Sentence Stress

Melody

Lecture 9. Intonation

Intonation is a complex unity of non-segmental, or prosodic features of speech: 1. melody, pitch of the voice; 2. sentence stress; 3. temporal characteristics (duration, tempo, pausation); 4. rhythm; 5. tamber (voice quality).

Intonation is very important: It organizes a sentence, determines com­municative types of sentences and clauses, divides sentences into intona­tion groups, gives prominence to words and phrases, expresses contrasts and attitudes. The two main functions of intonation are: communicative and expressive.

There are two main approaches to the problem of intonation in Great Britain. One is known as a contour analysis and the other may be called grammatical.

The first is represented by a large group of phoneticians: H. Sweet, D. Jones, G. Palmer, L. Armstrong, I. Ward, R. Kingdon, J. O' Connor, A. Gimson and others. It is traditional and widely used. According to this approach the smallest unit to which linguistic meaning can be attached is a tone-group (sense-group). Their theory is based on the assumption that intonation consists of basic functional "blocks". They pay much atten­tion to these "blocks" but not to the way they are connected. Intonation is treated by them as a layer that is superimposed on the lexico-grammati-cal structure. In fact the aim of communication determines the intonation structure, not vice versa.

The grammatical approach to the study of intonation was worked out by M. Halliday. The main unit of intonation is a clause. Intonation is a complex of three systemic variables: tonality, tonicity and tone, which are connected with grammatical categories. Tonality marks the begin­ning and the end of a tone-group. Tonicity marks the focal point of each tone-group. Tone is the third unit in Halliday's system. Tones can be primary and secondary. They convey the attitude of the speaker. Halli­day's theory is based on the syntactical function of intonation.

The founder of the American school of intonation is K. Pike. He considers "pitch pho­nemes" and "contours" to be the main units of intonation. He describes different contours and their meanings, but the word "meaning" stands apart from communicative function of intonation.

Speech melody or pitch of the voice is closely connected with sentenсе stress. Crystal states that the only realizations of stress, which are linguistic, which are capable of creating an effect of relative prominence, of accent, are those which are effected with the complex help of pitch, quantity and quality variations. The most important is pitch.

Successive contours of intonation singled out of the speech flow may be defined differently: sense-groups (semantic approach), breath-groups (extra-linguistic approach), tone groups (phonological definition) intonation groups, tone (tonetic) units, pitch and stress patterns. Each tone mill has one peak of prominence in the form of a nuclear pitch movement and a slight pause after the nucleus that end the tone unit and is usually shorterthan the term "pause" in pausation system.

The tone unit is one of the most important units of intonation theory. It contains one nucleus, which is often referred to as nuclear tone, or peak of prominence. The interval between the highest and the lowest pitchedsyllable is called the range of a sense-group. The range usually dependson the pitch level: the higher the pitch, the wider the range. High, medium and low pitch of the voice is shown on the staves. The change of pitch within the last stressed syllable of the tone-group is called a nucleartone. It may occur not only in the nucleus but extend to the Inil terminal tone.

The inventory of tonal types given by different scholars is different. Swcctdistinguishes 8 tones: – level, ́ high rising,ֻ low rising, ̀high risinig, ˛low falling, ^v compound rising, ^Λ compound falling, ~ rising-Inlling-rising. Palmer has four basic tones: falling, high rising, falling-rising, low rising. He also mentions high-falling and "low level" and describes coordinating tonal sequences (̀^v ́ identical tone groups), and Niihordinating tonal sequences (^{v Λ} dissimilar tone groups). Kingdon distinguishes high and low, normal and emphatic tones and gives rising, falling, falling-rising (divided and undivided), rising-falling, rising-falling-rising and level tone (the latter is not nuclear). O'Connor and Arnold give low and high falls and rises, rise-fall, fall-rise, and a compound fall +rise (the latter is considered a combination of two simple tunes). Halli-diiy recognizes seven major types: ̀ , ́, ِ, ^Λ, ^v, ̀ ⁺ ́, ^{Λ +} ́.

Vassilyev gives ten tone units. He states that tones can be moving and level. Moving tones can be: simple, complex and compound. They are: Low Fall; High Wide Fall; High Narrow Fall; Low Rise; High Narrow Rise; High Wide Rise; Rise-Fall; Fall-Rise; Rise-Fall-Rise. The most common compound tones are: High Fall + High Fall; High Fall + Low Rise. Level Tones can be pitched at High, Mid and Low level.

The basic unit of intonation is an intonation pattern: pitch movements and tempo. Intonation patterns are actualized in speeh.

Two main functions of intonation are — constitutive and recognitive, intonation also serves to distinguish communicative types of sentences and differentiate functional styles.

Methods of indicating intonation are different: wedge-like symbols, staves with dots and dashes, which correspond to unstressed and stressed syllables within the voice range, tonetic stress marks, numerical system, etc. The system of staves is the most vivid, the system of tonetic symbols is the most economical and vivid, that is why they are most popular in our textbooks.

The tonetic units that constitute the total intonation pattern (contour) are the following:

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

2. stressed and unstressed syllables up to the last stressed syllable
constitute the head, body 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; the syllable marked with
the nuclear tone may take a level stress;

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

It's been a 'very 'good ˛evening for me.

