INTONATION
Intonation refers to how the voice can change pitch to convey meaning. In essence,
intonation replaces punctuation in spoken language. Pitch refers to how high or low a
sound is.
[Link] (2006) describes ‘intonation is the melody of speech’. In studying intonation
we study how the pitch of the voice rises and falls, and how speakers use this pitch
variation to convey linguistic and pragmatic meaning. Further, it also involves the study
of how the interplay of accented, stressed and unstressed syllables functions as a
framework onto which the intonation patterns are attached.
Why is Intonation Important?
Without the proper use of intonation, people have often misunderstood in their
day-to-day life, let alone when it comes to speaking in formal settings or delivering a
public speech. Decoding the speech of someone who completely avoids the correct
usage of tones is often too hard to carry out a smooth communication. That is why it is
absolutely monumental for second language users to learn and practice correct
intonations. New users or learners of a language would take some time to get used to
the intonations used in it but listening to native speakers and practicing to imitate similar
speech [Link] is absolutely imperative for effective communication.
Learning to use them accurately would have a direct effect on the language you are
using and the fluent communication in it. Following the above article thoroughly must
clear most of your confusions regarding intonation in the English language and how you
can use them without making too many mistakes.
Intonation, Inflection, Stress and Prosody:
Intonation comprises several components, including stress and inflection. Although
these terms are frequently used interchangeably, they do have subtle differences in
meaning, and each term has its own significance. Inflection refers to the upward or
downward change in pitch of the voice. (In the question "Where are you from?", there is
a downward inflection towards the end of the utterance on the "from"). This downward
inflection illustrates that this question has a falling intonation. Prosody is another
word you might have come by in your English Language studies, and it is an important
term to distinguish from intonation. Stress and inflection are the components of
intonation. Prosody refers to the patterns of intonation and rhythm that exist in a
language. You can see that prosody is an umbrella term under which intonation falls.
Prosody refers to the undulation (wavelike movement or seamless up-and-down motion)
of pitch across a language as a whole, whereas intonation is more concerned with an
individual's speech. In other words, "intonation" is a prosodic feature. Prosodic
features are the sound qualities of a voice. Aside from intonation, other prosodic
features include volume (loudness), tempo (speed), pitch (frequency), rhythm (sound
pattern), and stress (emphasis).
TYPES OF INTONATION
There are two basic patterns of intonation in English: falling intonation and rising
intonation. In the following examples a downward arrow (➘) indicates a fall in intonation
and an upward arrow (➚) indicates a rise in intonation.
1. Falling Intonation (➘)
(The pitch of the voice falls at the end of the sentence.)
Falling intonation is the most common intonation pattern in English.
It is commonly found in statements, commands, wh-questions (information questions),
confirmatory question tags and exclamations.
a) Statements:
○ Nice to meet ➘ you.
○ I’ll be back in a ➘ minute.
b) Commands
○ Write your name ➘ here.
○ Show me what you’ve ➘ written.
c) Wh - questions(requesting information: questions beginning with 'who', 'what',
'why', 'where', 'when', 'which', and 'how')
○ What country do you come ➘ from?
○ Where do you ➘ work?
d) Questions Tags that are statements requesting confirmation rather than
questions.
○ He thinks he’s so clever, doesn’t ➘ he?
○ She's such a nuisance, isn't ➘ she?
e) Exclamations
○ How nice of ➘ you!
○ That's just what I ➘ need!
2. Rising Intonation (➚)
(The pitch of the voice rises at the end of a sentence.) Rising intonation invites the
speaker to continue talking. It is normally used with yes/no questions, and question tags
that are real questions.
a) Yes/no Questions
(Questions that can be answered by 'yes' or 'no'.)
○ Do you like your new ➚ teacher?
○ Have you finished ➚ already?
b) Questions tags that show uncertainty and require an answer (real
questions).
○ We've met already, ➚ haven't we?
