English intonation: errors made by third year students at English department, Chu Van An University

LIST OF TABLES Table 01: Rules of Neutral and Marked Tonality Table 02: Stressed and Unstressed Words Table 03: Structure of Intonation Table 04: Instruments Table 05: Types of intonatio

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES

- -

PHAN THỊ NGỌC ANH

ENGLISH INTONATION: ERRORS MADE BY THIRD YEAR

STUDENTS AT ENGLISH DEPARTMENT,

CHU VAN AN UNIVERSITY

MA Combined Programmed Thesis

Hanoi, 2012

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES

- -

PHAN THỊ NGỌC ANH

ENGLISH INTONATION: ERRORS MADE BY THIRD YEAR

STUDENTS AT ENGLISH DEPARTMENT,

CHU VAN AN UNIVERSITY

(Ngữ Điệu Tiếng Anh: Những Lỗi Thường Gặp Của Sinh Viên Năm Thứ Ba, Khoa Tiếng Anh, Trường Đại Học Chu Văn An)

MA Combined Programmed Thesis

Field : English Linguistics

Supervisor : Assoc Prof Dr VÕ ĐẠI QUANG

Hanoi, 2012

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i

ABSTRACT ii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iii

LIST OF TABLES viii

LIST OF CHARTS ix

ABBREVIATION AND SYMBOLS IN THE STUDY x

PART A INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale of the study 1

2 Scope of the study 2

3 Aims and objectives of the study 2

3.1 Aims of the study 2

3.2 Objectives of the study 2

4 Research Questions 2

5 Significance of the study 3

6 Design of the study 3

PART B DEVELOPMENT 5

CHAPTER 1 LITERATURE REVIEW 5

1.1 Previous works related to the topic of the study 5

1.2 English intonation 6

1.2.1 Definitions of intonation 6

1.2.2 Systems of intonation 7

1.2.2.1 Tonality 8

1.2.2.2 Tonicity 8

1.2.2.3 Tone 9

1.2.3 Structure of intonation 9

1.2.4 Functions of intonation 11

1.2.4.1 Informative function 11

1.2.4.2 Communicative function 12

1.2.4.3 Attitudinal function 13

1.2.4.4 Grammatical function 13

1.2.5 Intonation-related errors 14

1.3 English Tonality 15

1.3.1 Nature of tonality 15

1.3.2 Identification of tonality 15

1.3.2.1 Neutral tonality 15

1.3.2.2 Marked tonality 16

1.3.3 Components of tonality 26

1.4 Error and error analysis 31

1.4.1 Definition of error 31

1.4.2 Error Analysis 31

1.4.2.1 Identification of errors 32

1.4.2.2 Description of errors 32

1.4.2.3 Explanation of errors (Tracing errors to their sources) 32

1.4.2.3.1 Interlingual Errors 33

1.4.2.3.2 Intralingual Errors 33

1.5 Summary of the chapter 35

CHAPTER 2 METHODOLOGY 36

2.1 Research Setting 36

2.2 Subjects 36

2.3 Speech material 37

2.4 Instruments 38

2.4.1 The intonation tasks 39

2.4.1.1 The perception task 39

2.4.1.2 The production task 39

2.4.2 The academic results 39

2.4.3 Survey questionnaire 40

2.4.3.1 The questionnaire items adopted in the present study 40

2.4.3.2 Structure of the survey questionnaire 41

2.5 Data Collection and Data Analysis Procedure 41

2.6 Data Analysis 43

2.6.1 Data obtained via the intonation tasks 43

2.6.2 Data obtained via the academic results 43

2.6.3 Data obtained via the survey questionnaire 44

2.7 Summary of the chapter 44

CHAPTER 3 DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS 45

3.1 Research Question 1 – Error Analysis 46

3.1.1 Research question 1.1 – Error identification and description 46

3.1.1.1 Errors of joining more than one intonation unit into one unit 48

3.1.1.1.1 Errors of joining closely grammatically connected units (Jc) 49

3.1.1.1.2 Errors of joining short units (Js) 49

3.1.1.2 Errors of splitting one intonation unit into more than one unit 50

3.1.1.2.1 Splitting marked tonality at clause boundary without comma (Sbwc) 50

3.1.1.2.2 Splitting marked tonality at clause boundary with comma (Sbc) 51

3.1.1.2.3 Splitting tonality after the stressed in the head (Shs) 51

3.1.1.2.4 Splitting tonality after the nucleus (Sn) 52

3.1.1.2.5 Splitting tonality after the unstressed in the head (Shu) 53 3.1.1.2.6 Splitting tonality in and after the pre-head (Sp) 53

3.1.1.2.7 Splitting tonality at unstressed syllables of tail (Stu) 54

3.1.1.2.8 Splitting tonality after direct objects (So) 54

3.1.1.2.9 Splitting tonality after subjects (Ss) 55

3.1.1.2.10 Splitting tonality at the changing point in the dive-Sd 56 3.1.2 Research Question 1.2 – Error Explanation 56

3.1.2.1 Interlingual errors 57

3.1.2.2 Intralingual errors 58

3.1.2.2.1 Over-generalization 59

3.1.2.2.2 Ignorance of rule restrictions 59

3.1.2.2.3 Incomplete application of rules 60

3.2 Research Question 2: Correlation Investigation 62

3.2.1 Research Question 2.1 Perceptive ability and productive ability 62

3.2.1.1 Better scores in perception task than in production task 63

3.2.1.2 The smaller number and the less frequency of errors in the perception task than in the production task 65

3.2.1.3 The fewer number of students making different types of errors in perceptive task than in productive task 67

3.2.2 Research Question 2.2 Language proficiency and tonality competence 69

3.2.2.1 The bigger number of errors committed by the mid-ability group compared to the higher ability group 70

3.2.2.2 The bigger number of students in mid-ability group than in high-ability group committed different types of errors 71