• • •

— • —

\

• • •

prehead scale nucleus tail

The most important part of the intonation group is the nucleus, which carries nuclear stress (nuclear tone).

According to the changes in the voice pitch preheads can be: rising, mid and low:

• • •

• • •

• • •

rising mid low

Scales can be: descending, ascending and level.

According to the direction of pitch movement within and between syllables, descending and ascending scales can be: stepping, sliding and scandent:

— • —• —

descending ascending stepping stepping

• — • —

\ • \ •

descending ascending sliding sliding

\ \ \ • • •

—• —•

descending ascending scandent scandent

• — • • — •

If one of the words in the descending scale is made specially prominent, a vertical arrow is placed before the dash-mark which indicates the stressed syllable on the staves, or before the word made specially prom­inent in the text — /↑/ accidental rise, e.g. 'John is ↑very ˛busy.

This type of scale is called upbroken descending scale.

The falling tones convey completion and finality, they are categoric in character. The rising tones are incomplete and non-categoric. Of all thelevel tones mid level tone is used most frequently. The level tones may express hesitation and uncertainty.

Atlitudinal function of intonation can be observed in utterances consisting of one word and in utterances consisting of more than a single word. In the latter cases it is not only that the type of the nucleus is important but also the pitch of the utterance preceding the nucleus: pre-head and head. The attitudinal function of different tonal types in statements, special and general questions, commands and interjections is acurately and thoroughly described in the "Intonation of Colloquial English"by J.D. O'Connor and G.F. Arnold and in other textbooks on phonetics.

Sentence stress is a greater prominence of words, which are made more or less prominent in an intonation group. The special prominence of accented words is achieved through the greater force of utterance and changes in the direction of voice pitch, constituting the nuclear tone.

The difference between stress and accent is based on the fact that in the case of stress the dominant perceptual component is loudness, in the case of accent it is pitch. Degrees of stress in an utterance correlate with the pitch range system. Nuclear stress is the strongest — it carries the most important information. Non-nuclear stresses are subdivided into full and partial. Full stress occurs only in the head of an intonation group, partial stress occurs also in the prehead and tail. Partial stresses in the prehead are most frequently of a low variety, high partial stress can oc­cur before a low head. Words given partial stress do not lose prominen­ce completely, they may retain the whole quality of their vowels e.g. /ai'tistik/.

In tone-groups stress may undergo alternations under the influence of rhythm, but there are some rules concerning words that are usually stressed or unstressed in an utterance.

Given below is the list of words that are usually stressed: Nouns. Adjectives. Numerals. Interjections. Demonstrative pronouns. Emphatic pronouns. Possessive pronouns (absolute form). Interrogative pronouns. Indefinite pronouns: somebody, someone, something, anybody, anyone, anything (used as subject). Indefinite negative pronouns: no, none, no one, nobody, nothing. Indefinite pronouns some, any (expressing qual­ity). Deferminatives: all, each, every, other, either, both. Proclitics: much, many, a little, a few. Notional verbs. Auxiliary verbs (negative contract­ed forms). Two-word prepositions. Two-word conjunctions. Particles: only, also, too, even, just.

The words that are usually unstressed:

Personal pronouns. Reflexive pronouns. Reciprocal pronouns. Rela­tive pronouns. Possessive pronouns (conjoint form). Indefinite pronouns: somebody, someone, something, anybody, anyone, anything (used as ob­ject). Indefinite pronouns some, any (when expressing quantity). Auxil­iary verbs (affirmative form). One-word prepositions and conjunctions.

Articles. Particles: there, to. Modal verbs (contracted forms and general questions are exceptions).

The meaning of the verbs may, should, must changes depending on whether they are stressed or unstressed, e. g. You ˛may go — possibility. Уou may ˛go — permission.

Stresses in an utterance provide the basis for identification and understanding of the content, they help to perform constitutive, distinctive and identificatory function of intonation. These functions are performed jointlywith the pitch component of intonation.

Rhythm and Tempo

Rhythm is the regular alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables. It is so typical of an English phrase that the incorrect rhythm betrays the non-Englishorigin of the speaker even in cases of "correct" pronunciation

The phenomenon of rhythm is closely connected with the phonetic nature of stress.

Theunits of the rhythmical structure of an utterance are stress groups or rhythmic groups. The perception of boundaries between rhythmic groupsis associated with the stressed syllables or peaks of prominence.

Undistressed syllables have a tendency to cling to the preceding stressed syllables— enclitics, or to the following stressed syllables — proclitics. In English, as a rule, only initial unstressed syllables cling to the follow­ing stressed syllable, non-initial unstressed syllables are usually enclitics: ● • • • — usual rhythm pattern, • • • ● — exceptions with the initial unstressed syllables.

Eachsense-group of the sentence is pronounced at approximately the same period of time, unstressed syllables are pronounced more rapidly: the greater the number of unstressed syllables, the quicker they are pro­nounced. Proclitics are pronounced faster than enclitics.

Rhythm is connected with sentence stress. Under the influence of rhythm words which are normally pronounced with two equally strong stresses may lose one of them, or may have their word stress realized differently, e.g.

˛P'icca'dilly — ˛Piccadilly 'Circus — 'close to ˛Picca'dilly

˛prin'cess — a ˛princess 'royal

˛india'rabber — a 'piece of ˛india'rubber — an ˛india˛rubber 'ball

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