Unit7_section3 Phonology 3

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Unit 7 Section 3 2

Contents

1. Introduction

2. A Definition of Intonation

3. The Terms of Intonation

3.1. Pitch and Range

3.2 Tone and Movement

3.3 Tone Units

3.4. Onset and Tonic Syllables

3.5. Rhythm

4. Basic Rules and Patterns of Intonation

4.1. Grammatical

4.2. Functional and Attitudinal

4.3. Discoursal

5. Intonation and the Lingua Franca Core

6. Materials for Teaching Intonation

6.1. Widening Pitch Range

6.2. Focussing on Stress and Rhythm

6.3. Teaching Ideas to Show Rules/Patterns

6.3.1. Grammatical

6.3.2. Functional and Attitudinal

6.3.3. Discoursal7. Conclusion

8. Terminology Review

Reading

Appendices



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1. Introduction

Intonation is an area which many teachers feel insecure with. We have all paused

and wondered if an utterance is rising or falling, especially when put on the spot.

Intonation in particular, is one of the most challenging of phonological areas to

understand. As we shall see, there are different views as to how much detail we asteachers should go into in focusing on intonation - if any at all. Some theorists

believe the scale of exceptions and variables involved make this area unteachable,

whilst others believe it is quite possible to identify basic rules and patterns which we

can usefully show to students.

Task 1: Reflection (10mins)

Consider the following. If you can, discuss the points with a colleague.

a) What do you know about intonation?

b) What do you do in the classroom to teach intonation?

c) What aspect of intonation would you like to know more about?

d) What doubts do you have about teaching this area?

You will recall that so far in the course materials you have looked at the following:

• Phonology 1 Sounds

• Phonology 2 Features of Connected Speech

In Phonology 3 We add intonation, the third component of phonology. This is not to

say that intonation is third in importance. Intonation is, for example, closely linked to

grammar and even more closely linked to discourse. More to the point, many

people believe it has profound importance for attitude and meaning, and that it can

even be seen as the major carrier of meaning; it is a key component of sarcasm and

irony; if we leave a building without an umbrella and it is pouring with rain we might

jokingly say ‘Oh great!’ with a flat and unenthusiastic intonation; we might equally use

the same words ironically with a falsely enthusiastic intonation. The conveying of

extreme emotions depends very much on intonation. Intonation is even independent

of language itself. If we see something we like very much we might say no words at



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all, just ‘Mmmm!’. Everyday life is full of conversations in which intonation carries

messages of the utmost subtlety; the slightest hint of movement up or down in

intonation is powerful enough to alter meaning.

2. A Definition of Intonation

Thornbury describes intonation thus:

“Intonation has been called the ‘music’ of speech. It is the meaningful

use that speakers make of changes in their voice pitch. Intonation is a

suprasegmental feature of pronunciation, meaning that it is a property of

whole stretches of speech rather than of individual segments (such as

phonemes) […] Many theories have been advanced as to the function of

intonation, and the kinds of meaning it expresses. The main candidates

are:

• Grammatical functions, such as indicating the difference between

statements and questions;

• Attitudinal function, such as indicating interest, surprise, boredom

and so on […]

• Discoursal function, such as contrasting new information with

information that is already known, and hence shared between

speakersCurrent theories tend to favour the last of these […] It serves both to

separate the stream of speech into blocks of information […], and to mark

information within these blocks as being significant. In English, there is a

strong association between high pitch and new information”.

(Thornbury, S. 2006 An A-Z of ELT Macmillan, pp 110-111)

3. The Terms of IntonationIn this section we will define the main terms used in the description of intonation.

These are very useful terms to familiarise yourself with.



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TASK 2: Defining Terms (20mins)

Either alone, with a colleague or via the Discussion Forum, decide on rough

definitions for the following:

•

Pitch• Range

• Tone

• Movement

• Onset and tonic syllables

• Rhythm

• Low / high

• Rise / fall

You will be able to confirm your ideas as you read on.

3.1. Pitch and Range

Pitch means really what it means in the everyday phrases: ‘high-pitched’ and ‘low-

pitched’. (Remember that it has nothing to do with whether the voice is loud or soft,

fast or slow). Pitch is the relative level of speech sounds perceived by the listener.