○ You like fish, ➚ don't you?
We sometimes use a combination of rising and falling intonation in the same sentence.
The combination is called Rise-Fall or Fall-Rise intonation.
3. Rise-Fall Intonation (➚➘)
(The intonation rises and then falls.)
We use rise-fall intonation for choices, lists, unfinished thoughts and conditional
sentences.
a) Choices (alternative questions.)
○ Are you having ➚ soup or ➘ salad?
○ Is John leaving on ➚ Thursday or ➘ Friday?
b) Lists (rising, rising, rising, falling)
Intonation falls on the last item to show that the list is finished.
○ We've got ➚ apples, pears, bananas and ➘ oranges
○ The sweater comes in ➚ blue, white, pink and ➘ black
c) Unfinished thoughts (partial statements)
In the responses to the following questions, the rise-fall intonation indicates
reservation.
The speaker hesitates to fully express his/her thoughts.
○ Do you like my new handbag? Well the ➚ leather is ➘ nice... ( but I don't
like it.)
○ What was the meal like? Hmm, the ➚ fish was ➘ good... (but the rest
wasn't great).
d) Conditional sentences
(The tone rises in the first clause and falls gradually in the second clause.)
○ If he ➚ calls, ask him to leave a ➘ message.
○ Unless he ➚ insists, I'm not going to ➘ go.
4. Fall-Rise Intonation (➘➚)
(The voice falls and rises usually within one word.)
The main function of fall-rise intonation is to show that the speaker is not certain of the
answer they are giving to a question, or is reluctant to reply (as opposed to a falling
tone used when there is no hesitation). It is also used in polite requests or suggestions.
a) Hesitation/reluctance:
○ So you'd be willing to confirm that? ...Well ... I ➘sup➚pose so ...
○ You didn't see him on Monday? I don't quite ➘re➚member ...
b) Politeness-Doubt-Uncertainty: (You are not sure what the answer might be.)
○ Perhaps we could ➘vis➚it the place?
○ Should we ➘cop➚y the list?
○ Do you think it's ➘al➚lowed?
○
Halliday’s Intonation (1967): A renowned phonetician and linguist defines intonation
as ‘the melody of speech’ or ‘intonation is the musical speech pattern’. He further
describes intonation in terms of tonality, tonicity and tone. He made a distinction
between the normal and special cases of intonation patterns by using the terms ‘neutral’
and ‘marked’ while discussing actual occurrences of tonality, tonicity and tone. He is of
the view that any description of a language is concerned with meaning and “all contrast
in meaning can be started either in grammar or in lexis. His framework of tonality, tone
and tonicity has been found to be very useful in the analysis of intonation.
Tonality: Tonality means ‘division of sentence into the tone groups’. Tonality also can be
called as tone group which means ‘a meaningful unit in its own right’ or ‘one unit of
information’. Let us discuss one sentence in detail which gives clear understanding of
tonality so that we can understand the importance of tonality in spoken/day to day
English.
● My cousin who lives in Goa has come home
Examples:
i. // My cousin, / who lives in Goa / has come home. //
ii. // My cousin who lives in Goa, / has come home. //
In the above sentences, the first one has three tone groups. Which means speaker has
only one brother and lives in Goa .Where as in the sentence with two tone groups the
speaker has more than one brother. One of them who live in Goa has come home. The
above two examples showed how tone group boundaries determine meaning.
Tone: The tone refers to the kinetic tone carried by the tonic syllable, or the nucleus, in
a tone group. Unlike static or level tones, it is a major change in pitch direction. An
accented syllable in a tone group is said on a level pitch, high or low, but the most
prominent syllable in it (i.e. the nucleus) is said with a changing pitch. This changing
pitch, or tone, is several different kinds, the most important of which are called fall, rise,
fall-rise, rise-fall and level tone. The fall, rise and level tone can be subdivided into high
fall and low fall, high rise and low rise and high level and low level respectively.
