon-finality,

without conveying

any impression of

expectancy; calling

out to someone as

from a distance

english tonality/tonicity

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