Pitch range therefore is the distance between a speaker’s customary top and bottom

note (like the range of an opera singer, for example). Note that pitch range is not just

a feature of an individual’s speech. It can apply to languages too. Some languages

have a wide pitch range (English, for example, is notably wide as is Chinese); other

languages have a narrower pitch range (Spanish, or German for example). Those of

you who work in Spain or Italy will know that one of your hardest jobs is to help your

students widen their pitch range, especially into the upper reaches. Many people

might initially assume this should be the other way round but in fact it is English, not

Italian that is an “up and down” language. The first thing the English learner of Italian

has to do is to flatten his range, while the Italian learner of English needs to widen

hers. On the other hand any of you who have taught Brazilians (though not European

Portuguese speakers) will know that they share our extravagantly wide range.



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3.2. Tone and Movement

A tone is a movement of pitch: In any tone the pitch could be high, mid or low.

There are various tones:

• We can Rise

• We can Fall

• We can Fall-Rise

• We can Rise-Fall

The movement could be rise or fall or it could be rise-fall or fall-rise. So a tone

could be a high rise or a low rise or a high fall or a low fall; that is, it could fall from

a high position or from a low position. But that is not all; a tone could also be a rise-

fall or a fall-rise. We can also have low falls or low rises, high falls or high rises.

For more on this, see Wells, J. C. 2006 English Intonation CUP, Chapter 2.

Task 4: Analysing Chunks (15 mins)

Think of this dialogue. Two people in a bar notice a new barman:

A: I haven’t seen him before!

B: No, he must be new. He’s a bit slow, isn’t he?

A: Yes, but he’s probably still learning the roes.

1. Identify the most likely prominent (stressed) syllables.

2. How would you divide this exchange into tone units?

3. Which is the most likely tonic syllable in each utterance?

See Appendix 1.

3.3. Tone Units

Spoken language can be divided into tone units. These are chunks of language,

broken up rather like phrases in written English, for example:



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• If you finish quickly leave the room. (NB The lack of comma is intentional

here)

This can be chunked in 2 ways, depending on context.

a) If you finish / quickly leave the room

b) If you finish quickly / leave the room

Task 3: Identifying Tone Units

How many different ways can you think of for dividing the following into tone units?

a) The man and the woman in the red car had an accident on the way home.

b) Steve said the chef was brilliant.

See Appendix 2.

3.4. Onset and Tonic syllables

Gerald Kelly (in How to Teach Pronunciation, Longman, 2000, p3) reminds us that

utterances are made up of syllables.

• The stressed or prominent syllable where the main pitch movement in an

utterance takes place is the tonic syllable.

• The stressed syllable before the tonic syllable is called an onset syllable.

So in the following example:

She LIVES in LONDON:

a) LIVES is the onset syllable, which is conventionally shown in capitals.

b) LON is the tonic syllable which is conventionally shown in capitals and

underlined.



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In each tone unit, there is one tonic syllable and pitch movement. The example

above is one tone unit.

3.5 Rhythm

In the Section on features of connected speech, we noted that English tends to have

what is called a stress timed rhythm. In such a rhythm the stressed syllables are

particularly stressed and a varying number of unstressed syllables, (it could be one, it

could be as many as five or more) are packed into the intervals, with the resulting

distortions, compressions and weakening of the weak syllables. Rhythm (or speech

rhythm as the Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied

Linguistics terms it) consists of a pattern of pulses of air pressure. In English in

particular, the regularity of the rhythm of these is related to meaning: significant

words or syllables in the utterance are where these pulses appear. For example, in:

• No! I certainly won’t!

the words in bold are the ones where these pulses appear.

4. Basic Rules and Patterns of Intonation

So far we have established no rules. We have simply seen that various things

happen. But of course they do not happen by chance. Intonation has its own rules,

however nebulous they may appear. It can rise, fall, fall-rise, rise-fall and so on. But

what do these patterns correspond to? Well, there are various correspondences

between intonation and other language systems, most importantly:

• Grammatical

• Functional

• Attitudinal

• Discoursal

Of course, the rules we establish are not always reliable: Kelly says that the “links [of

intonation] with specific grammatical constructions or attitudes can only be loosely

defined” and furthermore, ”grammatical and attitudinal analyses of intonation can



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offer no hard and fast rules.” (Kelly, G. 2000 How to Teach Pronunciation,

Longman p87) (We will shortly find similar caution expressed by Joanne Kenworthy).

