Intonation pattern

Each syllable of the speech chain has a special pitch colouring. Some of the syllables have significant movements of tone – up and down. Pitch movements are inseparably connected with loudness. Together with the tempo of speech they form an intonation pattern which is the basic unit of intonation.

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.

An intonation pattern contains one nucleus and may contain other stressed or unstressed syllables, normally preceding or following the nucleus. The boundaries of intonation pattern may be marked by stops of phonation (temporal pauses).

Intonation pattern consists of the following units:

1. unstressed and half stressed syllables preceding the first stressed syllable constitute the pre-head of the intonation group;

2. stressed and unstressed syllables up to the last stressed syllable constitute the head or scale of the intonation group;

3. the last stressed syllable, within which fall or rise in the intonation group is accomplished, is called the nucleus;

4. the syllables (or one syllable), that follow the nucleus, constitute the tail.

Roger Kingdon distinguishes KINETIC or MOVING nuclear tones, in which the pitch of the voice moves upwards or downwards, or first one and then the other, during the whole duration of the tone.

Roger Kingdon also distinguishes STATIC TONES, in which the voice remains steady on a given pitch throughout the duration of the tone: the HIGH LEVEL

TONE, the LOW LEVEL TONE.

Moreover the pitch can change either in one direction only (a SIMPLE TONE) and

more than one direction (a COMPLEX TONE).

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", "independence".

Thus a straight-forward statement normally ends with a falling tone since it asserts a fact of which the speaker is certain. It has an air of finality.

A rising tone of any level and range on the contrary expresses "uncertainty", "incompleteness" or "dependence". A general question, for instance, has a rising tone, as the speaker is uncertain

of the truth of what he is asking about.

1. The English Low Fallin the nucleus starts somewhat higher than the mid

level and usually reaches the lowest pitch level. It is represented graphically with a

downward curve on the tonogram.

The use of the Low Fall enables the speaker to convey in his utterance an impression of neutral, calm finality, defmiteness, resoluteness. Phrases with the Low Fall sound categoric, calm, neutral, final.

2. The English High Fallin the nucleus starts very high and usually reaches the lowest pitch. The High Fall provides a great degree of prominence, which depends on the height of the fall.

The use of the High Fall adds personal concern, interest and warmth to the features

characteristic of the Low Fall. The High Fall sounds lively, interested and airy in statements. It sounds very emotional and warm, too.

3. The English Low Rise in the nucleus starts from the lowest level and reaches the medium level (the nuclear variant). If the nucleus is followed by a tail, it is pronounced on the lowest level and the syllables of the tail rise gradually (the nuclear-post-nuclear variant). The two variants of the Low Rise (the nuclear and the nuclear-post-nuclear) are pronounced in a different way and consequently they have different graphical representations on the tonogram, but the same tone marks in the text.

The Low Rise conveys a feeling of non-finality, incompleteness, hesitation. Phrases pronounced with this tone sound not categoric, non-final, encouraging further conversation, wondering, mildly puzzled, soothing.

4. The English High Risein the nucleus rises from a medium to a high pitch, if there is no tail. If there are unstressed syllables following the nucleus, the latter is pronounced on a fairly high level pitch and the syllables of the tail rise gradually.

The High-Rise expresses the speaker's active searching for information. It is often used in echoed utterances, calling for repetition or additional information or with the intention to check if the information has been received correctly. Sometimes this tone is meant to keep the conversation going.

5. The Fall-Riseis called a compound tone as it actually may present a combination of two tones: either the Low Fall-Low Rise or the High Fall-Low Rise. The Low Fall-Rise may be spread over one, two or a number of syllables; the High Fall-Rise always occur on separate syllables.

If the Low Fall-Rise is spread over one syllables, the fall occurs on the first part of the vowel from a medium till a low pitch, the rise occurs on the second part of the vowel very low and does not go up too high: e. g. ∨No (the undivided variant).

If the fall and rise occur on different syllables, any syllables occurring between them are said on a very low pitch, notional words are stressed:

e. g. I ̖think his face is fa͵miliar (the divided variant)

The falling part marks the idea which the speaker wants to emphasize and the rising part marks the addition to this main idea.

