- •On Word-Stress and Utterance-Stress Explanation
- •Explanation
- •F 2 Low Narrow Low Wide all
- •I. Listen to the following utterances. Identify the component parts of the tunes.
- •II. Compare the number of elements in the tunes you hear. Point out the element common for all the tunes in each group. , •
- •Explanation
- •I. Identify the type of the pitch-change in the following utterances. Note that the realization of the pitch-change in a tune with a 'tail' is different from that in a tune without a 'tail'.
- •II. Listen to the following pairs of utterances.
- •1. 'How did he 'find 'out? 'What is his 'name?
- •4. If you ,like. I'm ,going to.
- •Explanation
Explanation
_ veiling and speaking practice shows that we tend to single out from an utterance :h only some of its elements while others are more or less overlooked as z^.gnificant. The reasons for it lie in the specific contrastive character of the speech chain: some of its elements stand out phonetically and functionally among the others, ey are prominent, or stressed. Prominent segments are usually associated with a r.:ch change or a pitch contrast of some kind combined with increased force of lation, or loudness, and increased duration. Such a cooperation of different - die parameters is reflected in the notion of t h e t о n e - the basic element of -rhsh intonation.
Tones are divided into two classes since they may be produced in two quite distinct s: 1) by keeping the vocal cords at a constant tension thus producing a tone of --varying pitch; 2) by varying the tension of the vocal cords thus producing a tone of • trying pitch. Tones of the first type are known as static (level tones), while "Jose of the second type are known as kinetic or dynamic.
According to the actual height within the speaker's voice-range static tones may be high, mid and low with two relevant gradations within each type - very high, fairly high; mid high, mid low; fairly low, very low. In fact, the number of static tones corresponds to the number of significant pitch gradations, or levels.
Kinetic tones are generally classified according to4the following criteria:
direction of the pitch change;
width of the pitch change, or its interval;
relative position of the pitch change within the speaker's voice range.
The last two factors are obviously closely interrelated: both of them derive from the pitch-level characteristics of the initial and final points of the utterance stretch embraced by the kinetic tone. It should be noted in this connection that although a tone is associated with a stressed syllable, its realization often involves the unstressed syllables attached to the stressed one, particularly those following it. Thus a rising pitch change is always carried by the unstressed syllables and not by the stressed one, whenever there are one or more enclitics in the stress-group (see below).
Of the parametres involved in the analysis of kinetic tones, direction of the pitch change is evidently the most significant characteristic. The number of kinetic tone types corresponds to the relevant directional types of pitch-change, whereas variations in the width of the pitch change and its register are responsible for further subdivision of each of the tone-types into subtypes (variants). Not all of these, of course, are equally important for semantic contrasts. And only the variants which are distinctly different in their functions, have the status of tonetic units. Thus, the general classification of English kinetic tones may be represented as follows:
THE PITCH COMPONENT OF INTONATION (PROSODY)