10.1.5. Intonation

Phonological oppositions concerning intonation are classified according different aspects:

1A-The division of continuous speech into several different prosodic units or tone groups, each having a tonic syllable.

1 B -The division of continuous speech into phone groups with several tonic syllables in the same phone group.

2 - The placement of the chief stress of a phrase or sentence on a specific syllable of a word, which then becomes the main tonic syllable of the phrase or sentence.

3 - The choice of pitch accent, both the placement of the pitch and the specific pitch chosen, on the tonic syllable.

Example of phonological contrast involving distribution and boundaries of the phone groups of an intonation unit:

The ones who ran rapidly, got away. (The only people who got away were the ones who ran rapidly).

The ones who ran, rapidly got away. (The people who ran got away rapidly).

Example of phonological contrast involving placement of the tonic syllable of a phrase or sentence.

He has plans to go. (= He is planning to go).

He has plans to go. (= He has drawings to go).

Example of phonological contrast involving choice of pitch:

\ = falling tone or \/ = fall-rise tone:

He didn't close the door because of the \rain.

(= He didn't close the door because the rain held him back).

He didn't close the door because of the \/rain.

(= He did close the door, but not because of the rain).

There is a phonetic difference, but not a phonological one, involving pitch between wh-questions and yes/no questions:

1) wh-questions have a falling pitch: "Why did she \do it?"

2) yes/no questions have a rising pitch: "Was he going /out?"

However, there are frequent exceptions to this rule.

Tag questions asking for information carry a rising pitch:

"You’re returning next week, /aren’t you?"

Tag questions asking for confirmation have a falling pitch:

"It’s sunny today, \isn’t it."

11. Other suprasegmental phonological phrase features

11.1. Long consonants

Consonant length is not a distinctive phonological feature word-internally in Standard Southern British English, except for few rare cases such as: unnamed /ɐnˈneɪmd/-/ɐnˈnɛɪmd/ unaimed /ɐˈneɪmd/-/ɐˈnɛɪmd/

However, in certain phrases, one can find phonological oppositions in which consonant length is the sole distinctive trait. Here are some examples:

May nights day lane store music

Maine nights dale lane storm music grey valley grave valley

11.2. Primary stress versus secondary stress contrasts

There are no word-internal suprasegmental phonological contrasts between primary stress and secondary stress in Standard Southern British English since secondary stress is only a phonetic feature within a word.