Phonetics and phonology: 2. Prosody (revision) Intonation ... · 4/10/2016 KAMIYAMA Takeki Phonetics and Phonology 13 Tones •English is not a tone language (such as Cantonese: difference

Phonetics and phonology:2. Prosody (revision)

Part II: Intonation

KAMIYAMA [email protected]

Intonation?

4/10/2016 KAMIYAMA Takeki Phonetics and Phonology3

English

Functions of intonation


Functions of intonation

• Syntactic function: segmentation• Pragmatic function: old and new

information, focus, contrast, politeness, turntaking

• Modality: question/answer• Expressive functions:- attitudes (controlled)- emotions (spontaneous)


Components of intonation

• Tones: rise, fall, fall-rise, rise-fall, level …

• Tonicity: placement of the nucleus (nucleartone)

• Tonality: how to segment into intonationphrases?

Wells (2006)

1. Tones in monosyllabic utterances

Utterance: a continuous piece of speechbeginning and ending with a clear pause


Tones: articulatory characteristics

• The vocal folds may vibrate faster orslower.

• When the vocal folds are tense, theyvibrate fast (heard as a high pitch).

• When the vocal folds are lax, they vibrateslowly (heard as a low pitch).


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Tones

• English is not a tone language (such asCantonese: difference of tone leads tototally different words with differentdictionary meanings).


Cantonese: a tone language

• Six tons associés à chaque syllabe

“poésie” “histoire”“essayer” “temps” “ville” “fait”


Tones

• English is not a tone language (such asCantonese: difference of tone leads tototally different words).

• But utterances can be said with differenttones, with different pragmatic meanings(modality, politeness, attitudes, …).


Tones in monosyllabic utterances

• The utterance “yes”, “no” can be said withdifferent tones.

• Fall: yes no• Rise: yes no• Fall-rise: yes no• Rise-fall: yes no• Level: yes no

Roach (1991)


Fall


Rise


Fall-rise


Rise-fall


Level

2. Some basic meanings of tones

With monosyllabic tone units “yes” and “no”


Fall• Fall: yes no

• Basic meaning of fall: ‘major information’ or‘primary information’.

• The speaker declares that the proposition isnow part of the shared knowledge.

Hearer’s knowledge

Speaker’s knowledge

Shared knowledge


Fall• Fall: yes no

• The question is now answered and there isnothing more to be said.

• The fall could be said to give an impressionof “finality”.


Rise• Rise: yes no

• 1. ‘incomplete information’, ‘minorinformation’, ‘secondary information’.

• 2. The speaker leaves it to the hearer todecide whether the proposition is part of theshared knowledge.



Shared knowledge


Rise• Rise: yes no

• This tone conveys an impression thatsomething more is to follow:

• A (wishing to attract B’s attention): Excuse me.• B: yes(B’s reply is, perhaps, equivalent to ‘what do you want?’)

• A: Do you know John Smith?• B: yes / yes


Rise• A: Do you know John Smith?• B: yes-> B would invite A to continue with what she

intends to say about John Smith afterestablishing that B knows him.

• A: Do you know John Smith?• B: yes-> yes would give a feeling of “finality”, of “end

of conversation”; if A did have something to sayabout John Smith, the response with a fall wouldmake it difficult for A to continue. Roach (1991) 4/10/2016 KAMIYAMA Takeki Phonetics and Phonology

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Rise• A: Have you seen Ann?• B: no-> B implies quite clearly that he has no interest in

continuing with that topic of conversation.

• A: Have you seen Ann?• B: no-> The rising no would be an invitation to A to

explain why she is looking for Ann, or why shedoes not know where she is.

Roach (1991)


Rise• A question that implies readiness to present

some new information:

• A: Do you know what the longest balloon flightwas?

• B: no-> B is inviting A to tell him.

• A: Do you know what the longest balloon flightwas?

• B: no-> B does not know and is not expecting to be told.

Roach (1991) 4/10/2016 KAMIYAMA Takeki Phonetics and Phonology28

Rise• Similar “invitations to continue” can be found in

someone’s response to a series of instructions ordirections:

• A: You start off on the ring road…• B: yes• A: turn left at the first roundabout…• B: yes• A: and ours is the third house on the left.

• Whatever B replies to this last utterance of A, itwould be most unlikely to be yes again, sinceA has clearly finished her instructions and itwould be pointless to “prompt” her to continue.

Roach (1991)


Fall-rise• Fall-rise: yes no

• 1. ‘limited agreement’, ‘response withreservations’ (implication: “yes, but …”).

• 2. The speaker reminds the hearer that theproposition is already part of the sharedknowledge.



Shared knowledge



• ‘limited agreement’, ‘response withreservations’ (implication: “yes, but …”).

• A: I’ve heard that it’s a good school.• B: yes

• B would not completely agree with what Asaid, and A would probably expect B to go onto explain why he was reluctant to agree.