3.3 Research question 3 – Attitude and Behavior Assessment 74

3.3.1 Students‟ beliefs and attitudes towards learning English intonation 74

3.3.2 Students‟ reactions to their problems 77

3.4 Summary of the findings 78

PART C CONCLUSION 79

1 Recapitulation 79

2 Concluding remarks 80

2.1 Concluding remarks on objective 1 80

2.2 Concluding remarks on objective 2 80

2.3 Concluding remarks on objective 3 81

2.4 Concluding remarks on objective 4 81

2.5 Concluding remarks on objective 5 81

3 Recommendations 82

4 Suggestions for further study 84

REFERENCES I APPENDIX IV

APPENDIX 1 PERCEPTION TASK IV APPENDIX 2 PRODUCTION TASK V APPENDIX 3 KEYS TO INTONATION TASKS VI APPENDIX 4 PHONETIC TRANSCRITION OF INTONATION TASK VII APPENDIX 5 SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE VIII APPENDIX 6 ACADEMIC RESULTS X APPENDIX 7 APPROACHES TO TEACH INTONATION XI APPENDIX 8 TECHNIQUES TO TEACH INTONATION XIII APPENDIX 9 PRINCIPLES TO TEACH INTONATION XV APPENDIX 10 TEACHERS‟ ROLES IN INTONATION TEACHING XVI APPENDIX 11 EXERCISES AND ACTIVITIES FOR PRACTICE XVIII

LIST OF TABLES

Table 01: Rules of Neutral and Marked Tonality

Table 02: Stressed and Unstressed Words

Table 03: Structure of Intonation

Table 04: Instruments

Table 05: Types of intonation units

Table 06: Types of errors made in two intonation tasks

Table 07: Probable Causes to Tonality Errors

Table 08: The Allocation of Marks

Table 09: The Difference in the Scores of Intonation Tasks

Table 10: Frequency of Errors in Perception and Production Task

Table 11: The Allocation of Errors

Table 12: Types of Errors Made in Two Tasks

Table 13: The Number of Errors Committed by Members of Ability Groups

Table 14: The Number of Students Made Errors by Two Ability Groups

LIST OF CHARTS

Chart 01: Proportion of joining and splitting errors

Chart 02: Proportion of error types

Chart 03: Number of students making errors from the most to the least

frequent in perception task

Chart 04: Number of students making errors from the most to the least

frequent in production task

Chart 05: The number of students made different types of errors in two

groups (According to Mid ability group)

Chart 06: The number of students made different types of errors in two

groups (According to High ability group)

ABBREVIATION AND SYMBOLS IN THE STUDY

- P1: Participant 1, test of twenty participants will be coded from P1 to P20

- M1-M12: twelve members of mid ability group

- H1-H8: eight members of high ability group

- Jc: Joining closely grammatically connected units

- Js: Joining nearby short units

- Sbc: Splitting marked tonality consisted of two clauses with a comma in between

- Sbwc: Splitting marked tonality consisted of two clauses without a comma in between

- Sp: Splitting tone units in and after the pre-head

- Shu: Splitting tone units at the place of unstressed syllables in the head

- Sn: Splitting tone units after the nucleus

- Shs: Splitting tone units at the place of stressed syllables in the head

- Ss: Splitting tone units after subjects

- So: Splitting tone units after objects

- Sd: Splitting tone units in between of the dive

- Stu: Splitting tone units in the tail

- Tone unit boundary: // or / (for closely connected units)

E.g.: // The bus stopped // we‟d got to the terminus //

E.g.: //Do you really mean to tell me / you haven‟t got a suit since then? //

PART A INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the study

Intonation is a helpful tool to achieve effective communication Speech without intonation features is no more than a machine output Therefore, a proficiency in intonation is a requirement for non-native learners of English English intonation operates a trio of systems including tonality (the choice of intonation unit), tonicity (the choice of the tonic syllable or the nucleus) and tone (the choice of pitch movement on the nucleus) Each subsystem itself, however, is a fairly complicated phenomenon It is why when teaching and learning English, both Vietnamese teachers and students pay more attention to grammar, vocabulary, individual sounds; and pay very little attention to intonation This prevents learners from comprehending spoken English Neglect of intonation in the past, nonetheless, is now no excuse for neglect in the present

For students at English Department, Chu Van An University, who will become translators

or interpreters of English in the near future, knowledge of English intonation is extremely essential Especially, those who intend to work as interpreters are obliged to work mostly with spoken English If they are not good at intonation, they are unable to interpret meaning implied under what the native speakers say Likewise, they may cause some misunderstanding due to wrong use of intonation From the teaching reality, I have realized that my students encounter no few problems in speaking English intonationally They even find it difficult to identify correct intonation units, more difficult to determine the nucleus among stress syllables in an intonation unit, and much more difficult to put a right pitch movement on the nucleus As a result, their speech is either jerky or monotonous or both Apart from that, I myself have a couple of difficulties with English intonation I am aware

of the importance of English intonation However, the amount of knowledge gained before

my post graduate course is not sufficient for me to feel confident about communicating in English Especially, I cannot escape from feeling that my speech is not natural

With a hope that I can make some contributions to solving my own problems and my

students‟ difficulties in communicating in English I choose the study on “English

Intonation: Errors made by Third Year Students at English Department, Chu Van

An University.”

2 Scope of the study

Intonation is a vast topic in English teaching and learning Thus, it is too ambitious to cover so many aspects of English intonation in the study That is the reason why the area investigated in this thesis is the units of intonation - tonality

Furthermore, second language learners are various and different in the ways of making errors However, due to limited size and time strain, subjects of the study concentrates on a limited number of 20 third year English majors of Chu Van An University

3 Aims and objectives of the study

3.1 Aims of the study

The ultimate aim of this thesis is, to the possible extent within the findings established, to provide an account of the errors commonly committed by third year students at Chu Van

An University and on this basis, to facilitate the mentioned students in improving English intonation unit usage

3.2 Objectives of the study

 Detect common errors in relation to English intonation units made by third year

English majors of Chu Van An University;

 Find out the causes of these errors;

 Investigate the relationship between participants‟ perceptive and productive ability;

 Identify the correlation between third year students‟ language proficiency and their

ability of dividing speech into word groups;

 Explore learners‟ beliefs and attitudes towards learning English intonation as well

as their solutions to the problems they made with English intonation units

4 Research Questions

The specific objectives of the study can be elaborated into the following groups of research questions:

1 Error analysis

1.1 What are the common errors in dividing speech into tone units at the perception and production stage encountered by third year majors of English Department, Chu Van An University?

