Intonation

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Lecture 8: Intonation
• Definition
• Tune shapes
• Functions of intonation
• The basic English tunes
• The falling tune – The glide down
• The first rising tune – The glide up
• The second rising tune – The take off
• The falling-rising tune – The dive

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Definition
• Intonation is the pattern of pitch changes that occurs
over a phrase which may be a complete sentence.
When he came, I greeted him
I bought some bananas, oranges, apples and grapes
• The part of a sentence over which a particular pattern
extends is called a tone group. A short sentence often
forms a single tone group, while longer ones are made
up of two or more.
• Within the tone group, there is usually a single syllable
that stands out because it carries a major pitch change.
A syllable of this kind is called the tonic syllable.

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Tonic syllable
• It is usually impossible to predict which syllable will be
the tonic syllable in a tone group. It depends on what
the speaker considers important. In general, new
information is more likely to receive a tonic stress than
material that has already been mentioned.
Water is a liquid Water is a liquid
How was he? He was very boring
Was he boring? He was very boring

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Tune shapes
• The shape of a tune is decided partly by the number of
important words in the group, and partly by the exact
attitude you wish to express. Important words are
words which carry the most meaning in a word group.
Important words must be stressed, but not all stressed
words are important. Examples:
• How was John?
He was in an appallingly bad temper

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• Was John in a good temper?
He was in an appallingly bad temper
• Was John in a bad temper?
He was in an appallingly bad temper

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Functions of intonation
1. Attitudinal function.
Intonation enables us to epxress emotions and
attitudes as we speak, and this adds a special kind of
meaning to spoken language. This is called the
attitudinal function of intonation. E.g.
Thank you.
• Starts high and ends low → shows real gratitude
• Starts low and ends high → casual acknowledgement
of something not very important.

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• Where did you go?
• Sounds more business like, interested in the Subject.
• Where did you go?
• Interested in both the Subject of the conversation
and the other speaker.

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2. Accentual function
Intonation helps to produce the effect of prominence
on syllables that need to be perceived as stressed,
and in particular the placing of tonic stress on a
particular syllble marks out the word to which it
belongs as the most important in the tone unit. This
has been called the accentual function of intonation.
I want to know where he’s travelling to.
He was very boring

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3. Grammatical function.
The listener is better able to recognize the grammar
and syntactic structure of what is being said by using
the information contained in the intonation. For
example, such things as the placement of boundaries
between phrases, clauses and sentences, the
difference between questions and statements and the
use of grammatical subordination may be indicated.
This is called the grammatical function of intonation.
Those who sold quickly made a profit.
My son John and my daughter.
She’s dead

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4. Discourse function
Looking at the act of speaking in a broader way, we
can see that intonation can signal to the listener what
is to be taken as ‘new’ information and what is
already ‘given’, can suggest when the speaker is
indicating some sort of contrast or link with material in
another tone unit and, in conversation, can convey to
the listener what kind of response is expected.
You love her, don’t you?
Since the last time we met when we had that huge
dinner, I’ve been on a diet.

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The basic English tunes
• The falling tune – The glide down
• The first rising tune – The glide up
• The second rising tune – The take off
• The falling-rising tune – The dive

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The falling tune – The glide down
1. Definition
The falling tune is the intonation pattern consisting of
a fall in the voice from a fairly high pitch to a very low
one.
1. How the voice falls.
a. If there is one important word
• On a single syllabe, the voice falls within the syllable.
No Two

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• On more than one syllable, the voice either falls within
the stressed syllable or it jumps from that syllable to the
next. Unstressed syllables at the end are very low.
Wonderful Photography
• If there are other words following the falls, they may still
have stress, but they are still said on that very low pitch
just like the unstressed syllable.
Susan’s knocking at the door

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b. When there is more than one important word: the last
one has the fall, but the other ones are treated
differently.
• The stressed syllable of the first important word is
high and any unstressed syllables following it are on
the same pitch.
• The stressed syllable of the second important word is
a little lower and any unstressed syllables following it
are on the same pitch.
• The falls starts at the same pitch as the syllable just
before it.

