4.3. Measuring Intonation

Roach (2000, p.150)	→ No definition is completely satisfactory → The pitch of the voice plays the most important part
Kenworthy (1987, p.11)	→ intonation = the melody of speech
Teschner & Whitley (2004, p.64)	→ Intonation is a series of pitches sung over a whole utterance
Celce-Murcia, Brinton & Goodwin (1996, p.184)	→ If pitch = individual tones of speech then intonation = the entire melodic line → Intonation involves the rising and falling of the voice to various pitch levels during the articulation of an utterance.

 

4.3.2. Cantonese vs English intonation

Chinese (including Cantonese, Putonghua & other regional languages in China)	English
tone language	intonation language
The tone of each character contributes to lexical meanings	The tones vary over a stretch of utterance, and contribute to accentual features, or convey attitudinal meanings.

Intonation is determined by many elements like pitch, energy, duration, tempo and sound quality. Pitch plays a more important role than the remaining elements. As English is an intonational language, the intonation expresses speakers' emotion and attitude. Native speakers use different intonations in different sentence types.

In Praat, we mainly use pitch contour to indicate different tones, like falling and rising tones.

1. Select the sound in object list
2. Click "View & Edit"
3. "Pitch" → tick "show pitch"

4.3.3. Common types of intonation in English

A. Fall   

Figure 4.14

B. Rise    

Figure 4.15 

C. Fall-rise      

Figure 4.16

D. Rise-fall     

Figure 4. 17

E. Level        

Figure 4.18

(Roach 2009, p.192   Audio Unit 15, Ex 1)

4.3.4. Communicative functions of English intonation

A. The accentual function

       to indicate the focus of the information

B. The attitudinal function

       to indicate the speaker’s attitude

The falling tone suggests:	•    finality, completion •    certainty, belief in the content of the utterance •    speaker-dominance
The rising tone suggests:	•    more to follow •    querying, uncertainty •    encouraging •    speaker-deference –  the speaker does not know → asks –  does not have authority → requests
The level tone suggests:	•    routine •    boredom, no interest

C. The grammatical function

a) Statements: falling tone

Most native speakers of English can, for example, recognize people from France by their French accents. ↘

Figure 4. 19

b)Wh- Questions:  normally falling tone

Why do people usually have an accent when they speak a second language? ↘

Figure 4.20

c) imperative sentence:falling tone

Please sit down. ↘

Figure 4.21

d) Yes/No Questions: normally rising tone

Does this mean that accents can’t be changed? ↗

Figure 4.22

e) Listing: combination of rise & fall

I  like  apple, ↗ cherry，↗ and banana.

Figure 4.23

f) Tag questions: rising and falling tone

Falling tone → the speaker is quite certain, only seeking confirmation / agreement

Rising tone → the speaker is unsure, a genuine request for more information

But old habits won’t change without a lot of hard work, ↘ will they? ↘

Figure 4.24

Another possibility:

But old habits won’t change without a lot of hard work, ↘ will they? ↗

Figure 4.25

g) Closed-choice alternative questions: combination of rise & fall

Will you manage to make progress, ↗or will you just give up? ↘

Figure 4. 26

Figure 4. 27