1.2 What are factors that lead to errors of English tonality?

3 Attitude and behavior assessment

3.1What are students‟ beliefs and attitudes towards English intonation learning? 3.2 What do students do to resolve their own difficulties in learning intonation?

5 Significance of the study

The study is significant for the following reasons:

(1) The study is implemented to investigate students‟ errors when dividing utterances into minor word groups – tonality Therefore, it is hereby expected that the study contributes to raising students‟ awareness of perceiving and producing intonation units

(2) It will help teachers to predict the learners‟ difficulties in learning intonation unit and be aware of the problems so that they will have effective methods to deliver their lectures on the issue in a way that it minimizes the tonality errors (3) More importantly, it offers some possible suggestions to solve the problems and the pedagogical implications for further applications of teaching English intonation in general and English intonation unit in particular in the classroom

6 Design of the study

Alongside with the References and Appendices, the thesis is structured into three main parts, namely Introduction, Development, and Conclusion The Development part consists

of three chapters The brief overviews of each part and chapter are as follows:

The Introduction offers the rationale for choosing the topic, the scope, the aims, the

objectives, the research questions, the significance as well as the design of the study

The Development consists of three chapters in which

Chapter 1 - Literature Review - addresses the literature review of previous studies and

the theoretical issues related to English intonation Within the chapter, nature, system, structure and functions of intonation are discussed Then one of the intonation systems namely tonality system is specifically addressed After that is coming to a section of error analysis

Chapter 2 - Methodology - presents an analytical framework used in the research to

reveal problems encountered by students including the instruments to collect data, the procedures for data collection as well as data analysis applied in the study

Chapter 3 - Data Analysis and Findings – is the most important part of the study in

which the data collected from such instruments as the perception and production tasks, the academic result, and the questionnaire are analyzed one after another The findings from the data collected are presented and discussed in this chapter

The third part of the study - the Conclusion represents the review of the study with the

summary of the thesis, concluding remarks, recommendations, and suggestions for further study

PART B DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1 LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Previous works related to the topic of the study

As far as the researcher concerns, not many studies on intonation errors are found There are a few studies on intonation involving Arabic and Japanese language as follow:

Binghadeer (2008) investigated Saudi EFL learners‟ pitch range and compared it to that of native speakers The results revealed that non-native speakers differed significantly from native speakers in the mean of the pitch range for utterances with falling intonation However, the study is the contrastive analysis of English with Arabic language, not with Vietnamese Moreover, pitch is just a component of intonation

Ohata (2004) examined some of the characteristic phonological differences between Japanese and English Comparing segmental and supra-segmental aspects of both languages, this study also discusses several problematic areas of pronunciation for Japanese learners of English including intonation Nonetheless, the problems made by Japanese learners of English are surely not the same as those encountered by Vietnamese ones

The article “Teaching English intonation to EFL/ ESL Students” by Mehmet Celik, Hacettepe University, Turkey proposed a framework of English intonation as a second or foreign language to non-native speakers of English It is proposed that a framework of English intonation should include four major intonational features including rhythm units, stress, tones, and pitch range It also emphasizes the need to teach intonational features in meaningful contexts with realistic language and point out the need to consider intonation not as a luxury but a necessity for an efficient interchange in English Although this framework may approve to be useful and workable for practitioners in the field of ESL/ EFL, it seems to be fairly general and theoretical

In Vietnam, it seems that the issues related to English intonation attract little attention of authors and scholars In one of the scare books of intonation in English and Vietnamese entitled “English intonation by the Vietnamese” (Ngữ điệu tiếng Anh ở người Việt) by Dr Nguyen Huy Ky (2006), a number of clear descriptive demonstrations on intonation made

by the Vietnamese are shown in specific situations The author points out series of errors

relating to English intonation contours, subjective and objective factors leading to the errors and solutions to limit errors committed as well The book is a valuable source for Vietnamese learners who wish to learn or to do research on English intonation contours made by Vietnamese learners

Beside the book, the researcher found few studies on common errors related to English Intonation made by Vietnamese learners There are studies on intonation of yes-no questions, or studies on separated elements of intonation The following is the summary of their findings

Tam Dao Thi (2007) dealt with intonation in terms of functions and form with contrastive analysis of three main components namely rhythm, stress and pitch Nonetheless, the study focuses on the similarity and differences in intonation of English and Vietnamese Yes-no questions only The study claimed that those differences surely cause problems to Vietnamese learners of English, but the researcher find no information about what the problems are

In Nga Vu Thi‟s paper (2004) pitch – a component of intonation – has been considered one

of modality markers in English Wh-question However, no information about the relation between pitch and errors made by Vietnamese students are found

Actually, there have had few studies related to tonality errors in intonation learning, there, obviously, do exist a large gap in taking a step into creating a picture of intonation error analysis Intonation is important but complicated However, it is systematic, too In order

to become competent in intonation, it is the first system of intonation – tonality - that is elementary to be acquired by students and that tonality errors are essential to be analyzed For that reason, it is necessary to have an overview of English intonation in general and in English tonality in particular

1.2 English Intonation

1.2.1 Definitions of intonation

Different linguists have different definitions for intonation According to Paul Tench (1996: 1) “intonation refers to the rise and the fall of the pitch of voice in spoken language” This definition to a certain extent shares the same content with Gerald Kelly‟s definition He (2000: 86) emphasizes that “the term intonation refers to the way the voice

goes up and down in pitch when we are speaking” From the words of these two authors, it can be seen that intonation is closely associated with speech and a feature of the spoken language Despite being represented by two different terms which are “the rise and the fall

of the pitch” in Tench‟s definition and “the way the voice goes up and down in pitch” in Kelly‟s definition, pitch variation is a key element to identify intonation The terms “pitch variation” is also found with intonation in other definitions from other authors For example, Peter Roach (2001: 33) considers that “intonation is the melody of speech, and is

to be analyzed in terms of variations in pitch” or O‟ Connor (1973: 1) states that “when we talk about English intonation we mean the pitch patterns of spoken English, the speech tunes or melodies , the musical features of English”

In the present study, the researcher adopts the definition from the Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics (1992: 190) that is