The Fall-Rise is a highly implicatory tone. The speaker using this tone leaves something unsaid known both to him and his interlocutor. It is often used in statements and imperatives. Statements with the Fall-Rise express correction of what someone else has said or a contradiction to something previously said or a warning. Imperatives pronounced this way sound pleading. Greetings and leave-takings sound pleasant and friendly being pronounced with the Fall-Rise:

e. g. He is ̖thirty. – He is ̖ thirty- ͵five (a mild correction).

We’II ̖go there.–- You ∨shan't. (a contradiction).

I must be on ̖time. – ̖You'll be ͵late ( a warning).

It's all so ̖awful. – ̖Cheer ͵up. (pleading).

Good ̖night, Betty. – ̖Good ͵night, Mrs. Sandford. (friendly).

6. The Rise-Fallis also a compound tone. In syllables pronounced with the Rise-

Fall the voice first rises from a fairly low to a high pitch, and then quickly falls to a very

low pitch; e. g.:

Are you sure? – ‸Yes.

The Rise-Fall denotes that the speaker is deeply impressed (favorably or unfavorably).

Actually the Rise-Fall sometimes expresses the meaning of "even". E.g.:

You aren't ‸trying. (You aren't even trying).

This nuclear tone is used in statements and questions which sound impressed, challenging, disclaiming responsibility, imperatives pronounced this way sound hostile and disclaiming responsibility. E.g.:

Don't treat me like a baby. – Be ‸sensible then.

Has he proposed to her? - Why should you ‸worry about it?

Did you like it? – I simply ‸hated it.

I'm awfully sorry. – No ‸doubt. (But it's too late for apologies).

7. The Mid-Leveltone in the nucleus is pronounced on the medium level with any following tail syllables on the same level. Its tone mark in the text is > and it is marked on the tonogram with a dash: –.

The Mid-Level is usually used in non-final intonation groups expressing non-finality without any expression of expectancy. E. g.:

Couldn't you help me ? At >present | I'm too busy.

What did Tom say? >Naturally, | he was delighted.

The English dialogic speech is highly emotional, that's why such emphatic tones

as the High Fall and the Fall-Rise prevail in it. It is interesting to note, that the most frequently occurring nuclear tone in English the Low Fall occupies the fourth place in dialogic speech after the High Fall, the Fall-Rise and the Low Rise.

Parenthetical and subsidiary information in a statement is also often spoken with a rising tone, or a mid-level tone, because this information is incomplete, being dependent for its full understanding on the main assertion/

Encouraging or polite denials, commands, invitations, greetings, farewells, etc. are

generally spoken with a rising tone.

A falling-rising tone may combine the falling tone's meaning of "assertion", "certainty" with the rising tone's meaning of dependence, incompleteness. At the end of a phrase it often conveys a feeling of reservation; that is, it asserts something and at the same time suggests that there is something else to be said.

At the beginning or in the middle of a phrase it is a more forceful alternative to the

rising tone, expressing the assertion of one point, together with the implication that another point is to follow.

The falling-rising tone, as its name suggests, consists of a fall in pitch followed by

a rise. If the nucleus is the last syllable of the intonation group the fall and rise both take place on one syllable — the nuclear syllable. Otherwise the rise occurs in the remainder of the tone unit.

Where the Rise of the Fall-Rise extends to a stressed syllable after the nucleus we signal the falling-rising tone by placing the fall on the nucleus and a rise on the later stressed syllable.

In English there is often clear evidence of an intonation-group boundary, but no audible nuclear tone movement preceding. In such a circumstance two courses are open: either one may classify the phenomenon as a further kind of head or one may consider it to be the level nuclear tone.The weight of evidence seems to force the second solution, for the following reasons:

1. The final level tone is always more prominent than the others.

Also the syllable on which it occurs is lengthened substantially, and there is a clear rhythmic break between what precedes and what follows.

2. This tone nearly always occurs on the last lexical item (which is not obligatory in spontaneous speech) before a phonetic boundary and this is distributionally similar to a nuclear tone.

3. In subordinate structures this tone may be replaced by a rising-type tone.

4. In non-subordinate structures this tone has a particular range of meaning (boredom, sarcasm, etc.) which is very similar in force to other nuclear semantic functions.