Intonation on the acoustic level

Pitch correlates with the fundamental frequency of the vibration of the vocal cords, loudness – with the amplitude of vibrations, tempo – with the time during which a speech unit lasts. A sentence or a text without an intonation is non-entirely. A sentence is complete when it is pronounced with a certain kind of intonation. If we apply to the idea of potential syntax then the formula is

Sentence real = sentence potential + intonation

Sentence potential is a collection of words in order. Nowadays the term sentence in reference to intonation is not currently used. The word utterance is more preferable. Intonation group is a group of words which is semantically and syntactically complete. It serves as a carrier of intonation.

Intonation patterns serve to actualize syntagms. Intonation pattern is the smallest intonation unit of speech which is formed by pitch, loudness and tempo.

Let compare the potential and an actualized syntagm.

I think he is coming soon

(a potential) (a potential)

I think he is coming soon (an actualized syntagm)

The anatomy of intonation

Only 1 component – pitch (melody, tone, tune) is given preference when the intonation is analyzed. Sometimes the prominence is taken into account too. It is also correlated with sentence stress, when the entire intonation structure is reduced to pitch sentence stress pattern.

What sections does the intonation group consist of?

Nucleolus (focal point)

The terminal (конечный) tone

tail

head

the pre-nuclear tone

pre-head

tonogram:

he is a very remarkable novelist

the terminal tone (3,4) is the most important. It is made up of two parts: the nuclear tone (3) and the tail (4). The tail can’t change the meaning of the sentence. They form the terminal tone.

Head (2) may be of several types:

• Prehead (1) consists of the unstressed syllables preceding the head

Types of terminal tones.

1. Simple tunes: low fall low rise

High fall high rise

Mid fall mid rise

Mid level

2. Complex tunes

Fall-rise

Rise-fall

Rise-fall-rise

3. Compound tunes

Rise+fall

Fall+rise

They are mainly used when the pitch movement is separated by several syllables, not in one or even in two standing side by side. The most important tones are: low fall. High fall, low rise, high rise, fall-rise, mid level

Types of pre-head. They may be present or absent

Zero pre-head

Low pre-head hello, good morning

High pre-head

Types of heads.

The most complicated is a pre-nuclear part, the head. It starts with the first stressed syllable. Very often heads are mixed but for teaching purposes we distinguish the following groups of heads:

3. Descending

• Stepping

• Falling

• Scandent 2. Ascending

• Sliding - rising

- climbing 1. Level

- high

- medium

- fall

1. Level heads may me:

• Low all right!

• High who ever saw

• Medium what’s your favourite colour?

3. Descending heads may be:

• Falling what did you think of Mary’s flat?

• Stepping Alice was beginning to get very tired

Unstressed syllables are on the same level with the preceding stressed syllables

• Sliding I’ll get it rewired at once

• Scandent and her brother and sister were asleep

Unstressed or partially stressed syllables moved up, pronounced higher than the stressed syllables

2. Ascending heads may be:

• Rising did you tell Vincent about it?

Thank you very much

Here the voice moves up by steps, unstressed or partially stressed syllables continue the rise

• Climbing that is too bad said the professor

If the voice moves up by slides unstressed or partially stressed syllables glide up too.

Parts of the intonation can be combined in various ways. The number of possible combinations is more than a hundred. Various combinations express various meanings:

High head not at all!

Low fall calm, reserved

High fall surprised, concerned

Low rise encouraging, very friendly

High rise questioning

Fall-rise protesting, correcting

Not all the combinations are equally important. Some of them occur very seldom. The number of intonation patterns indicates the number of intonation groups. Each intonation group has a communicative centre (semantic centre). This centre conveys the most important part of information which is generally something new. The nucleus of the communicative centre is marked by the terminal tone. The characteristic feature of the terminal tone is to arrange the intonation group semantically and phonetically.