“When speaking, people generally raise and lower the pitch of their voice, forming pitch

patterns They also give some syllables in their utterances a greater degree of loudness and change their speech rhythm These phenomena are called intonation Intonation does not happen at random but has definite patterns which can be analyzed according to their structure and functions Intonation is used to carry information over and above which is expressed by the words in the sentence”

From the definition, it can be seen that pitch variations, stress, and speech rhythm seem to

be closely related to intonation That is to say, they are three key components forming three sysytem of English intonation nanely tone, tonicity, and tonallity Additionnally, the definition reveals that English iontonation has its own structure and functions, and one function is to carry information In the following sections, systems, structure, and functions

of English intonation are clearly discussed

1.2.2 Systems of intonation

Opposite to the idea that intonation is so subjective, in the view of Tench (1991:84)

“Intonation is admittedly personal, but it is also conventional” The statement is clearly demonstrated by the fact that intonation is systematic, and the systems can be described There are three primary subsystems of intonation, namely, tonality, tonicity and tone Nonetheless, due to the focus of the present thesis, system of tonality is gone into more details in a separated part

1.2.2.1 Tonality

Paul Tench (1996:31) considers tonality as the system in intonation that divides spoken discourse into its separate individual intonation units, each of which represents one unit of information Spoken discourse may be only one word, even only one syllable, a sentence

or the whole text It may consist of only one message, one or more than one piece of information which is conveyed by an intonation unit Thus, if a spoken discourse consists

of only one syllable, one word, or represents one message, there is no problem Otherwise, learners of English will face with difficulties in identifying intonation units which correctly represent the speaker‟s management of the organization of information

1.2.2.2 Tonicity

It is generally the case that what informs the hearers most will receive the most prominent stress – “tonic stress” Moreover, stress clung to syllable Thus, the syllable receive the

tonic stress is called “tonic syllable”, “nucleus”, or “tonicity”

System of tonicity is the range of choices in the position that the tonic syllable can have in

a given intonation units Tonicity or tonic syllable is the focal point of intonation, the heart

of an intonation unit, so it is the tonic syllable that is the compulsory part of each intonation unit

Tonic syllable is characterized by phonetic prominence in intonation units Of the stressed syllables in any given intonation units, the tonic syllable is made most prominent by a combination of pitch, volume and length As tonic represents the focus of each unit of information, when the tonic is changed, so is the focus of information Therefore, if the speaker does not reach the tonic syllable in any given intonation unit, then we do not have enough clues to decide on the structure and the focus of information in that particular part

of the message

Consider the following, in which the contrastive nucleus is capitalized and underlined:

(1): SHE played the piano yesterday (It was her, not him or anyone else.)

(2): She PLAYED the piano yesterday (She only played not harmed.)

(3): She played the PIANO yesterday (It was the piano not violin.)

(4): She played the piano YESTERDAY (It was yesterday not today.)

1.2.2.3 Tone

Of all the aspects that intonation covers, tone plays a vital role English is considered as intonation language, that is, the language that does not use tone for a change in lexical meaning but for intonation meanings In English, tones can only be identified on a small number of particular prominent syllables Therefore, English tone has been defined as “the contrastive pitch movement on the tonic syllables” (Tench, 1996: 73) or “the main movements of pitch within a tone unit” (Kelly, 2000: 89)

Each linguist has their own classifications of English tones Crystal (1969) recognizes four basic tones (fall, rise, rise-fall, and fall-rise) Brazil (1997) and Roach (1983) identify five tones (fall, rise, rise-fall, fall-rise, and level) whereas O'Connor and Arnold (1973) distinguish seven tones (high-fall, low-fall, high-rise, low-rise, fail-rise, rise-fall, and mid-level) In the words of Tench (1996) it appears that three primary tones can be efficiently taught to non-native speakers of English, namely, falling, rising, and falling-rising tone Celik (2001) adds one more tone, the high rise tone

1.2.3 Structure of intonation

I have an idea to begin this section with a very familiar saying (1) “A ′dog is a ′man‟s ′best

′friend.” It is most likely to be said with the word “friend” being most prominent and the pitch of the voice falling to a low level on that word With these features, the word “friend”

is said to be tonic syllable or nucleus The part from “a” up to “best” is considered the “pre tonic segment” which can be divided into the “pre-head” with the unstressed word “a” and the “head” which begins with the first stressed syllable “dog” up to the word right before the nucleus “best”

The sentiment of the above saying could be rendered as (2) “′Dogs are ′men‟s ′best

′friends.” In this case, the utterance has only nucleus (friends) and head (Dogs are the men‟s best) If we put the wording on a different situation (suppose the topic of the conversation is different, say, which animals are men‟s best friend, and someone says (3)

“′Dogs are ′men‟s ′best ′friends” with a contrastive emphasis on “dogs” Instead of having pre-tonic segment with pre-head and head, this intonation unit has only the tonic (dogs) and the tail (the words subsequent to the word “dog”)

From three examples, we have a table as follows:

Pre-tonic segment

Tonic/nucleus Tail Pre-head Head

(1) A ′dog is a ′man‟s ′best ′friend (2) ′Dogs are ′men‟s ′best ′friends

From the table, it is acknowledged that each intonation unit has one and only one

obligatory tonic syllable The other parts of the unit can appear no not The structure of an

intonation unit can be generalized in the following diagram:

Structure of intonation here is shown through structure of each intonation unit in an

utterance According to Paul Tench (1996:12), structure of an individual intonation unit

consists of pre-tonic segment and tonic or nucleus and tail Among those, the tonic is

obligatory and the most prominent word; the head, pre-head and tail are optional

Tonic syllable is the most prominent syllable in an intonation unit Each intonation unit has

one and only one tonic syllable This means that the tonic syllable is an obligatory

component since it carries the tone in the intonation unit

The chart also reveals that tonic segment is composed of two smaller parts namely

pre-head and pre-head The pre-head extends from the first stressed syllable up to but not including the

tonic syllable If there is no stressed syllable before the tonic syllable, there cannot be a

Pre-head

(PH)

Head (H)

Tonic syllable (TS)

Tail (T)

