Lecture 7 Intonation. Structure and Functions.
Intonation is a language universal. There are no languages which are spoken as a monotone, i.e. without any change of prosodic parameters.
It is quite impossible to describe intonation in a word or two. Sometimes the ups and downs of pitch and loudness are compared to the waves of the ocean. “The surface of ocean responds to the forces that act upon it in movements resembling the ups and downs of the human voice.”
On perceptional level intonation is a complex, a whole, formed by significant variations of pitch, loudness and tempo (i.e. the rate of speech and pausation) closely related. Some Soviet linguists regarded speech timbre as the fourth component of intonation. As a matter of fact, up to now timbre has not been sufficiently investigated yet. Though speech timbre definitely conveys certain shades of attitudinal or emotional meaning there is no good reason to consider it alongside with the three components of intonation, i.e. pitch, loudness and tempo.
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.
Each syllable of the speech chain has a special pitch colouring. Some of the syllables have significant moves of tone up and down. Each syllable bears a definite amount of loudness. Pitch movements are inseparably connected with loudness. Together with the tempo of speech they form an intonation pattern which is the unit of intonation.
An intonation pattern contains one nucleus and may contain other stressed or unstressed syllables normally preceding or following the nucleus. The boundaries of an intonation pattern may be marked by stops called temporal pauses.
Intonation patterns serve to actualize syntagms in oral speech. Syntagm is a group of words which is semantically and syntactically complete. In phonetics actualized syntagms are called intonation groups. Each intonation group may consist of one or more potential syntagms, e.g. the sentence “I think he is coming soon” has two potential syntagms: “I think” and “he is coming soon”. In oral speech it is normally actualized as one intonation group.
The intonation group is a stretch of speech which may have the length of the whole phrase. But the phrase often contains more than one intonation group. The number of intonation groups depends on the length of the phrase and the degree of semantic importance or emphasis given to various parts of it, e.g.:
Last summer | we went to stay with my sister in the Cri` mea.
Last summer | we went to stay with my sister | in the Cri ` mea.
The phrases above might be pronounced with either two or three intonation groups which obviously affect the meaning.
Among the pitch parameters there are direction of pitch, pitch level and pitch range. Though pitch changes are of primary linguistic significance they should be viewed together with the variations of loudness, the second component of intonation, since it is not possible to separate pitch and loudness in creating the effect of accentuation.
Not all stressed syllables are of equal importance. One of the syllables has the greater degree of prominence than the others and forms the nucleus of an intonation pattern. Formally the nucleus may be described as a strongly stressed syllable which is generally the last strongly accented syllable of an intonation pattern and which marks a significant change of pitch direction, that is where the pitch goes distinctly up or down. The nuclear tone is the most important part of the intonation pattern without which the latter cannot exist at all. On the other hand an intonation pattern may consist of one syllable which is its nucleus.
According to R.Kingdon the most important nuclear tones in English are:
Low Fall - No.
High Fall - No.
Low Rise - No.
High Rise - No.
Fall Rise - No.
The meanings of the nuclear tones are difficult to specify in general terms. Roughly speaking the falling tone of any level and range expresses “certainty”, “completeness”. A rising tone of any level and range on the contrary expresses “uncertainty”, “incompleteness”.
Two more pitch parameters which can considerably modify the pitch contour are pitch ranges and pitch levels.
Variations in pitch range occur within the normal range of the human voice, i.e. within its upper and lower limits. Three pitch ranges are generally distinguished: normal, wide, narrow:
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The pitch range of a whole intonation unit is in fact the interval between the highest-pitched and the lowest –pitched syllables.
Pitch levels may be high, medium and low.
High ____________________________________
Medium _________________________________
Low ____________________________________
The parts of the intonation pattern can be compared in various ways manifesting changes in meaning, e.g.: The High Head combined with the Low Fall, The High Fall in the phrase “Not at all.”
Not at all. (reserved, calm) Not at all. (surprised, concerned)
It should be noted that the more the high of the pitch contrasts within the intonation group the more emphatic the intonation group sounds.
The tempo of speech is the third component of intonation. The term “tempo” implies the rate of the utterance and pausation.
The rate of speech can be normal, slow and fast. The parts of the utterance which are particularly important sound slower. Unimportant parts are commonly pronounced at a greater speed than normal, e.g.:
“My mother thinks him to be a common labouring boy”, said Betty with a smile.
The word combination “…a common labouring boy” expresses the main idea of the phrase and is the slowest part of the utterance; “My mother thinks him to be” is pronounced at normal speed; the author’s words “said Betty with a smile” are pronounced very quickly to underline their secondary importance for the utterance.
Any stretch of speech can be split into smaller potions, i.e. phrases, intonation groups by means of pauses. By “pause” we mean a complete stop of phonation. It is sufficient to distinguish the following three kinds of pauses:
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.
Functionally, there may be distinguished syntactic, emphatic and hesitation pauses.
Syntactic pauses separate phrases, intonation groups.
Emphatic pauses serve to make especially prominent certain parts of the utterance, e.g. “She is the most charming girl I’ve ever seen.”
Hesitation pauses are mainly used in spontaneous speech to gain some time to think over what to say next. They may be silent or filled.
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