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A Brief Look at the Study of the English

Intonation.

Jos Ribamar de Castro.

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M.A.K. HallidayA Course in Spoken English:Intonation.

London. Oxford University Press, 1970.

Grammar and Intonation.Many attempts have been made to show

connections between intonation patterns and

particular types of grammatical structure,andthe following list shows some of these.

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1. Information questions withWHO,WHAT,WHERE,etc: falling intonation

(if being asked for the first time),e.g. Whats

your name? Whatsthe time?Where do youlive?

2.Questions expecting a yes/no question:

Rising Is it the blue one? Have you got apen?

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3. Statements: Falling

He lives in the house on the corner.Itsoverthere.

4. Imperatives: Falling Sit down. Put it on the

table.5.Question tags expecting confirmation:

Falling

YoureFrench,arentyou?Hesvery tall,isnthe?

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6. Question tags showing less certainty:

Rising

YoureFrench,arentyou?

Your train leaves at six,doesntit?

7. Lists of items: Rising,rising and finally falling

You need a pen,a pencil and some paper.

The stall sells ribbon,beads,elastic and buttons.

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J.D.OConnor

Better English Pronunciation.

CUP,Cambridge,1967.Attitude and Intonation

Another way of looking at intonation is to

consider how it varies according to thespeakersattitude towards a situation.For

example,the simple sentence That would be

nice (in response to an invitation ,letssay)

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might show enormous enthusiasm,

mild pleasure,surprise,relief,sarcasmand boredom,amongst other

possibilities.The following examples show some

different ways in which the links

between intonation and attitude can

be practically used in the classroom.

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Letsdeal with intonation usingLEXICAL PHRASES.

Lexical phrases are phrases which we

use in ordinary,everyday

communication,but which have the

characteristic that they lose theirmeaning if broken down and analysed.

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1. How do you do? (falling intonation)2. Dontget me wrong (fallrise)

Personal opinion.3. Imnot sure whether we go to

Spain or Portugal. (fall-rise / falling)

A couple of possible choices.

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4. What do you make of of that new

teacher? (falling)

Elicit a viewpoint from the listener.

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David Brazil

Pronunciation for Advanced Learners of

English.

CUP. Cambridge,1994.

Discourse and Intonation.

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A discourse approach to intonation

examines how the stresses we make,andthe tone we employ when speaking,relate

our utterances to the surrounding

language.The term DISCOURSE refers to a

stretch of meaningful language.Intonation

can be used to present ideas andinformation within

utterances,conversations or monologues.

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A simple example is seen in the idea oflisting. If we say You need a pen,a

pencil,and some paper the voice tends to

rise on pen,and pencil indicating that there

is something more to come. The voice may

then fall on paper,to indicate that that isthe end of the list.

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The wider context of conversations is

important,and we can see how thespeakersintonation indicates his

interpretation of what is sharedknowledge and what isnt.Inthe

sentence:

When you get to the office,youllsee a

tall man named Sean.

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The name Sean is a new piece of

information,and the voice falls on thisword.A following sentence shows a

different effect:

When you see Sean,give him this

envelope.

This time,there is a fall-rise onSean,indicating that the name is now

shared knowledge.

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The advantage of this approach over

the grammatical/attitudinal indicatorapproaches is that clear rules can be

given with regard to appropriate

choices of patterns.

The most basic intonation choice is

between what are known asREFERRING TONES (r) and

PROCLAIMING TONES (p).

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The two most frequently used tones in

English are the FALL and the FALL-RISE.

A falling tone is called a PROCLAIMINGTONE (p),and the FALL-RISE is a REFERRING

TONE (r). These terms and ideas were

originally developed by David Brazil.

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Consider the following examples:

WHAT time does your TRAIN leave?

Imasking for a piece of new information. A

(p) tone indicates this.WHAT time does your TRAIN leave?

Youvetold the vtrain time easrlier.but Ive

forgotten.I use the (r) tone to indicate thatthere has been shared information

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ShesLIVED in LONdon / since she

was TWENty.We both know that she lives in London;

the shared information is shown by the

(r) tone in the first tone unit.

You have asked me how long shes

lived there.This new information isreflected by the (p) tone in the second

tone unit.

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// ShesLIVED in LONdon// // since she

was

TWENty//

LIVED = Onset

in= key

LON= tonic

don=tail

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