In brief, intonation is structured It has units and parts of the units In all, tonic (or nucleus)

is obligatory, and the other parts of the unit are optional

1.2.4 Functions of intonation

Intonation performs a number of different roles in English Paul Tech (1996:16) introduces six major functions of intonation including informational, communicative, attitudinal, grammatical, textual and indexical function Unlike the two latter functions which operate

on a large body of discourse, the four preceding ones concern single units of intonation and individual pieces of information Actually, just with the operation of these four functions, intonation helps to convey the meaning of messages, which led the researcher to the decision to address only four most major functions in the present study These four happen

to coincide with four major functions mentioned by Peter Roach (1983:136)

1.2.4.1 Informative function

The first function of intonation is to present the management of information which involves the decisions about the division of information messages into manageable pieces; the staging what comes first, what follows; and the grading pieces of information into major and minor Among those, the two formers are handled by tonality with boundaries of intonation units and the latter is handled by tone with rises, falls, and fall-rises The informational function of intonation is seen in the tonicity system too Intonation helps to produce the effect of prominence on syllables that need to be perceived as stressed, and in particular the placing of tonic stress on a particular syllable marks out the most important word in the tone unit The organization of information seems to be a basic function of intonation It answers the question “What is being said?” It is so basic that people are hardly conscious of it In other words, it is the most important and least appreciated The informative function of intonation is done most by tonality, and here are examples to illustrate in which the same wording but with different ways of uttering creates different meanings presented in brackets below

 // They sent Joan a waitress from the hotel //

(A waitress from the hotel was sent to Joan.)

 // They sent Joan / a waitress from the hotel //

(A waitress from the hotel whose name is Joan was sent to somewhere.)

 // They sent Joan / a waitress / from the hotel //

(Joan, a waitress, is now is sent away from the hotel.)

1.2.4.2 Communicative function

Whereas the informational function of intonation presents the management of information, the communicative function is to present the speaker‟s purpose in saying something It addresses the question “Why is it being said?” This function is also called by another name “discourse function” which refers to the intended effect that the speaker wishes to produce on the hearers The hearers are able to acknowledge whether the speakers are telling them something, asking them, ordering them, pleading with them or just plainly greeting them or thanking them Therefore, it is said to be able to convey the listeners what kind of response is expected It is principally the tone system that performs this role Generally speaking, a falling tone in an intonation unit denotes „speaker-dominance‟: the speaker knows, tells, orders, demands On the other hand, a rising tone denotes „speaker-deference‟: the speaker asks, requests, or coaxes

Take the utterance “//You like it, // don‟t you? //” as an example The tag “don‟t you?” here can be spoken with either a falling or a rising tone If it is spoken with falling tone, it shows a degree of certainty; but with a rising tone it expresses a degree of uncertainty The difference between the statement tag and the question tag is purely a matter of intonation

//You like it, // don‟t you? // (uncertainty)

//You like it, // don‟t you? // (certainty)

1.2.4.3 Attitudinal function

As being mentioned in the previous parts, the informational function of intonation answers the question “What is being said?”, the communicative function addresses the question

“Why is it being said?”, the third function – the expression of attitude answers the question

“How is it being said?” Thus, from the way a speaker utters, their mood and attitude are shown to the addressee or the message which can be given politely, grumpily, angrily, warmly and so on

The effect of attitude is mainly to be found in the extent of a fall or a rise and in variations

of pitch in the head and pre-head A wide falling usually denotes surprise, intensity, something unexpected; a narrow falling tone denotes mildness, something expected For example: When you say “Thank you!” starts high and end low will show real gratitude, but when starts low and ends high shows casual acknowledgement of something not very important In brief, Intonation enables us to express emotions and attitudes as we speak, and this adds a special kind of meaning to spoken language

1.2.4.4 Grammatical function

The fourth function relates intonation to the syntax of clauses Intonation has a grammatical role in disambiguating parallel wordings of different syntactic structure This function addresses the question “Which is it being said?” One typical example includes the distinction between defining and non-defining relative clauses, the distinction between transitive and intransitive verbs, and the case of the reflexive pronoun Specifically, intonation unit contributes to indicate whether a relative clause is defining or non-defining,

a verb is transitive or intransitive, and tonicity system helps to differentiate a pronoun as a reflexives or emphatic one Here are some typical examples extracted and adapted from the book “The intonation systems of English” by Paul Tench (1996:21):

(1) // My brother who lives in Nairobi.// (This is defining relative clause, it means that

I have more than one brother, who may live in different places)

(2) // My brother// who lives in Nairobi.// (This is non-defining relative clause, it adds more information to my only one brother)

Tench (1996) also gives two contrastive instances to illustrate the effect of tonicity on identification of reflexive in (5) and emphatic pronoun in (6)

(5) He ASKED himself (He asked nobody else but him)

(6) He ASKED himSELF (He himself did the asking)

1.2.5 Intonation-related errors

There is much that can go wrong in intonation A fault in intonation may appear when learners have the wrong number of intonation units in their responses or when they place the tonic on the wrong syllable Even when they identify the right tonic syllable but without the right tone on it, they still make a fault Also, learners of English may use an intonation form for the wrong function, or they may get the pitch pattern of the pre-tonic segment or the tail wrong However, the errors with tonality, the tonicity and the tone are the commonest

Tonality errors emerge when learner utter the response as two intonation units instead of as one, or as one instead of as two Here is a good example given by Tench (1991:95) Compare the two possible versions of the sentence “he has a cup of tea normally.” If the speaker utters the sentence with “normally” in a separated intonation unit, we would interpret the utterance as he has a cup of tea as usual If there is no tonality break, the speaker would appear to suggest that the person has a cup of tea in a normal way, in contrast to someone else who has a cup of tea in an abnormal way Learner may intend the first version but happen to say the second and cause raising of eyebrows

The second type of intonation errors related to tonicity In English, tonic principally is on the last lexical item, but normally can be placed almost anywhere in an intonation unit depending on the speaker‟s intention and attitude, whereas in other languages, the placing

of the tonic is more fixed Therefore, learners of English may find it difficult to accommodate to the more flexible placing of the tonic

The problems with tone probably the most regularly occur Learners usually have difficulties in producing tones that do not exist in intonation system of their mother tongues, or they let their voice go up instead of down, and down instead of up