Tonicity: Tonicity means ‘location of the tonic action’ or ‘major change in the pitch
direction’.
Examples:
i. // I am going to Goa tomorrow.//
ii. // I am going to Goa to morrow. //
In the above examples, the first one has focused on Goa. Which means the speaker is
going to Goa not anywhere else. In example two, the location of the tonic accent is on
‘tomorrow’. The major pitch change is on the second syllable of ‘tomorrow’, that means
the speaker is going tomorrow not ‘day after’ or not ‘today’. Hence, the location of the
tonic syllable helps in conveying different meanings.
The Function of Intonation: Intonation does not play a mere decorative role, but
performs a linguistic function. The function or role of intonation can further be divided
into three functions they are; grammatical function, attitudinal function and accentual
function. Let us discuss one by one in order to understand clearly.
Grammatical Function: Intonation distinguishes different types of sentences.
Examples:
i. // Virat is arriving late. // (Statement)
ii. // Virat is arriving late? // (Question)
In the example one, the use of a falling tone makes it a statement. Whereas, in example
two, the rising tone turns it into a question. Similarly the examples below also change
their meaning because of their intonation.
Examples:
i. // Close the window. // (Command)
ii. // Close the window. // (Request)
Just because, the shift of intonation marks in these two examples the whole meaning is
changed. In the first example, the speaker said with a falling tone which means
command. In other words, second example said with rising tone which means polite.
The above examples explain clearly the role and importance of intonation in spoken
English.
Attitudinal Function: Attitude plays a prominent role in intonation. Particularly while we
are speaking to native speakers of English, one should be very careful about one’s
intonation. Let us see the following examples demonstrate the importance of attitudinal
function.
1. (a) // When can you come? // (Falling tone)
(b) // When can you come? // (Rising tone)
2. (a) // Dhoni is very good. // (Falling tone)
(b) // Dhoni is very good. // (Fall-Rise)
Example 1(a) when the speaker said with a falling tone, it is a normal question; it is
neither polite nor impolite. When it is said with a rising tone, on the other hand, as in 1
(b), it expresses politeness, even deference. In the second set of examples, 2(a), which
is said with a falling tone, is a plain statement, whereas in 2(b), which is said with a
falling – rising tone, expresses reservation on the part of the speaker. It means
something like ‘but you don’t know the other side of the picture’.
Accentual Function: It will focus mainly on the location of the tonic syllable. The
speaker can change the
meaning of a sentence by shifting the focus. The role of accentual function of intonation
can be shown by shifting the focus in the following sentence.
Examples:
Sunaina goes shopping in town every Sunday.
1. // Sunaina goes shopping in town every Sunday.//
In the above statement, the tonic syllable is on the first syllable of ‘every’. This can be
the answer to a question like, which Sunday does Sunaina go shopping to town? The
above statement with focus on ‘ev’ of ‘every’ indicates that Sunaina goes shopping each
and every Sunday.
2. // Sunaina goes shopping to town every Sunday.//
In the second example, tonic syllable is shifted to town. It can be the answer to a
question like which means where does Sunaina go shopping every Sunday? Sunaina
goes shopping to town not market, not school and not anywhere else.
3. // Sunaina goes shopping to town every Sunday. //
In third example the tonic syllable is on the first syllable of shopping this statement can
be the answer to a question like what does Sunaina do in town every Sunday? Sunaina
goes to town just to ‘shop’ but not to ‘visit’ or sightseeing or just time pass.
4. // Sunaina goes shopping to town every Sunday.//
In example four, the tonic syllable is on Sunaina. This statement can be the answer to a
question like, who goes to the town every Sunday. It is ‘Sunaina’ who goes to town, not
someone else. As we have seen in the above examples, the location of the tonic accent
will change the meaning. The same sentence can acquire a different meaning based
upon which syllable gets the focus. This shows how a speaker can exploit a sentence
by shifting the focus.