Phonetics and Phonology III: Final

Which are the main elements in describing the English intonation system?

The main elements used for the description of the English intonation system are the tone unit, prominence and tone. 

A tone unit is a chunk of speech said in one breath that might consist of one single syllable or of a set of syllables. It is the unit used for the analysis the intonation of speech. Peter Roach breaks down the structure of the tone unit into head, pre-head, and tail. The head is the part of the tone unit that extends from the first stressed syllable up to (but not including) the tonic syllable (if there's no stressed syllable, there's no head). The pre-head is composed of all the unstressed syllables preceding the first stressed syllable. Finally, any syllable between the tonic syllable and the end of the tone unit are called the tail.

Prominence is, according to Brazil, a property associated with a word by virtue of its function as a constituent of a tone unit. If we say "Tom IS the best student in the class" we're making the word "is" prominent. Whether it's a lexical word or a function word, making a word prominent is a meaningful choice. We make a syllable prominent by the combined or exclusive use of length, loudness, or pitch in saying a syllable.

Tone has to do with pitch movement. Generally, a fall tends to communicate a sense of completeness, whereas rise of fall-rise signals that there's more to follow. The tone occurs in the tonic syllable in a tone unit, and is carried over along the tail of said unit if there's one.

Which are the main functions of intonation in the English language?

The attitudinal function of intonation enables us to convey different feelings and attitudes. For example, we can say a sentence in different ways, and depending on which intonation we choose, we might convey 'anger,' 'happiness,' 'boredom,' 'gratefulness' and so on. In general terms, a falling tone indicates finality; a rise a question or "more to follow"; a fall-rise uncertainty, doubt or a request; a rise-fall surprise. However, attitudes aren't conveyed by tones alone, as there are other variables that have as much an important role in communication as tones do. Peter Roach takes this variables into consideration and group them into three types: sequential, prosodic and paralinguistic. In a nutshell, 'sequential' concerns the inner tone unit structure, pauses, and tone-unit boundaries; 'prosodic' relates components such as width of pitch range, key, loudness, speed and voice quality; finally, 'paralinguistic' has to do with facial expression, gesture and body movements.

The accentual function of intonation helps us express nuances of meaning by making a syllable more prominent, or by placing the tonic stress on a particular syllable in order to make the listener focus on that particular syllable in the tone-unit. By means of the accentual function of intonation we can distinguish a normal placement of a tonic syllable from a constrastive one (>> I don't want to know where he's traveling FROM, I want to know where he's travelling TO). Similarly, we can distinguish a non-emphatic tonic syllable placement from an emphatic one (>> it was very BORing / it was VERY boring).

The grammatical function of intonation helps to clarify the information that is being conveyed according to the syntactic features of an utterance. This intonation function can solve the ambiguity of sentences just by using different tones, while in writing it'd be necessary to rephrase said sentences to get to the same result. In sentences with complex structure, tone-unit boundaries are often found at phrase and clause boundaries, and it's quite important to make a distinguishable realization of a restrictive or of an non-restrictive relative clause. Furthermore, questions that from the strictly grammatical perspective look like statements, can be turned into questions with a the proper use of intonation.

The discourse function of intonation enables us to focus the listener's attention on the part of the message that is considered to be the most important in the tone unit by placing the stress in one particular syllable. This is a syllable in the word with the highest information content, which in other terms is 'new information' to the conversation as opposed to 'given information' or 'shared knowledge.' A falling tone indicates new information, while a rising (including fall-rise) indicates given information.

Discourse Analysis

1. Sean begins the conversation with a falling tone because what he is saying is new information to the listener, and then the next tone unit is said with a rising tone as it is part of the two individuals’ common ground.

2. Then Steve, the other participant of the conversation, asks a rising-tone question with the intention of checking whether the concert was good or not.

3. Sean’s reply is a definitive, one-syllable tone unit “yes”, which is a complete answer in itself, but then he goes on and speaks another falling tone unit that expresses finality and indicates it’s the other speaker’s turn to carry on with the conversation.

4. Judging by Sean’s words, Steve assumes Sean told Ana about the trip to Dubai, and uses a falling tone question to make sure whether his assumption is correct or not.

5. Sean responds by categorically denying he did that with a sequence of three falling tone units.

6. Steve picks up on Sean’s assertion and says “yeah” with a rising tone indicating he is not finished; then “should” is treated as the most important word in the tone unit given that it bears the tonicity. The rising tone extends over the tail. Here, a “but” clause could have been introduced but Sean interrupts him.

7. Again, the falling-tone “yes” conveys definitiveness; the following rise-fall indicates a strong suggestion (which wasn’t done); next, Sean informs Steve he can still do it using a falling tone, and that is followed up with a standard rising-tone wh- question whose purpose is to find out about the date of the flight.