An error of tonality can cause series of errors in tonicity and tone Therefore, if the teacher detects an error in intonation, he or she can check first with tonality then the tonicity and tone so as not to cause byproduct errors in tonicity and tone

1.3 English Tonality

1.3.1 Nature of tonality

Paul Tench (1996:31) considers tonality as the system in intonation that divides spoken discourse into its separate individual intonation units, each of which represents one unit of information Spoken discourse may be only one word, even only one syllable, a sentence

or the whole text It may consist of only one message, one or more than one piece of information which is conveyed by an intonation unit Thus, if a spoken discourse consists

of only one syllable, one word, or represents one message, there is no problem Otherwise, learners of English will face with difficulties in identifying intonation units which correctly represent the speaker‟s management of the organization of information The term

“intonation unit” can be called by different names by different authors In the present study

the terms like “tone unit” (according to Roach), “tone group” (in the word of Halliday),

“word group” (stated by Tench), “sense group” (called by O‟ Connor), and “pause group” (in the view of Pennington) are used to refer intonation unit

1.3.2 Identification of tonality

Generally, when people communicate in speech, they must organize and manage their information into discrete pieces of information which are worded into clauses and pronounced in intonation units Tonality in such cases is said to be neutral; otherwise, tonality is said to be marked

1.3.2.1 Neutral tonality

Halliday (quoted in Tench 1996:31) draws attention to the observation that very often intonation units coincide with clauses In fact, when a message is given, it is conveyed as a single unit of intonation, but it has to be worded, and this is where grammar comes in The clause is an obvious unit of grammar to handle a typical piece of information since the subject represents the theme (what the message is about), and the predicate represents the rheme (what the message actually is)

For example, the syntax of “A dog is a man‟s best friend” shows the theme is “a dog” - the subject of the clause; and the shows the actual message-the rheme is “is a man‟s best friend” - the predicate The utterance is pronounced in one tone unit as follows:

// A dog is a man‟s best friend //

Therefore, neutral tonality appears when there is congruence between phonology with grammar and semantics The coincidence of tonality and clause, however, is by no means a hard and fast rule In spoken English, intonation units do not always coincide with whole clauses In such cases, marked tonality will count to identify intonation units

1.3.2.2 Marked tonality

As mentioned above, when a tone group correspond in extent with the clause, the group is regarded as the neutral term That is to say, a clause that consists of one and only one tone group will be considered as neutral in tonality As a result, whenever a clause is larger or smaller than a tone unit, it is taken as a marked case Marked tonality occurs either when two (or more) clauses fit into a single intonation unit, or when two (or more) intonation units are needed to cover a single clause Of the two cases, the latter is much more frequently than the former To be more precise, tag questions, listed items, long themes, marked themes, non-defining appositional items, initial and medical adjuncts have their own tone unit The case of two (or more) clauses fitting into a single unit can be found with report clause, negative domain, and common object complement for two verbs Specific cases of marked tonality are illustrated as follows:

1.3.2.2.1 Two (or more) intonation units are needed to cover a single clause

1.3.2.2.1.1 Tags

Clauses may be concluded with a tag which has a particular form with only an operator and

a subject pronoun It is always in inverted order Tags may be either positive or negative Tags are categorized into checking tags and copy tags which are discussed in details as follows:

Checking tags, those with reverse polarity to that of the main clause – in other words, if negative follows positive or positive follows negative – can be accompanied by either a

falling or a rising tone Checking tags imply an actual checking of the proposition in the main clause The speaker is pretty certain of the validity of the proposition if the tone on the tag falls, whereas the speaker is less certain about the proposition and needs confirmation if the tone rises Checking tags always have separate intonation units for themselves

Copy tags, those with identical polarity, can be only accompanied by a rising tone The copy tag implies more of a realization of the significance of the proposition They do not necessarily require their own, separate intonation unit If there is no separate tonality for

the copy tag there is added a note of irritation Here are some examples for illustration:

(1) // Do you like it? // (yes-no question)

(2) //You like it, // don‟t you? // (checking tag with a rising tone)

(3) //You like it, // don‟t you? // (checking tag with a falling tone)

(4) //You like it, // do you? // (copy tag in a separate tonality)

(5) //You like it do you? // (copy tag with no separate tonality)

The same wording but with different ways of dividing into different word groups makes different meanings In (1), the speaker does not know whether the listener likes something

or not (2) represents a degree of uncertainty while (3) shows a degree of certainty When the speaker chooses (4), he means he (suddenly) realizes the importance of the information With (5), he implies with a touch of irritation

1.3.2.2.1.2 Lists

A list is a special kind of long clause List items are all contained, grammatically, in one single clause, but each item is treated as one piece of information Therefore, each of the

listed items is contained in a separate unit For instance, consider the following utterance uttered with separated tone units for separated items:

(6) // We need milk / some bread / and butter //

1.3.2.2.1.3 Long themes

Another case of marked tonality relates to the length of the clause concerned is long theme According to Tench (1996:35), intonation units have an average of between two or three feet each, that is to say, two or three word stresses The usual maximum number of stresses

in a unit is five, and this corresponds to the maximum number of elements in a single simple clause including subject, verb, direct object, indirect object, and adjunct If a clause breaches that maximum, it seems that it is automatically converted into two or even more intonation units The tonality division depends on the structure of the clause, and the often case is that the theme has been separated intonationally from the rheme Tench (1996:35) also gives examples to illustrate this point:

(7) //The train arriving at platform two/ is ten twenty from Swansea to

(8) // Students must wear uniform on Monday // (neutral tonality)

(9) // On Monday, // students must wear uniforms // (marked theme)

1.3.2.2.1.5 Initial and medical adjuncts

The other kind of structural deviation that affects tonality is the addition of certain kinds of adjunct either at the beginning or in the middle of a clause These items generally have their own intonation unit The adjuncts that affect tonality include linking adjuncts,

viewpoint adjuncts and vocatives

(10) // However / he ran the smile in four minutes // (initial adjunct)

(11) // He ran the smile / however / in four minutes // (medical adjunct)

(12) // He run a smile in four minutes however // (neutral tonality)

Unlike initial and medical position adjunct, final adjuncts may either have an intonation unit of their own or be incorporated into the unit of the preceding clause Confusing usually happens with viewpoint adjuncts They will be separated into a tone unit when they modifying meaning of the whole clause In the case they modify meaning of the verb only

is considered as the neutral tonality Here are typical instances extracted from the book The

Intonation Systems of English by Paul Tench (1996:34), the meaning of which are

presented in brackets:

 Final adverb modifying the whole clause

(13) // He spoke to me / honestly // (It is honest that he spoke to me.)