But recall that we are dealing with rules of language here rather than the rules of

physics. Language is not a rational system so we need not be dismayed by the idea

that rules are not always consistent.

We will now look at how intonation functions and what patterns it displays within each

language system.

4.1. Grammatical

Here (nonetheless!) are some such rules:

• Statements tend to go down: He lives in London.

• Imperatives tend to go down: Shut that door!

• Yes-No questions tend to go up: Is she there?

• Wh questions tend to go down: Where’s he gone?

• Question tags seeking confirmation tend to go down: It’s about 5.30, isn’t

it?

• Question tags that are only 50/50 sure tend to go up: er..the exam’s on

Tuesday, isn’t it!?…(or is it Wednesday?)

• Lists of items tend to rise on each of the items and until the last when the

intonation falls: Think of this sentence: “I went to Tesco and I got some

bread, cheese, pickle and some mineral water”. There is a fall on water.

Note, however, that if your list tails away unfinished there is not this final

fall. Indeed the options appear to be still open. For example, if I come to

your house and you offer me a drink you might say “There’s gin, whisky or

absinthe”. If to this list I replied “Have you got any Campari?”, it could be

considered rude. If, on the other hand, you had given me an unfinished list

with a rise on the final item, I could perhaps be permitted to order “off

menu”!

4.2. Functional and Attitudinal

As you know, functions are language acts: for example, inviting, advising and

complaining are all functions. The question is as to whether there are connections

that can be made between functions and intonation. The problem here is that



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functions do not in themselves express attitude. Intonation is an essential component

in functional exponents but it would be difficult to find a correlation between a

functional category and any one intonation pattern. After all the same function can be

fulfilled in a variety of ways. For example a parent might say to a teenager:

Look, just do your bloody homework!

Or

Isn’t it time you got round to doing that homework for tomorrow, darling?

So it is therefore not the function that intonation conveys but rather the nuances of

attitude. Indeed by and large intonation expresses the attitudinal aspect of a

particular functional exponent.

Here are some of the major attitude-intonation connections:

• Expressing surprise: fall-rise: did you?

• Expressing interest: rise

• Expressing enthusiasm: high fall

• Giving polite advice: fall at the end of utterance

• Criticising tactfully: low fall

Wells (op. cit.) provides a very thorough summary of attitude-intonation connections.

4.3. Discoursal

Recently, there has developed a more discoursal approach to intonation known as

Discourse Intonation (After Brazil, D., Coulthard, M. & Johns, C. 1980 Discourse

intonation in Language Teaching Longman; Brazil, D. 1997 The communicative

Value of Intonation in English CUP). At the time, this was a novel system

consisting of fewer and simpler constituents than previous analyses. It is also a more

coherent system, and encapsulates intonation succinctly.

Before looking at Discourse Intonation we perhaps need to remind ourselves of the

meaning of discourse. At its most simple level, discourse is any piece of language



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above the sentence level. Discourse, be it spoken or written, is held together by

markers indicating shifts of focus, references backwards and forwards and changes

of topic. We have simply to say the word ‘anyhow’ in conversation, for example, and

we are signing a change in gear, signalling, perhaps, that we are closing some issue

and moving on. And intonation also helps flag up these shifts. If we say:

‘Forget about John, what about….’

We are signalling that we are going to talk about someone else. If we say: ’Well,

apparently….’ we are probably marking the announcement of a bit of gossip… We

have already seen that an intonationally closed or open list of options (gin,

whisky…?) has significantly different meanings. Brazil, in The Communicative

Value of Intonation in English and earlier books, analysed the discoursal role of

intonation more methodically . His findings are usefully summarised in Kelly, G. 2000

How to Teach Pronunciation Longman, pp 101-102.

5. Intonation and the Lingua Franca Core

As we saw in the first section on Phonology previously in the course materials, there

has, recently, been a move towards a simplified phonological syllabus for learners.