8. The answer is new information, and therefore it is said with a fall.

9. Sean’s question here is aimed at making sure about Steve’s enthusiasm about his trip, and is said with a rise.

10. Steve replies with a sequence of three falling tone units, and then uses the adverb “otherwise” which is a tone unit in itself. This tone unit is said with a rise to indicate that it is connected with what has previously been said. The next tone unit is a proclaiming one, and then the following one is said with a rise-falling tone that adds emphasis. The last tone unit in Steve’s turn is new to the listener and so it’s a fall

11. This is a “checking” question and as such it is said with a rising tone.

12. Steve responds emphatically with a rising “yes.” Then he goes on to enlist a series of things, and each one of the tone units that each thing is, is said with a rising tone. The list is not closed with a falling tone.

13. There’s another wh- question that makes use of the rising tone. It is, again, intended to find out information.

14. The two tone-unit response Steve does is new information, so both units are falls.

15. Sean expresses surprise with a rise-fall.

16. Steve says “I hope so” with a fall-rise in what is a response with reservation. Then he makes two short and quick falling tone units.

17. Sean gives Steve a command with a fall. And then a short question “OK” to make sure he got the command.

18. Steve closes up the conversation with a fall-rise indicating he understands what he has to do.

Definition of intonation by Peter Roach

Peter Roach holds that even though no definition of intonation is completely satisfactory, the pitch of the voice must be recognized as one of the most important aspects of intonation. He describes pitch in terms of 'high' and 'low' but says that's an arbitrary way to refer to them. In order for pitch to be considered as part of intonation, it has to be linguistically significant, and for this to happen pitch has to produce contrast with other pitch variations, it has to be under the speaker's control, and it has to be perceptible.

Tonality, tonicity and tone
The word tonality refers to the chunks of speech -called intonation phrases or tone units- that an utterance is broken into. 

Tonicity refers to the highlighting of the a syllable in the content words of the tone units. The last stressed syllable of the tone unit -called tonic syllable or nucleus- is most more often than not the most important word out of all the other stressed words.. 

Tone refers to the pitch movement that occurs in the word that has the tonic syllable and in the tail if there's one. Tone is broadly divided into falls and highs.

Leading and trailing tones

If a dependent phrase or clause precedes the main element, it's called leading. If it's after the main element, it's called trailing. In either case, the unmarked tone for a dependent element is a non-fall (a fall-rise or a rise)

With a leading dependent element, this non-fall is most usually a fall-rise, and it indicates that there's more to come:

>> 'after <fall-rise>lunch // we could 'call on <fall>Mary.

Alternatively, a leading dependent element may have a rise:

>> 'after <rise>lunch // we could 'call on <fall>Mary. 

With a trailing dependent element, the most usual tone is a rise, and it's used to indicate that it belongs with what went before:

I'm rather annoyed // <rise>frankly. 

We're going to Spain // in <rise>August.

Set I

Suprasegmental Phonology

A good way to start with Suprasegmental Phonology is knowing in what way it differs from segmental phonology. In a nutshell, segmental phonology deals with vowels and consonants while Suprasegmental Phonology involves breaking up speech into tone units. A tone unit is a chunk of speech said in a single breath. Inside each tone unit there's a set of different sounds that occur in differing ways according to how the speaker uses rhythm, intonation and stress.

English prosody

Prosody is the combined use of pitch, loudness and speed that make up the rhythm of speech. Pauses do also have to do with prosody, as they help break up the flow of speech. Prosody reflects emotions, differences in the form of an utterance (question, statement or command), attitudes, etc. that are not communicated through grammar or lexical devices. 

Prosody features

Three are the features used for linguistic purposes. These are those of pitch, length and loudness.

Statements

Definite fall

We can say a statement with any tone, but the fall is the default one. When we use a fall tone we say a statement with confidence, and unreservedly. It also signals that what we say is potentially complete as well as finality.

I'm <fall>ready.

Implicational fall-rise 

The most typical meaning of a fall-rise tone is that the speaker implies something.

I know her <fall-rise>face. (but I can't remember her name)

The speaker can go on and make the implication explicit, or leave it unsaid. The implicational fall-rise often signals that a clause beginning with "but..." is going to come.

What's she like as a colleague? - Well, she <up-down>works very hard. (implication: but... she has no much talent.)

Leaving a reservation unexpressed might lead the other speaker to ask "what do you mean / what are you trying to say?"

The implicational fall-rise makes it possible to be tactful and polite.

Are you free next week? - Well, on <fall-rise>MONday I am. (but later I might not be)

More about the implicational fall-rise

1. Used for correcting a mistake in a polite way

She's coming on Thursday. - On <fall-rise>Friday. (in writing we signal this with a "?")

2. Used for making a partial statement.

What was the food like? - Well, the <fall-rise>FISH was good.

3. Used for partial corrections.

I hear you passed all your exams - <fall-rise>MOST of them.

4. Used for subtle implications

What a lovely voice! - Yes, she has a lovely <fall-rise>VOICE. (but she can't <fall-rise>act)

5. Used in negative sentences to modify (in contrast with a falling tone) the scope of meaning a word has.

She didn't do it because she was <fall-rise>tired. (she did it, but for some other reason.)
She didn't <fall-rise>DO it // because she was <fall>tired. (she didn't do it. Here's why)