 Final adverb modifying the verb only – neutral case

(14) // He spoke to me honestly // (He spoke honestly to me.)

by tonality For instance, there are two ways of saying the utterance „ Tom Jones the singer comes from South Wales‟ as follows:

(16) // Tom Jones/ the singer/ comes from South Wales.// (non-defining apposition)

in which case the singer is added as extra information However, in

(17) // Tom Jones the singer/ comes from South Wales.// (defining apposition)

The singer does identify which Tom Jones is meant, since in South Wales there are many

Tom Joneses; the Tom Jones as a writer or a worker is not meant either

Quirk et al (quoted in Tench 1996: 42-43) cite two more cases of potential ambiguity between instances of apposition and more complicated types of complementation In speech, disambiguation is affected through tonality The first example is to distinguish a direct object and an apposition

(18) // They sent Joan a waitress from the hotel // (Direct object)

(19) // They sent Joan / a waitress from the hotel // (Apposition)

(20) // They sent Joan / a waitress / from the hotel // (Apposition)

As a single tone unit, (18) would be interpreted as a waitress from the hotel being sent to Joan As a double transitive clause, Joan is indirect object, and a waitress from the hotel is direct object But when an intonation unit is put after Joan as in (19) and (20) where a

waitress plays a role of an apposition, the meanings are different (19) is rendered as a waitress from the hotel whose name is Joan was sent to somewhere while (20) means that Joan, a waitress, is now is sent away from the hotel

In the second example, presented by Quirk et al, object complement is differentiated from non-defining apposition When uttering as a single intonation unit, the following clause

(21) // They considered Miss Hartley a very good teacher.// (Object complement)

would be interpreted as one with a direct object Miss Hartley, and a further object complement to Miss Hartley, meaning: „Miss Hartley was considered as a very good

teacher.‟ But when putting a tone unit boundary after Hartley, a very good teacher no

longer is an object complement but is a non-defining apposition In this case, it adds an extra piece of information Here is the second rendering:

(22) // They considered Miss Hartley / a very good teacher.// (Apposition)

In brief, a non-defining appositional item should be in a separated in an intonation unit

1.3.2.2.2 Two (or more) clauses fit into a single intonation unit

1.3.2.2.2.1 Report clauses

Reported clauses are those beginning with a verb of „reporting‟ and a clause containing the content of what is reported The two parts are usually linked by a conjunction Tench (1996: 39) regards the two parts as a single clause consisting of the main verb of

„reporting‟ and a clause as the direct object complementing the „reporting‟ verb A single intonation unit is still sufficient even if the „reporting‟ verb is placed at the end Report

clauses involve verbs like tell, report, hope, say, ask, know, think and so on Here are some

examples for illustration:

(23) //He said he would come //

(24) //Tell me where your brother is? //

However, it needs to be clarified report clauses and direct speech Direct speech is rendered in speech as two intonation units as in the following example:

(25) //He said // “I will come.” //

Report clause structures with know need to be distinguished from linking adjuncts, particularly you know which is separated in a tone unit Such difference is presented in the

following pair of instances:

(26) // You know it‟s important.// (Report clause with you know)

(27) // You know //it‟s important.// (Linking adjunct with you know)

1.3.2.2.2.2 Negative domain

In some well-known case of parallel wording of two different syntactic structures offers entirely opposite meanings If a main clause has a negative and is followed by a reason

with the linking word because, or by a result beginning with the linking word so, then

tonality performs the crucial role of differentiating the syntactic structures and meanings For instance, consider the following utterances:

(28) // I didn‟t come / because he told me // (neutral tonality)

(29) // I didn‟t come because he told me // (marked tonality)

Following the neutral rule of tonality, the utterance (28) is divided into two tone units corresponding two clauses, each covering a clause, then the meaning is clear That is the speaker did not come, and a reason for not coming is added In this case, the domain of the

negative extends to the next tonality; thus in (28), it is come that is negativized, and (28) can be interpreted as „because he told me not to come, so I didn‟t come‟

If, however, the two clauses are run together into a single intonation unit as in (29), a different meaning is made: the person did go, but not for the reason that is given In (29), it

is „because he told me‟ that is negativized Therefore, (29) can be understood as „I came

for other reason, not because he told me‟

1.3.2.2.2.3 Clause complements (Common complement for two verbs)

Normally, a verb may be either intransitive (require no complementation) or transitive (require an object or a complement) Some verbs, nonetheless, may sometimes operate as intransitive and sometimes as transitive In such the cases, it is tonality that does the grammatical work to disambiguate between parallel wordings For example:

(30) // She washed and brushed her hair // (marked tonality)

(31) // She washed / and brushed her hair // (neutral tonality)

In (30), her hair is the direct object complementing both the transitive verb washed and

brushed, so the utterance means „She washed her hair and she brushed her hair‟

However, wash is intransitive also, so the second way of uttering emerges which separates the utterance into two tone units at the place of the verb washed as in (31) Thus, when saying as in (31), the speaker means „she washed her face and brushed her hair‟

System of tonality is the range of choices over intonation units Changes in tonality in an utterance signal changes in the organization of information perceived by the speaker The roles of tonality, thus, have been highlighted in the informative function of intonation But the matter is how we know where the boundaries between the intonation units lie In many circumstances, there is no problem when an utterance contains a single intonation unit, then it is bounded by silence before and after It is also not problematic if an utterance involves two or more units of intonation with clear pauses which exactly coincide with sentence or clause boundaries The problems, however, do arise in the case of analysis of informal speech In identification of intonation units in informal speech we should take advantage of the phonetic cues including pitch change, a slight pause or a change of pace Specifically, if there is a perceivable pitch change at some point following a tonic syllable: either a stepping up after a falling tone, or a stepping down after a rise; if the pitch of the tonic syllable was level, then either a stepping up or down would signal the start of a new intonation unit Additionally, there is either a slight pause or a change of pace in the flow

of syllables; syllables at the end of a unit tend to be relatively slower, but syllables at the beginning of a unit have a tendency to speed up In some cases all three features including

a change of pitch, a pause and a change of pace will be employed, but in other cases only one appears