Barbara Seidlhofer and Jennifer Jenkins, principally, advocate a form (or forms) of

English which allow for successful communication between non-native speakers

whilst not insisting on non-essential aspects of the language which do not affect

meaning. One of the features of phonology which is not necessary to spend a lot of

time perfecting is, Jenkins’ research has proven, intonation. For a start, the nuances

involved in intonation are myriad, and it would take an inordinate amount of

classroom time to familiarise students with all the shades of meaning it can carry, let

alone expect students to be able to reproduce them. Furthermore, it has been shown

that native speakers do not follow the “rules” of intonation explored earlier. With this

in mind, Jenkins says:

“… even experienced teachers regularly have problems in identifying pitch

direction and often find that when they attempt to model a pitch pattern, it

becomes unnatural or even wrong. And if teachers have problems when

pitch is brought to the conscious level, there does not seem to be much

hope for the success of their students in terms of the overt teaching of pitch.



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Jenkins, J. 2000 The Phonology of English as an International Language

Oxford University Press, p153

It would appear, then, that intonation is not to be viewed as essential if we teach

English as a Lingua Franca. What does take on more importance is nuclear stress,

however, which Jenkins suggests is key in carrying meaning. They bought a new

car is very different in meaning to They bought a new car , for instance.

6. Materials for Teaching Intonation

How do we teach it? Or perhaps we might broach the more radical question: Do we

need to teach it? Intonation is a tricky area so such a question is tempting! Joanne

Kenworthy in Teaching English Pronunciation (Longman, 1997), interestingly,

writes, under the heading Benign Neglect:

“There are various choices the teacher can make in the area of intonation.

One is to ignore it completely leaving students to their own intonational

devices. We know that a dominant learning strategy is ‘transfer from the

native language’ so learners will tend to use intonation in English in the

ways it is used in their native language. But will this be good or bad? Will the

transfer be positive?”

Perhaps the issue here is how native speaker-like does the student wish to be? If we

were training a student to pass as a native speaker in her work in espionage it would

indeed be important! On the other hand, realistically speaking, there is a limit to the

degree an adult learner of English can conform to native speaker intonation patterns

so a degree of compromise is essential.



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TASK 5: Factors to Consider (15 min)

After the above passage Kenworthy continues.

“Let’s look at the findings of some studies which have been donecomparing the use of intonation in different languages”.

What kind of findings do you think she cites? What intonation patterns do you note

as different between English and the language spoken by your learners?

When you have discussed this look at what follows:

Kenworthy, J. 1987 Teaching English Pronunciation Longman (page 85)

But of course there is much that we can do to help our students with intonation. I

would say that the first priorities are:

• Focus on Stress and Rhythm

• Widen Pitch Range

Both of these are essential to the recognisability of spoken English.

.

Task 6: Adapting Materials (15 mins)

How would you adapt the materials below for teaching purposes?

6.1. Widening Pitch Range

English is (we might say to the students) a language which “goes up and down a

great deal”. In order to help them widen their pitch range we could use the following

kind of exercise:

Haycraft, B. 1994 English Aloud 1 Heinemann (page 2)



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6.2. Focussing on Stress and rhythm

It is also essential to get the overall rhythm correct, above all by means of focusing

on the strong stresses. Consider the following exercise. It is designed for use in a

language laboratory, and there is a beat playing in the background as students areencouraged to repeat to the rhythm.

Haycraft, B. 1994 English Aloud 1 Heinemann (page 13 exercise 2)

6.3. Teaching Ideas to Show Rules/Patterns

Once we have achieved greater pitch range and greater focus on stress and rhythm

then we can move on to the categories we have already established: grammatical,

functional-attitudinal, discoursal.

6.3.1. Grammatical

As we have seen wh- questions tend to fall (though see below under Functional-

Attitudinal). This general tendency is the focus of the exercise below:

Bowler, B. & Cunningham, S. 1991 Headway Upper Intermediate Pronunciation

Oxford University Press (page 6)

6.3.2. Functional and Attitudinal

Here, for example, is an exercise on the intonation of Wh- questions. As you will

remember the most common pattern is a fall. However in more advanced level

materials, such as the exercise below, questions expressing surprise or disbelief go

up.


