FUNCTIONS OF INTONATION

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FUNCTIONS OF INTONATION

• (Chapters 18 19)

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What would an utterance lose if intonation were
omitted?

• Every syllable said on the same level pitch
• No pauses
• No changes in speed and loudness
• Such would be speech produced by the mechanical
  speech device
• Therefore, intonation makes it easier for the
  listener to understand the meaning a speaker is
  trying to convey

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4 main functions of intonation

• Attitudinal function
• Accentual function
• Grammatical function
• Discourse function

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Attitudinal function

• Intonation enables the speaker to express
  emotions and attitudes which adds a special
  meaning to spoken language as a difference from
  its written counterpart

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Accentual function

• Intonation helps to produce the effect of
  prominence on syllables that should be perceived
  as stressed while tonic stress on a particular
  syllable marks the word as the most important in
  the tone-unit.

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Grammatical function

• The listener better recognizes grammar and what
  is being said by using the information contained
  in intonation e.g. placement of boundaries
  between phrases, clauses and sentences,
  difference between questions and statements, use
  of grammatical subordination, etc.

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Discourse function

• Intonation can signal to the listener what is to
  be taken as new information within the act of
  speaking, when the speaker is indicating a
  contrast or link with the material from previous
  tone-units and it can also make the listener feel
  what kind of response is expected

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Attitudinal and discourse functions

• Overlap in certain ways
• The other 3 functions can hardly be
  disentangled as
• E.g. placement of tonic stress is closely linked
  to the presentation of new information
• Question/statement distinction is equally
  important in grammar and discourse

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Common to accentual, grammatical and discourse
functions

• is indication by means of intonation of the
  relationship between a linguistic element and the
  context in which it occurs

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Attitudinal function

• The same sentence can be said in different ways
  labelled as happy, angry, grateful, etc.
• Intonation differs from language to language
• Often pointed out that if a foreign learner does
  not learn proper intonation he/she may
  unintentionally give offence

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How to analyse the attitudinal function?

• Try saying one sentence with different intonation
  patterns
• Ask a group of listeners what attitudes they
  think have been expressed
• Ask them to choose among a small number of
  adjectives or labels
• Ask a lot of speakers to say a list of sentences
  in different ways according to labels provided by
  the analyst

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A more useful and realistic approach

• To study recordings of different speakers
  natural, spontaneous speech and on this basis
  make generalisations about attitudes and
  intonation
• Material chosen should be neutral from the
  emotional point of view, i.e. pure questions or
  utterances qualified by the use of specific
  vocabulary indicating their purpose should not be
  considered

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Components of intonation

• Sequential
• Prosodic
• paralinguistic

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Sequential component

• Components never occur simultaneously
• They are pre-head, head, tonic syllable, tail
• Pauses
• Tone-unit boundaries

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Prosodic component

• Characteristics of speech that are constantly
  present while the speech is going on
• Width of pitch range
• Key
• Loudness
• Speed
• Voice quality
• (rhythmicality)

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Paralinguistic component

• Facial expressions, gestures, body language
• Vocal effects laughs, sobs, ...
• Effects relevant to the act of speaking but not
  proper components of speech

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Tones conveying meanings

• Fall finality, definiteness
• Stop talking! Im absolutely certain! That is
  the end of news!
• Rise
• Functions nearer to grammatical than to
  attitudinal e.g. general questions Can you
  help me? listing red, brown and black
• more to follow ... I phoned them right a way
• encouraging It wont hurt.

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• Fall-rise
• uncertainty, doubt You may be right.
• Requesting Can I buy it?
• Rise-fall
• surprise, being impressed
• You were first.

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Generalisations of the kind are

• Very broad
• Foreign learners do not easily acquire intonation
  only through studying patterns
• Still, wider pitch range excited or
  enthusiastic speaking slower speed typical of
  the speech of tired or bored person
• Useful but difficult to teach or learn if not
  speaking or listening to native speakers still,
  building up awareness and sensitivity for ways
  native speakers use intonation has been our aim

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Accentual function

• Derived from the word accent stress
• Placement of stress is determined by intonation
• Although stress has been presented as independent
  of and placing of stress prior to the choice of
  intonation, placement of the tonic stress within
  the tone-unit can be regarded as part of
  intonation.

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Location of the tonic syllable

• Of great linguistic importance
• The most common position on the last lexical
  word of the tone-unit
• But, for contrastive purposes any word can become
  the bearer of the tonic syllable
• Thus, the placement of the tonic syllable
  represents the focus of the information

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• Examples of contrast / emphasis
• I want to know where hes travelling to
• I want to know where hes travelling from
• She was wearing a red dress
• It was very boring
• It was very boring
• You mustnt talk so loudly
• You mustnt talk so loudly

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Tonic syllable earlier in the tone-unit, not for
reasons of empasis

• I have plans to leave
• I have plans to leave The rule??
• Heres that book you asked me to bring
• Ive got to take the dog for a walk
• Ive got to take the dog to the vet

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Grammatical function

• Sentences which when written are ambiguous, and
  ambiguity can only be removed by different
  intonation e.g.
• Those who sold quickly made a profit
• (A profit was made by those who sold quickly)
• Those who sold quickly made a profit
• (A profit was quickly made by those who sold)

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Link between tone-unit and units of grammar

• Tone-unit boundaries usually occur at boundaries
  between grammatical units of higher order than
  words (at sentence boundary e.g. I wont have
  any tea I dont like it)
• At phrase and clause boundaries e.g.
• In France where farms tend to be smaller the
  subsidies are more im portant

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Restrictive vs. non-restrictive relative clause

• The Conservatives who like the proposal are
  pleased (only some of them)
• The Conservatives, who like the proposal, are
  pleased (all of them)
• Grammatical significance of tone on the tonic
  syllable rise with questions, choice between
  falling/rising tone can differentiate statement
  and question of the same for (e.g. Why do you
  want to buy it? The price is going up)

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Falling tone with questions

• Wh-questions where did you park the car
• Question tags They are coming on Tuesday arent
  they (the example shows overlapping between
  attitudinal and grammatical function)

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Discourse function

• An attempt to look at larger contexts in which
  sentences occur (R., p.198) sentences form part
  of a larger act of conversational interaction
  between speakers
• They make references to the shared knowledge

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Intonation and discourse

• Intonation focuses the listeners attention (by
  placing tonic stress on the appropriate syllable)
  on important aspects of the message
• Intonation regulates conversational behaviour

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• Falling tone is used to indicate new information
• Rising toneindicates shared or given
  information
• (R., p.199)

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Intonational subordination

• A case when we signal that a particular tone-unit
  is of comparatively low importance and give
  greater importance to adjacent tone-units. (R.,
  p.200)

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Regulation of conversational behaviour

• It refers to what the speaker is doing in
  speaking questioning, challenging, advising,
  encouraging, disapproving, etc.
• It signals when one has finished speaking and
  whether another person is expected to speak
  (regulates turn-taking), a particular type of
  response, etc.

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step further"