In brief, rules of dividing speech into word groups can be summarized in the table below:

Tonality: The division of speech into word groups where one word group contains one piece

1.3.3.1 Stress

 What is stress:

Stress is an extra force exerted on a particular syllable or a particular word in spoken language The stressed syllable or word is said with greater energy, and stands out in a word, phrase or sentence

In a general sense, stress refers to the overall prominence of certain syllables over others, and in a narrower sense, stress refers to the muscular energy which goes into the

production of a syllable (Dalton 1994) Loudness is the key to the perception of stress, and stronger muscle energy is the key to the production of stress

 Types of stress:

Word stress is an extra force put on a particular syllable of the word It is usually fixed Word stress is important since if a speaker is not successful in identifying the syllable with stress, he will fail to utter sounds accurately and convey the messages correctly

Sentence stress is an extra force put on a particular word in a sentence Sentence stress is not fixed It depends on the speaker‟s feeling and attitudes and the message that he wants

to get across to the listener

 Strong and weak form

Closely related to intonation units, stressed and unstressed syllables are important features There are certain well known words that can be pronounced in two different ways which are call strong form and weak form It is possible to use only strong forms in speaking, but most native speakers find an all-strong-form pronunciation unnatural Moreover, speakers who are not familiar with the use of weak forms are likely to have difficulty understanding speakers who do use weak form Therefore, the use of weak forms is an essential part of English speech If a learner wants his English sound English he must learn to use weak form of these English words which can have a full form and a weak form Also, it is important to remember certain context in which only strong form is acceptable, and others where the weak form pronunciation is normal

Strong form is used in the following cases:

 When the word occurs at the end of a sentence

For example, the preposition at and from in sentences A are used in strong form

A //Where are you from?//

B //I am from Vietnam//

A //What are you looking at?//

B //I am looking at my pictures.//

 When a weak form word is being contrasted with another word

For instance: //The letter is from him,/ not to him.//

 When a weak form word is given stress for the purpose of emphasis as the case of

„have‟ in the following example:

A //Don‟t go.//

B // I have to go//

 When a weak form word is being cited or quoted Here is an example:

// You shouldn‟t put „end‟ at the end of a sentence.//

 Rhythm unit:

Rhythm unit called by O‟ Connor is a unit with a stressed syllable as its centre and any unstressed syllables which may come before and after it Rhythm unit can be called with different names by different authors as a foot (according to Halliday), and a rhythm group (according to Cruttenden) A foot, a basic unit of a tone unit, is made up by stressed groups-a stressed syllable together with any unstressed syllables following it Rhythm is a vital factor in the smooth joining-up of words in speech, and in particular we need to look

for (1) correct word stress, (2) weak form, and (3) slight pauses in the right places (slight pause between rhythm units is symbolized as ( ^ ) in this paper) Following is an illustration extracted from Ky (2006:50)

// I‟m interested in ^ books.//

There are two feet in the above intonation unit The first foot involves five syllables while the second one includes only one syllable And according to the rule of rhythm, uttering rhythm units should be uttered in nearly the same length As a result, syllables in the first rhythm group should be pronounced faster, and the only stressed syllable in the second feet should be made longer than usual

According to Halliday (quoted in Ky 2006: 51), each foot consists of a number of syllables, and the first syllable in the foot is always stressed Consider the following example extracted in Ky (2006: 51) as a typical instance:

// Each ^ foot con ^sist of a ^ number of ^ syllables.//

Speech in communication should bring a certain kind of information, so despite being divided into feet, each rhythm group needs to present a certain meaning Yet, the word

consist from the illustration is divided into two part, each one belongs to a different rhythm

unit This does not satisfy the semantics criteria Therefore, the present study adopts the rhythm unit rules in the view of O‟ Conner (1973) as follows:

(1) Any unstressed syllable at the beginning of a word group must go together with the following stress group

// The teacher ^ has arrived.//

(2) If the unstressed syllable is part of the same word as stressed syllable, they belong to the same foot

// I‟m going ^ home ^ today ^ for Christmas//

Instead of: // I‟m going ^ home to ^ day for ^ Christmas//

(3) If the unstressed syllable is closely connected grammatically to other stressed word, although not a part of that word, they belong to the same rhythm unit

// Give it ^ to John//

Instead of // Give it to ^ John//

(4) Whenever you are in doubt as to which rhythm unit unstressed syllables belong to, put them after a stressed syllable, rather than before it

1.3.3.3 Pause

According to Pennington (1996: 139), pause is considered the amount of speech which will

be spoken on one breath, so a tone group is defined with reference to a pause group A different length of pause indicates different degrees of physical separation of the words and

of functional separation of the messages they carry where the shorter the pause the closer is the relation between two language items A single slash mark represents a short pause (about 1 second) and a double slash mark indicates a longer pause (2 second or more)

In the words of Tench (1991), less consideration has been given to pausing in practice materials in English pronunciation, probably because it seems to fall between two aspects, rhythm and intonation Pausing is rhythmical but also marks the boundaries of intonation units, and a great deal of published practice material concentrates on single utterances which have a given rhythmical pattern and consist of a single intonation pattern

One of the most important uses of pauses in English is the syntactic function Pauses have

to be noticed, and so some training in perception may be necessary Tench also offers a couple of sentences to illustrate the role of pause like the following examples:

(1) John my son /and his wife (John is my son)

(2) John /my son /and his wife (John is not my son)

1.3.3.4 Pitch

Pitch is the aspect of sound we can perceive clearly It is produced by the vibration of vocal cords The faster the vocal cords vibrate, the higher the pitch is When uttering various sounds of an utterance the pitch used is not the same, it can move up (high level), down (low level) or hang over (mid level) Pitch system in intonation is quite different from pitch system in tone Intonation refers to the distinctive pitches in a phrase or utterance and tone refers to the distinctive pitches within a syllable Thus, speakers with good English intonation are those who are good at controlling their pitch movement With