THE COMPONENTS OF INTONATION

The pitch component or speech melody – the variations in the pitch of the voice which take place when voice sounds, especially vowels and sonorants, are pronounced in connected speech.

The pitch parameters consist of distinct variations in:

— direction of pitch,

— pitch level,

— pitch range.

According to Roger Kingdon the most important nuclear tones in English relevant for the teaching practice are:

— Low Fall,

— High Fall,

— Low Rise,

— High Rise,

— Fall-Rise,

— Rise-Fall

Kinetic/Moving tones vs Static tones (the High Level Tone, the Low Level Tone)

Simple tones (e.g. Low Fall) vs Complex tones (e.g. Rise-Fall, Rise-Fall-Rise)

A falling toneof any level and range expresses certainty, completeness, and independence.

A rising toneon the contrary expresses uncertainty, incompleteness or dependence.

A level toneexpresses hesitation and uncertainty.

The use of the Low Fallenables the speaker to convey in his utterance an impression of finality, definiteness, resoluteness. Phrases with the Low Fall sound categoric, calm, neutral, final.

The use of the High Falladds personal concern, interest and warmth to the features characteristic of the Low Fall. The High Fall sounds lively, interested and airy in statements. It sounds very emotional and warm, too.

The Low Riseconveys a feeling of non-finality, incompleteness, hesitation. Phrases pronounced with this tone sound not categoric, non-final, encouraging further conversation, wondering, mildly puzzled, soothing.

The High Rise expresses the speaker's active searching for information. It is often used in echoed utterances, calling for repetition or additional information or with the intention to check if the information has been received correctly. Sometimes this tone is meant to keep the conversation going.

The Fall-Risemay present a combination
of two tones: either the Low Fall-Low Rise or the High Fall-Low Rise.

The falling part marks the idea which the speaker wants to emphasize and the rising part marks the addition to this main idea. The speaker using this tone leaves something unsaidknown both to him and his interlocutor.

Statements with the Fall-Rise express correction of what someone else has said or a contradiction to something previously said or a warning.

Imperatives pronounced this way sound pleading.

Greetings and leave-takings sound pleasant and friendly being pronounced with the Fall-Rise

The Rise-Falldenotes that the speaker is deeply impressed (favorably or unfavorably). Actually the Rise-Fall sometimes expresses the meaning of "even".

It is used in statements and questions which sound impressed and challenging. Imperatives pronounced this way sound hostile and disclaiming responsibility.

The Low Level tone is very characteristic of reading poetry. The Mid-Level tone is particularly common in spontaneous speech functionally replacing the rising tone. It is usually used in non-final intonation groups expressing non-finality without any expression of expectancy.

Pitch ranges:

— normal

— wide

— narrow

Pitch ranges:

— normal

— wide

— narrow

Pitch levels:

— high

— medium

— low

Loudness is used in a variety of ways. Gross differences of meaning (such as anger, menace, and excitement) can be conveyed by using an overall loudness level.

Sentence stress/utterance stressis the greater prominence of one or more words among other words in the sentence. It makes the force component of intonation.

According to Prof. Vassilyev the temporal componentof intonation manifests itself in:

— pauses;

— duration (rate or tempo in speech);

— rhythm (in close combination with sentence stress).

The rate of speech can be

— normal,

— slow,

— fast.

We may distinguish the following three kinds of pauses:

— Short pauseswhich may be used to separate intonation groups within a phrase.

— Longer pauseswhich normally manifest the end of the phrase.

— Very long pauses, which are approximately twice as long as the first type, are used to separate phonetic wholes.

Functionally, there may be distinguished:

— syntactic pauses,

— emphatic pauses,

— hesitation pauses.

Syntactic pausesseparate phonopassages, phrases, and intonation groups.

Emphatic pausesserve to make especially prominent certain parts of the utterance.

Hesitation pausesare mainly used in spontaneous speech to gain some time to think over what to say next. They may be silent or filled.

Pitch movements are inseparably connected with loudness. Together with the tempo of speech they form an intonation patternwhich is the basic unit of intonation.

Intonation patterns serve to actualize syntagms in oral speech. Asense-groupor a syntagmis an elementary structural and meaningful segment of a text. It is a part of the utterance which is organized syntactically, has a definite meaning and is characterized by definite intonation means.

If the intonation properties of a sense-group are meant, the sense-group is called a tone unit /an intonation group.

The intonation group is a stretch of speech which may have the length of the whole phrase. But the phrase often contains more than one intonation group.

The number of intonation groups depends on the length of the phraseand the degree of semantic importance or emphasis given to various parts of it.

One of the syllables has the greater prominence than the others and forms the nucleus, or focal point of an intonation pattern.

One of the syllables has the greater prominence than the others and forms the nucleus, or focal point of an intonation pattern.

One of the syllables has the greater prominence than the others and forms the nucleus, or focal point of an intonation pattern.

The tone of a nucleus determines the pitch of the rest of the intonation pattern following it which is called the tail.

The nucleus and the tail form what is called terminal tone.

The two other sections of the intonation pattern are the head and the pre-head which form the pre-nuclear part of the intonation pattern.

Common types of prе-nucleus:

— a descendingtypein which the pitch gradually descends (often in "steps") to the nucleus;

— anascendingtypein which the syllables form an ascending sequence;

— aleveltypewhen all the syllables stay more or less on the same level.

The meaning of the intonation group is the combination of the «meaning» of the terminal tone and the pre-nuclear part combined with the «meaning» of pitch range and pitch level.

Prosodic componentstend to become formalized or standardized, so that all speakers of the language use them in similar ways under similar circumstances.

These abstracted characteristics of intonation structures may be called intonation patternswhich form the prosodic systemof English.

Intonation patterns which are completely colourless in meaning and provide a mold into which all sentences may be poured so that they achieve utterance represent the intonational minimum of speech.

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