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How can I possibly pay him two hundred pounds?
• Notes
• If there are any unstressed syllables before the
stressed syllable of the first important word, these are
all said on a rather low pitch.
• Also any stressed syllable near the beginning which
belongs to a word which is not important is said on that
rather low pitch.

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I’ll s see you on Thursday night
You can phone me at any time of the day or night

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3. Symbols
• Before the stressed syllalbe where the voice falls, we
put ( )
• Before the stressed syllable of each other important
word, we put ( ' ).
• Unstressed syllables at the beginning have no mark
before them.
• If there is a low-pitched stress near the beginning, it is
marked by ( < ). And the same mark is used for
stressed syllables which come after the fall.

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I waited almost twenty five minutes for the wretched man
4. How to use the glide down.

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The first rising tune - The glide up
1. Definition
The glide up is the intonation pattern consisting of a
rise at the end of a sentence but the tune starts at a
high pitch.
2. How the voice rises
• All syllables, either stressed or unstressed, before the
rise ( the stressed syllable of the last imporant word)
are treated exactly the same as in the glide down.
• At the stressed syllable of the last important word, the
voice rises from a low pitch to one just above the
middle of the voice.

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• All the syllables, stressed as well as unstressed) after
the stressed syllable of the last important word are on
the rise.
Is it true that you’re changing your job?
Did you say it was your twentieth birthday today?

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• If the sentence consists of only one important word, the
voice starts at a very low pitch.
Forty of them were there?
3. Symbols
• We use ( / ) before the stressed syllable of the last
important word to show where the rise starts.
• We use ( • ) before any stressed syllable within the rise
• We put ( ' ) before the stressed syllable of each
important word.

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• Have you been at work today John?
• Could I borrow this book for a day or two?
• Would you mind if I brought my mother in low to see you?

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4. How to use the glide up

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The second rising tune - The take off
1. Definition
• The take off is the intonation pattern that ends with a
rise in the voice like the Glide up but any words or
syllables before the rise are low.
• We call it the take off because like an aeroplane
taking off, it starts by running along at a low level and
finally rises into the air.
2. How the voice take off
• The rise starts at the stressed syllable of the last
important word.

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• All the syllables before the rise are said on the same
low pitch as the beginning of the rise.
• Each syllable after the rise is a bit higher.
I was only trying help him with it.
• I wasn’t expecting him at six o’clock in the morning

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3. The symbols
• We use ( / ) before the rise.
• Any stressed syllable after this have ( • )
• Any stressed syllables before this have ( < )
You shouldn’t have given him all that money you silly boy
4. How to use the take off

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The falling-rising tune – The dive
1. Definition
The dive is the intonation pattern consisting of a fall
from a rather high pitch to a low one and then a rise
to about the middle of the voice.
2. How the voice falls and rises
• The fall-rise is also connected with the stressed
syllable of the last important word.
• If that syllable is finalin the group, the fall-rise is
completed on that syllable. Five Soon

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• If there is one or several syllables following, the fall
and the rise are separated. The fall is on the
stressed syllable of the last important word and the
rise on the last syllable of all.
Seventy of them
• If there are stressed syllables of unimportant words
following the fall, the rise at the end is from the last
stressed syllable. Mary would probably tell you

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• Words or syllables before the fall are said in the same
way as for the glide down and glide up.
I may be able to come on Monday
• Note that the fall of the fall-rise is always from a fairly
high note.
3. Symbols
• If the stressed syllable of the last important word is
the final in the group, or it is followed only by
unstressed syllables, we but ( v ) before it.

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• But if the fall is followed by one or more stressed
syllables, we mark the fall with ( ) and we put ( / )
before the last stressed syllable of all. Other stressed
syllables between the fall and the rise have ( » ) before
them.
• Other intonation marks are the same for the gilde down
and the glide up.
John told me he was going to holiday next week

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4. How to use the dive