Intonation. Theoretical background

Theoretical background

Key words

INTONATION

Unit 11

Sand

English rhythm practice

Self-check questions

Read the dialogue and analyze all types of linking. Mark the linking. Now practise the conversation, linking the words smoothly.

A: Ann’s just phoned. She and Diana are both on their way. Is dinner ready? Can I help you?

B: Yes. Can you get out two eggs from the fridge?

A: Which eggs? The large ones or the small ones?

B: The large ones. Small eggs are no good.

A: OK. Anything else?

B: Yes. Squeeze another orange, and put the fresh orange juice in a jug, please.

A: Right. What next?

B: There’s a pie in the oven. Take it out, and slide it under the grill. Then finish laying the table for me. Each person needs a knife and fork, and a cup and saucer. And then, could you scrub all these potatoes.

A: Come on, Anne and Diana!

Listen to this poem. Practise reading it.

If I were home,

If I were home,

I’d run to the beach,

take off my shoes

and walk in the sand.

I’d shake the sand off my shoes.

I’d feel it between my toes.

I’d smell wet sand in my hair.

I’d feel it in my eyes.

My face would sparkle from the sand.

I would say, “I hate this sand.”

Back home, the bed would be full of sand

and my clothes, and my hair.

I would wake up and feel the sand in my hair.

Oh, it’s been so long

since I have felt sand

in my hair.

Lesson	Topic	Hours	References
	Intonation
	Intonation. Utterance and its structure. Tones.		O’Connor – p.108-111, Karnevskaya – p.15-16, 25-27, Lab works 15, 17
	Tunes. Melody.		O’Connor – p.111-114, “No enemies”
	The Glide-Down.		O’Connor – p.111-114
	The Glide-Up.		O’Connor – p.114-116, “If”
	The Take-Off.		O’Connor – p.116-117
	The Dive.		O’Connor – p.117-120
	Fall-Rise Undivided.		O’Connor – p.117-120, Karnevskaya – p.150-151, “Bed in summer”
	Fall-Rise Divided.		O’Connor – p.117-120
	Usage of the tunes. Statements.		O’Connor – p.120-122
	Wh-questions. Yes/no-questions.		O’Connor – p.122-123, “Little birdie”
	Tag-questions.		O’Connor – p.123-124
	Commands. Exclamations.		O’Connor – p.124-126
	Revision.
	Colloquium.
	Colloquium.
	Final phonetic test.
	Revision.

intonation

tone languages

utterance

nucleus

tones (Fall, Rise, Fall-Rise, Rise-Fall, Level)

pre-head

head

tail

tunes (the Glide-Down, the Glide-Up, the Take-Off, the Dive)

important and stressed words

Fall-Rise Divided and Undivided

What is intonation? No definition is completely satisfactory, but we must agree that the pitch of the voice plays the most important part. There are no languages which are spoken as a monotone. Every language has melody in it; no language is spoken on the same musical note all the time. The voice goes up and down and the different notes of the voice combine to makes tunes. In some languages the tune mainly belongs to the word, being part of its shape, and if the tune of the word is wrong its shape is spoiled. The Chinese languages are like this and so are many others in south-east Asia, Africa and America. In these languages the same sounds said with different tunes may make quite different words: in Mandarin Chinese /mR/ said with a level tone means mother, but /mR/ with a rising tune means horse. Languages like this are called tone languages.

In many others languages, for example English, the tune belongs not to the word but to the word group. Tunes do not change the meaning of words in English, but nevertheless tunes play an important part. We can say a word group definitely or we can say it hesitantly, we can say it angrily or kindly, we can say it with interest or without interest, etc. Intonation has several functions:

· it enables us to express emotions and attitudes as we speak;

· it helps to draw listeners’ attention to the most important words which carry most of information;

· it helps to recognise the grammar and syntactic structure of a phrase.

Some people imagine that intonation is the same for all languages, but this is not true. Intonation of languages such as, for example, Italian or Hindu or Russian is different from that of English.

So, trying to sum up what has been said, we can give the following definition of intonation: intonation is a complex unity of speech melody, utterance stress, rhythm and tempo which enables the speaker to express his thoughts, emotions and attitude towards the contents of the utterance and the listener.

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