In both a's opener and his reply to wh-question, the rising intona­tion means something like Are you expecting me?

But! According to D.R. Ladd , this use is typical of North American and Australian varieties only and to the British it sounds wheedling or insistent.

A specific case is the intonation typically used in statements in "Urban North British" (UNB) English. UNB is the cover term produced by Cruttenden for the varieties of English spoken in Belfast and Glasgow (and Northern Ireland and Western Scotland generally). Intonationally, the characteristic of these varieties is that the ordinary intonation on state­ments is rising or rising-falling (Knowles 1974; Cruttenden 1986).

As Cruttenden makes clear, the UNB rises are not the same as the rises used in North America or Australian English on statements re­questing feedback. In UNB the rise is not, as in American and Australian English, basically a question tune being used to add a nuance to a statement, but rather the ordinary way to pronounce a statement.

Phonetically, the UNB rise on the accented syllable is usually followed by a distinct fall, some­times but not often all the way to the bottom of the speaker's range.

What is the strategy of the student facing the difficulty of tone selection?

The answer is to observe and make your own choice. T.I.Shevchenko used the script of the film "Bridget Jones's Diary" with the intonation notation marked by an expert in English phonetics. The aim was to see which tones are actually used in Yes-No questions. The results are as follows: 68% end in a rise and 32% end in a fall. Among the rising tones half are pure rises and half are fall-rises. Men and women practically intone their questions identically. Thus we have found that the rising pattern in a question still prevails (68%) but statistically the initial options of a rise, a fall-rise and a fall distribute evenly: each accounts for a third of the cases (around 33%).

Among the WH-questions the basic falling tone dominates even more impressively: 88% falls vs. 12% rise. Here women slightly go ahead of men in using rise-ending tones by 7%.

Questions.

1. Define the terms “prosody” and “intonation “. Formulate the principles by which prosody and intonation are differentiated. What is the essence of broad and narrow approaches to intonation?

2. Describe the acoustic aspect of speech prosody. How are prosodic features of speech measured?

3. What are the functions of intonation?

4. What are the functions of prosody?

5. Compare and contrast the prosodic bases of the Russian and English languages.

6. What are the new trends in English intonation?

Tasks.

1. Divide the text into intonation groups:

I saw by the clock of the city jail that it was past eleven, so I decided to go to the newspaper immediately. Outside the editor's door I stopped to make sure my pages were in the right order; I smoothed them out carefully, stuck them back in my pocket, and knocked. I could hear my heart thumping as I walked in.

2. What functions of intonation are illustrated by the following examples?

а) Her sister, / said Mary, was a 'well-known actress. Her 'sister said / 'Mary was a 'well-known actress.

b) What about this money? — 'Lock it 'up in the safe.

'Lock it 'up in the safe.

c) I've been to London. — Have you?

Have you ?

Have you?

Have you ?

d) We 'laid money by, / every penny we ,could, / to 'see 'some of 'Spain.

3. Read the following text in two ways: (a) using high pitch register and broad pitch range and (b) using low pitch register and narrow pitch range in the final phrase. How is the meaning of the text affected by such changes in intonation?

Meteorologists selected the date of Queen Elisabeth's Coronation as 2 June 1953, because it was said to be the day when there was consistently no rain. It rained.