Intonation

Intonation

What is intonation?
1. Intonation is the melody of speech
  1. When studying intonation we study:
    1. How the pitch of the voice rises and falls
    2. How speakers use te pitch variation to convey linguistic and pragmatic meaning
    3. It also involves the study of the rhythm of speech and the study of how the interplay of accented, stressed and unstressed syllables function as a framework onto which intonation patterns are attached
  2. If we had no intonation, our speech would be monotonous
    1. From the most "boring" to the most lively speaker, everybode has a good repertory of intonation patterns
Why study intonation?
1. It is important to learn to recognize and reproduce consonant and vowel sounds of English and the differences between them
2. English learners usually concentrate on the "sounds" of Language (segments)
3. Every English learner should be taught how to make different sounds and recognize the differences between them
  1. Most students know about stress but intonation (also called prosody or suprasegmentals) are mostly neglected
    1. Prosody or Suprasegmentals
      1. Pitch, loudness and speed
        Together the form the rythm of the speech
        Some prosodic characteristics are common in every language
        Every human society speaks faster when exited or slowly when thoughful
        TONE is another prosodic characteristic
        It´s realized mainly by the differences in the pitch of the voice
        As well as the rythm, intonation is similar in every language, but sometimes it may differ by the intonation patterns used
        This also might change the meaning of what is being said
    2. Stress is realized by the combination of loudness, pitch and duration
      1. English is a STRESS LANGUAGE
        Words (and utterances) can have different meaning depending on where the stress is placed
Almost any intonation pattern is possible in English
1. Different intonation patterns have different meanings
  1. This can be confusing, giving that depending on the intonation, what the speaker says may have a different meaning from what it was intended to say
The three Ts
1. Tonality
  1. The speaker has to decide the division of the spoken material into chunks which will have an intonation pattern asociated with it
    1. This "chunks" are known as intonation phrases or IPs
      1. Each IPs has it´s own intonation patter or "tune"
2. Tonicity
  1. It highlights the words considered important by the speaker
    1. To highlight the word, speaker accent it´s stressed syllable
      1. We add a pitch prominence to the rythmic prominence the syllable bears
3. Tone
  1. It´s the kind of pitch movement that the speaker will associate with the tonicity
    1. Pitch movement can be a fall or a rise
Functions of intonation
1. Attitudinal Function
  1. Express attitude or emotions
2. Grammatical Function
  1. Helps identifying grammatical structures on the speech (Demarcative Function)
  2. We do this by tonality
3. Focusing Function
  1. Helps to show what information in the utterance is new and what is already known
4. Cohesive Function
  1. Show how sequences of clauses and sentences go together in spoken discourse to contrast or to cohere
5. Psychological Function
  1. Intonation helps to organize speech into units that are easy to percieve, memorize and perform
6. Indexical Function
  1. Intonation act as a marker of personal or social identity
TRANSFER and INTERFERENCE
1. At some point English students will transfer their intonation habits from L1 to L2
  1. As some intonation elements are universal, this assumption may well be correct
    1. Depending on the learner´s L1 positive or negative transfer can happen
      1. Positive transfer takes place when learner´s L1 has similar intonation elements as in this case English language
        I.E: Dutch, German and English
      2. Negative transfer might take place when learner´s L1 does not have similar intonation elements to L2
        I.E: French and English
2. The assumtion that L1 and L2 have similarities lead to interference from L1 as inappropiate elements are transfered

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