Roach (1991)



• ‘limited agreement’, ‘response withreservations’ (implication: “yes, but …”).

• A: It’s not really an expensive record, is it?• B: no

• no indicates that he would not completelyagree with A.


Fall-rise

• Fall-rise: yes no

• Fall-rise in such contexts almost alwaysindicates both:- something “given” or “conceded”

and at the same time- some “reservation” or “hesitation”.

Roach (1991)


Rise-fall• Rise-fall: yes no

• Rise-fall is used to convey strong feelings ofapproval, disapproval or surprise.

• A: You wouldn’t do an awful thing like that,would you?

• B: no

• What if B replies: no ?


Rise-fall• Rise-fall: yes no• Rise-fall is used to convey strong feelings of

approval, disapproval or surprise.

• A: Isn’t the view lovely!• B: yes

• A: I think you said it was the best so far.• B: yes

Roach (1991)


Level• Level: yes no

• Level tone conveys (on single-syllableutterances) a feeling of saying somethingroutine, uninteresting or boring.

• A teacher calling the names of pupils from aregister often do so using a level tone oneach name.

• The pupils would be likely to respond withyes when their name was called.


Level• Level: yes no

• Similarly, if one is being asked a series ofroutine questions for some purpose such asapplying for an insurance policy, one might replyto each question of a series like:

• Have you ever been in prison? - no• Do you suffer from any serious illness? - no• Is your eyesight defective? - no

etc.

Roach (1991)


Tones

• We have looked at some basic meaningsof tones in monosyllabic utterances.

• Each tone may have many moremeanings.

• The examples studied here do not showthe only possible choices of tone.


Exercise• Mark the tone used in the recording.

3. Structure of longer utterances


Components

• Tones: rise, fall, fall-rise, rise-fall, level …

• Tonicity: placement of the nucleus (nucleartone)

• Tonality: how to segment into intonationphrases?

Wells (2006)


Nucleus and intonation phrase

• Not all syllables bear a tone.

• Only nucleus (tonic syllable) bears anuclear tone.

• There is a nucleus in each intonationphrase (tone unit).

3.1. Structure of intonation phrase


Nucleus

• The nucleus is an obligatory component.

• It indicates the end of the focused part ofthe intonation phrase.

• The pitch change or pitch movement forthe nuclear tone (fall, rise, etc.) begins.


Nucleus

• In monosyllabic utterances, the onlysyllable (yes, no) is the nucleus.

• Fall: yes no• Rise: yes no• Fall-rise: yes no• Rise-fall: yes no• Level: yes no

Roach (1991)


Nucleus: pitch movement in longer utterances

Wells (2006)

//ddɪɪkk//


Nucleus: pitch movement in longer utterances

Wells (2006)

//ddɪɪkk//


Head• those• give me those

• those is the nucleus in the two utterances.• In the second, the rest is called the head.• A head is all that part of an intonation phrase

that extends from the first stressed syllableup to (but not including) the nucleus.

Roach (1991)4/10/2016 KAMIYAMA Takeki Phonetics and Phonology

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Head• those

• give me those

• Billy called to give me those

• in an hour

Nucleus

Nucleus

Nucleus

Head

Head

Nucleus

-> no head

Roach (1991)


Pre-head

• in an hour

• The pre-head is composed of all theunstressed syllables in an intonation phrasepreceding the first stressed syllable.

Nucleus


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Pre-head: two cases• in an hour

• i) When there is no head (i.e. no stressedsyllable precedes the nucleus).

• in a little less than an hour

• ii) When there is a head.

NucleusPre-head

NucleusHeadPre-head

Roach (1991)


Tail• look at it

• It often happens that some syllables followthe nucleus.

• Any syllables between the nucleus and theend of the intonation phrase are called thetail.

Nucleus Tail


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Structure of intonation phrase:summary

• (prehead) (head) nucleus (tail)

NucleusNucleus(Head)(Pre-head) (Tail)


• We’re planning to fly to Italy

• It was re markably good

Structure of intonation phrase:summary

• Identify and locate the components:

NucleusNucleus(Head)(Pre-head) (Tail)

NucleusHeadPre-head Tail

NucleusHeadPre-head

Wells (2006)

3.2. Pitch patterns in nucleus and tail


Fall

• John

• Mary

• Jonathan

• Compare (fr):• Jean

• Marie

• Jonathan


Rise

• John

• Mary

• Jonathan


• Marie

• Jonathan


Fall-rise

• John

• Mary

• Jonathan


• Marie

• Jonathan


Fall-rise: some more examples

• true

• nearly

• happily

• today

• I think so

• regrettably

Wells (2006)

Phonetics and phonology: 2. Prosody (revision) Intonation ... · 4/10/2016 KAMIYAMA Takeki Phonetics and Phonology 13 Tones •English is not a tone language (such as Cantonese: difference

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