English Intonation In American English

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ENGLISH

INTONATION

Spring 2012

Ms Candice Quiñones

THE BASICS

• Intonation is a non-verbal method of expressing

various meanings, emotions or situations

• Intonation in American English uses the rise and fall of pitch to accomplish this

INTONATION AND STRUCTURE

 Intonation is very closely linked to grammar, or more specifically, sentence structure

 Because English has a fairly strictly fixed word order, it

is not an option to rearrange the words when we want to make a point about something.

 Therefore, it becomes necessary to shift our intonation

to highlight information that is key to our point.

SOME CLASSIC RULES

Sentence Level Rules

 Yes/no questions usually have a rising intonation at the end

 I.E Do you want some water?

 Information or “wh” questions usually have falling

intonation at the end

 I.E When will the package arrive?

 Declarative sentences also have falling intonation at the end

 I.E Intonation makes English more interesting.

SOME CLASSIC RULES

Other Rules

 When listing items, your pitch should rise at the end of the word for each item, but drop after the last one

 I.E I need a hammer, nails, wood, and some hinges.

 It is acceptable to leave your intonation high and let your voice trail off when you are still thinking but plan

to continue speaking

 I.E Let me see…

SOME CLASSIC RULES: THOUGHT

GROUPS

Every sentence can be divided up into a series of shorter

“thought groups”

 For Example:

“My brother bought me a new bicycle.”

Can be divided as:

My brother / bought me / a new bicycle

 Each of the divisions begins a new thought group

THOUGHT GROUPS & INTONATION

 In a sentence, depending on the focus and the type of sentence, you will determine which words in each

thought group to stress or emphasize by raising your

pitch

 However, please note, that at the end of each thought group, your intonation must end by falling

 Example:

My brother / bought me / a new bicycle.

[Translation: My brother (not my sister) bought me (not you) a new

bicycle (not a pony).]

*Exception: the end of the final thought group of yes/no questions

will rise.

NEW INFORMATION

 In standard English, the nouns usually carry the weight of a

sentence, when everything else is equal

 Although the verb carries important information, it does not receive the primary stress of a first-time noun

Ex Dogs eat bones

 After the information has been introduced, or is being repeated

through the use of pronouns, the intonation shifts over to the verb

 The intonation changes when a sentence changes from nouns to pronouns:

Ex Dogs eat bones

They eat them.

NEW INFORMATION: PHRASING

 In addition to the intonation of a statement, there is

another aspect of speech that indicates meaning

phrasing

 In a sentence, phrasing tells you where the speaker is

at the moment, where he is going, and if he is finished

or not

NOTICE THAT THE INTONATION STAYS ON THE

NOUNS

Statement

Stress the nouns and let the tone

fall at the end of the sentence.

Dogs eat bones.

First half, second half

The first half of a sentence

usually sets up the second half.

Dogs eat bones, but cats eat

fish.

Intro Phrase

When you want to preface your

statement, use a rising tone.

As we all know, dogs eat bones.

Listing

With more than one item in a list, all but the last one have a rising tone.

Dogs eat bones, kibbles and

meat.

Question

A regular question goes up (compared with a statement), but drops back down at the end.

Do dogs eat bones?

Repeated Question

A repeated, rhetorical or emotional question goes up, and then up again at the end.

Do dogs eat bones?!

 Notice how the intonation indicates contrast:

 Bob studies English.

 Bob studies English, but he doesn't use it

CONTRAST: DANGERS

 If a person consistently stresses "contrast words" as opposed to "new information words", he can end up sounding permanently argumentative*

Examples:

 I said it is good

 He doesn't like it Where are you going?

 *this is not a good thing

CONTRAST: DANGERS

 Mixed messages occur when modals or verbs of

perception are stressed you end up with the

opposite meaning!

Examples:

 People should exercise more, but

 They would help us, if

 It looks like Chanel, but at that price, it's a

knock-off

 He seems like a nice guy, but once you get to know

him

1 I didn't say he stole the money.

2 I didn't say he stole the money.

3 I didn't say he stole the money.

4 I didn't say he stole the money.

5 I didn't say he stole the money.

6 I didn't say he stole the money.

7 I didn't say he stole the money

Once you are clear on the intonation changes in the seven sentences, you can add context words to clarify the meaning:

1 I didn't say he stole the money, someone else said it.

2 I didn't say he stole the money, that's not true at all.

3 I didn't say he stole the money, I only suggested the

possibility.

4 I didn't say he stole the money, I think someone else took it.

5 I didn't say he stole the money, maybe he just borrowed it.

6 I didn't say he stole the money, but rather some other money.

7 I didn't say he stole the money, he may have taken some

jewelry.

 First is the pronunciation of the letter T

 When a T is at the beginning of a word (such as table, ten, take), it is

a clear sharp sound It is also clear in combination with certain other letters, (contract, contain, etc.)

 When T is in the middle of a word (or in an unstressed position), it turns into a softer D sound

 Betty bought a bit of better butter.

Beddy bada bida bedder budder

 It is this intonation/pronunciation shift that accounts for the difference between photography (phoTAgraphy) and photograph

(PHOdagraph)

MOOD AND PERSONALITY

 This determines if you will be considered charming or rude, confident or nervous, informed or unfamiliar

 An extremely important part of intonation is inside a one-syllable word

 We put in little sounds that are not in the written language, but that convey a great deal of

information in terms of who we are

MOOD AND PERSONALITY

 When we contrast two similar words, one ending with a voiced

consonant (d, z, g, v, b) and the other with an unvoiced

consonant (t, s, k, f, p) , you will hear the difference in the

preceding vowel, specifically in the length or duration of that

vowel

 In other words, words that end in a voiced consonant have a

doubled (longer) vowel sound.

 For example, if you say bit, it is a quick, sharp sound a

single musical note

 If you say bid, however, the word is stretched out, it has

two musical notes, the first one higher than the second,

bi-id

MOOD AND PERSONALITY

 How you stretch a word and manipulate your pitch when you say

it can also send various messages.

 Consider this video

MOOD AND PERSONALITY

 Sarcasm:

 The Three Little Pigs

 Sarcasm is another function of intonation, or rather the purposed lack of intonation to signal an opposite

meaning