Practical work Nº1 1) The prosodic characteristics of speech are those of pitch, loudness, and speed. These combine together to make up the rhythm of speech, and in turn with stretches of silence (pause) to break up the flow of speech. Different languages regularly differ in their prosodic characteristics. • Stress is realized by a combination of loudness, pitch and duration. Some languages use stress placement lexically (= to distinguish between different words in the dictionary). In English there are few pairs of words distinguished just by stress, for example ‘import (noun) and im’port (verb). English is a stress language: stress is an important part of the spoken identity of an English word. • Tone is another prosodic characteristic, being realized mainly by differences in the pitch of the voice (e.g. high level, mid level, low level, rising or falling). A high pitch results from a relatively slow vibration of the vocal folds in the larynx, a low pitch from a relatively slow vibration. An acceleration in the rate of vibration is heard as a rising pitch, a slowing down as a falling pitch. In a level pitch the vocal folds vibrate at constant rate. Some languages have tonal differences, but only on stressed syllables. 2) Intonation is the melody of speech. In studying intonation we study how the pitch of the voice rises and falls, and how speakers use the pitch variation to convey linguistic and pragmatic meaning. It also involves the study of the rhythm of speech, and the study of how the interplay of accented, stressed and unstressed syllables functions as a framework onto which the intonation patterns are attached. 3) The concept of pitch refers to how high or low a sound is. Our perception of the pitch of a speech sound depends on the frequency of vibration of the vocal folds and also on variations of intensity on the same frequency. The pitch of the voice plays the most important part in the definition of intonation because the acoustic manifestation of intonation is fundamental frequency which is perceived by listeners as pitch. When we speak the pitch of our voice rises and falls and we use the pitch variation to convey different meanings. 4) When we talk about intonation, speakers of English usually face three types of decisions when they speak: 1. How to beak the material up into chunks (Tonality) 2. What is to be accented (Tonicity). 3. What tones are to be used (Tone). 1. Tonality (tone unit) It is the division of the spoken material into chunks, which are known as intonation phrases (IPs) or tone units. In general, we make each clause into a separate IP, but it is not a rule that the speaker has to follow. There are cases where different kinds of chunking are possible. For example, a speaker can say a whole utterance as a single IP: We don’t accept the way she behaves. But it is also possible to divide the material up in other ways. - / We don’t accept / the way she behaves /. - / We / don’t accept the way she behaves /. - / We don’t / accept the way she behaves /.
The speaker may present the material as two or three pieces of information rather than a single piece. 2. Tonicity (prominence) We use it to highlight some words as important for the meaning they wish to convey. These are words on which the speaker focuses the hearer’s attention. To highlight these words we accent their stressed syllables, that is to say, we add pitch prominence to the rhythmic prominence that a stressed syllable bears. The nucleus (the last accent) is the most important accent in the IP. It is the place where the pitch change or pitch movement for the nuclear tone begins. 3. Tone Tone is the pitch movement used in producing an utterance. A one-syllable word like ‘yes’ can be said with either a level tone or a moving tone. As regards moving tones, if we want to say ‘yes’ in a definite, final manner we will use a falling tone (a movement from a higher to a lower pitch). But if we want to say ‘yes?’, in a questioning manner, we may say it with a rising tone (a movement from a lower pitch to a higher one). Moreover, we can also distinguish complex tones such as the fall-rise where the pitch descends and then rises again; and the rise-fall in which the pitch follows the opposite movements. 5) English is an intonation language because it does not use tone lexically. We can say any English word with any of the intonational ‘tones’ (level or moving tones). But the choice of tone does not alter the lexical meaning of the word. As for example, the word table: table / , table \ , table /\ \/ . In fact, English makes use of tone intonationally as the intonation system of English constitutes the most important and complex part of English prosody. We express a range of intonational meanings: breaking the utterance into chunks, perhaps distinguishing between clause types, focusing on some parts of the utterance and not on others, indicating which part of our message is backgroung information and which is foreground, signaling our attitude to what we are saying. Spoken English is richer in information, and perhaps also in other, paralinguistics, features (e.g. huskiness, breathiness, whisper, nasality, special voice qualities). 6) English makes elaborate use of intonation to signal meaning. This is a reason why it should not be neglected by learners and teachers of English as a foreign language. Then it is important to know the functions of English intonation: • The Attitudinal Function: Intonation helps to express our attitudes and emotions by tone. For instance, to express anger: -‘Can I go to dance with my friends tonight?’ -‘No.’ \ • The Grammatical Function: Intonation helps to mark the beginning and end of grammatical units such as clause and sentence (demarcative function) by tonality. It is also used to distinguish clause types such as questions vs. statement and to disambiguate grammatically ambiguous structures (syntactic function) by tone. Grammatical function: The tests which were not corrected will be handed next week. - / The tests which were not corrected will be handed next week /. - / The tests / which were not corrected / will be handed next week /.
•
/ The tests which were not corrected / will be handed next week /. Syntactic function: Dinner is ready. Dinner is ready. \ Affirmative Dinner is ready. / Interrogative
The Focusing (also called accentual) Function: Intonation helps to show what information in an utterance is new and what is already known. We use it to emphasize or highlight some parts and not others by tonicity and by the placement of other accents. For example: Michael traveled to Australia with his wife. - MIchael traveled to australia with his wife. - michael TRAveled to australia with his wife. - Michael traveled to ausTRAlia with his wife.
•
The Discourse (or cohesive) Function: Intonation signals how sequences of clauses and sentences go together in spoken discourse, to contrast or to cohere. It functions like the division of written text into sentences and paragraphs.
•
The Psychological Function: Intonation helps us organize speech into units that are easy to perceive, memorize and perform. This is why we need tonality.
•
The Indexical Function: Intonation may act as a marker of personal or social identity.
7) English intonation is systematic because it is a system that is divided into subsystems by which speakers of English have to decide how to break the material up into chunks, what is to be accented, and what tones are to be used. These linguistic intonation systems are known as tonality, tonicity and tone. Languages differ in the intonation patterns they use to convey aspects of meaning. English intonation is characteristic because is has specific patterns that belong to this language. For example, and accent on a pronoun (a high tone) may have a neutral meaning in many African languages, but in English it highlights the pronoun, perhaps suggesting a contrast between its referent and some other person involved. English intonation is significant because we use it to express a range of intonational meanings. For example, to express our attitudes and emotions: to show surprise, pleasure or anger, interest, finality, sarcasm and many others. If someone is asked a question and replies \ Yes or / No, it will be understood that the question is now answered and that there is nothing more to be said. The fall gives an impression of finality. Students: Agüero, Ana. Carrizo, Noelia. Chain, Andrea.