Oxford University Press (page 60)

6.3.3. Discoursal



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Exercises based on the Brazil discoursal analysis of intonation can be found in

Barbara Bradford Intonation in Context. As you will have seen one of the major

features determining whether intonation is a fall rise or a fall is whether the thing

being said is new information or not. For example, look at the following exercise:

Bradford, B. 1988 Intonation in Context Cambridge University Press (page 21)

7. Conclusion

Highlighting/identifying complex intonation patterns is difficult for learners and

teachers and it is tempting to neglect intonation. However, it is possible to identify

certain trends and these can have an important impact on communication.

So: Integrate a focus on intonation into your teaching of grammar, functions etc. Afocus on intonation can make revision of a structure interesting and challenging.

Exaggerate and encourage when modelling and practising intonation. Distinguish

between activities focusing on recognition and production. Keep it simple, a focus on

widening voice range will probably be more effective than putting lots of energy into

very specific intonation patterns. In focusing on a specific pattern, make the link

between form (the intonation) and meaning (its effect) clear. Concentrate on patterns

relevant to your learners. Focus on stress and rhythm together – intonation doesn’t

exist in a vacuum. Contrast can be extremely useful for awareness raising – both

between good and bad models, and with monolingual classes, between L1 and

English. Mimicry and shadowing can be useful productive practice techniques, it is

often difficult to hear/produce intonation naturally in isolation from a model.

8. Terminology Review

The terms below all refer to aspects of phonology. Can you identify what is beingdefined? There is an example provided.

Example. TONIC SYLLABLE

The tonic syllable is the most prominent syllable within an utterance.

1. PITCH

2. RANGE



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3. TONE UNIT (or TONE GROUP)

See Appendix 3 for suggested answers.



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Unit 7 Section 3 17

Reading

Essential Reading

Kelly, G. 2000 How to Teach Pronunciation Longman

Roach P 2001 Phonetics OUP

Recommended Additional Reading

Bradford, B. 1988 Intonation in Context Cambridge University Press

Brazil, D. 1997 The Communicative Value of Intonation in English Cambridge

Kenworthy, J. 1987 Teaching English Pronunciation Longman

Underhill, A. 1994 Sound Foundations HeinemannUniversity Press

Wells, J. C. 2006 English Intonation CUP

Classroom Teaching Materials

Bradford, B. 1988 Intonation in Context Cambridge University Press

Vaughan-Rees, M. 1994 Rhymes and Rhythm (Intermediate) Prentice Hall

O’Connor, J. D. & Fletcher, C. 1989 Sounds English Longman

Haycraft, B. 1994 English Aloud 1 & 2 Heinemann

Bowler, B. & Parminter, S. 1992 Headway Pre-Intermediate Pronunciation Oxford

University Press

Bowler, B. & Cunningham, S. 1990 Headway Intermediate Pronunciation Oxford

University Press


Oxford University Press



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Appendices

Appendix 1: Identifying Tone Units

Think of this sentence: two people in a bar notice a new barman: One says to the

other:

I haven’t seen HIM before!

NO/ he must be NEW/ He’s a bit SLOW/, ISN’T he?

YES/ but he’s PRObably /still learning the ROPES.

The most likely prominent (stressed) syllables are highlighted in bold.

Suggested tone units are denoted by /.

The most likely tonic syllables in each utterance are written in capital letters.

Note: You may have different answers. This is fine. The main aim of the Task is toget you thinking about intonation. Remember that the context, and the way you

interpret that context, will change the way you identify the features. If you find it

difficult to analyse sentences in isolation, look at examples in teaching materials

where a firm context has already been established.

Appendix 2: Analysing Chunks

a) The man and the woman in the red car had an accident on the way home.

There could be either 3 or 4 tone units here. It depends on how many people are in

the red car.

b) Steve said the chef was brilliant.

There could be 2 or 3 tone units here. It depends on who is brilliant.

Appendix 3: Terminology Review

1. PITCH is the level of the voice as perceived by the listener - either ‘high’,‘’mid’ or ‘low’.

2. RANGE (or VOICE RANGE) is the distance between the lowest pitch of alanguage and the highest. The range of English is very wide; otherlanguages less so.



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3. TONE UNIT (or TONE GROUP)a sub-0division of an utterance whichcontains a tonic syllable. They are usually represented by two slanted lines: //as in She got here // just after 8.00 o’clock. This utterance comprises twotone groups.

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