Teaching intonation in yes NO QUESTIONS AND WH QUESTIONS TO NON – MAJOR STUDENTS AT VAN HIEN UNIVERSITY

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY-HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES    TEACHING INTONATION IN YES/NO QUESTIONS AND WH-QUESTIONS TO NON – MAJOR STUDENTS A

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY-HO CHI MINH CITY

UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES

  

TEACHING INTONATION IN YES/NO QUESTIONS

AND WH-QUESTIONS TO NON – MAJOR

STUDENTS AT VAN HIEN UNIVERSITY

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master

of Arts (TESOL)

Supervisor CAO THI QUYNH LOAN, M.A

Ho Chi Minh City, November, 2010

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

I hereby certify my authorship of the thesis submitted today entitled

TEACHING INTONATION IN YES/NO QUESTIONS AND WH-QUESTIONS TO NON – MAJOR STUDENTS AT VAN

Ho Chi Minh City, November, 2010

LAI THI THUY TIEN

RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS

I hereby state that I, LẠI THỊ THỦY TIÊN, being a candidate for the degree of Master of Arts in TESOL, accept the requirements of the university relating to the retention and use of Master’s Thesis deposited in the University Library

I agree that the original of my Master’s Thesis deposited in the University Library should be accessible for the purpose of the study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the Library for the care, loan and reproduction of theses

Ho Chi Minh, November, 2010

LẠI THỊ THỦY TIÊN

TABLE OF CONTENT

Statement of authority i

Retention and use of the thesis ii

Table of contents iii

List of tables and abbreviations vii

List of charts ix

Acknowledgements x

Abstract xi

Chapter 1 – INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Background to the study 1

1.2 Purpose of the study 2

1.3 Significance of the study 2

1.4 Limitation and delimitation 2

1.4.1 Limitation 2

1.4.2 Delimitation 3

1.5 Organization of the thesis 3

Chapter 2 – LITERATUR REVIEW 4

2.1 Descriptions of intonation 4

2.1.1 Definitions of Intonation 4

2.1.2 Functions of Intonation 5

2.1.3 Stress-timed language vs syllable-timed language 6

2.2 The framework of English intonation 7

2.2.1 Intonation unit 7

2.2.2 Stress 10

2.2.2.1 Word stress 10

2.2.2.1.1 Definitions of word stress 10

2.2.2.1.2 Levels of word stress 10

2.2.2.1.3 Rules of word stress 12

2.2.2.2 Sentence stress 18

2.2.2.2.1Tonic stress 19

2.2.2.2.2 Emphatic stress 20

2.2.2.2.3 Contrastive stress 21

2.2.2.2.4 New information stress 23

2.2.3 Tones 23

2.3 Intonation patterns of questions 26

2.3.1 Normal Intonation patterns of questions 26

2.3.1.1 Yes / No questions 26

2.3.1.2 Wh-questions 28

2.3.2 Special Intonation patterns of questions 29

2.3.2.1 Special cases of Intonation in questions 29

2.3.2.2 The role of context in teaching Intonation 32

2.4 The importance of teaching intonation in the process of teaching language skills based on communicative approach 33

2.5 Previous related studies about intonation 35

2.6 Summary 36

Chapter 3 – METHODOLOGY 37

3.1 Research questions 37

3.2 Research design 37

3.3 Subjects 38

3.3.1 The student subjects 38

3.3.2 The teacher subjects 40

3.4 Instruments 41

3.4.1 Students’ questionnaire 41

3.4.2 Teachers’ questionnaire 42

3.4.3 Tests 43

3.4.4 Lessons 43

3.4.5 Evaluation sheet 44

3.5 Data collection procedures 44

3.6 Summary 45

Chapter 4 – DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS 46

4.1 Results from the students’ survey questionnaire 46

4.1.1 Section Two 46

4.1.2 Section Three 51

4.2 Results from the teachers’ questionnaire 55

4.2.1 Section Two 55

4.2.2 Section Three 58

4.3 Results from the two tests 60

4.3.1 Results from the diagnostic test 60

4.3.2 Results from the achievement test 68

4.3.3 Comparisons of the two tests’ results 76

4.3.4 Summary 81

4.4 General summary 81

Chapter 5 – RECOMMENDATIONS 83

5.1 Summary of findings 83

5.2 Recommendations 84

52.1 Recommendations to the teachers 84

5.2.2 Recommendations to the students 84

5.3 Techniques and activities for teaching intonation in Yes/No questions and Wh-questions 84

5.4 Contribution 87

5.5 Conclusion 87

CONCLUSION 89

BIBLIOGRAPHY 90

APPENDICES Appendix 1 94

Appendix 2 96

Appendix 3 98

Appendix 4 101

Appendix 5 104

Appendix 6 105

Appendix 7 112

Appendix 8 113

Appendix 9 122

Appendix 10 124

Appendix 11 129

Appendix 12 130

Appendix 13 134

Appendix 14 142

Appendix 15 143

Appendix 16 149

Appendix 17 150

Appendix 18 154

LIST OF TABLES & ABBREVIATIONS

Table 2.1: ‘Degrees’ of stress

Table 2.2: Content words versus function words

Table 2.3: Summary of special intonation patterns in Yes/No questions and

Wh-questions based on the theory of Celce-Murcia et al (1996) Table 2.4: Summary of special intonation patterns in Yes/No questions and Wh-

questions based on O’Connor’s theory (1980) Table 2.5: Summary of special intonation patterns in Yes/No questions and Wh-

questions based on Brazil’s theory (1997) Table 3.1: Students’ gender

Table 3.2: Students’ age

Table 3.3: Students’ age when they started learning English

Table 4.1: Students’ tone choices in Yes/No questions

Table 4.2: Students’ tone choices in Wh- questions (continued)

Table 4.3: Average percentage of students chose correct answers in three

foreign teachers Table 4.8: Students’ results about how fluently they speak English by two

foreign teachers

Table 4.9: Students’ results about how their pronunciation is

Table 4.10: Students’ results about using intonation while reading and speaking Table 4.11: Average percentage of question 1 of two foreign teachers

Table 4.12: Students’ results about using stress and intonation to highlight their

ideas

Table 4.13: Average percentage of question 2 of two foreign teachers

Table 4.14: Students’ results about applying intonation in expressing their

attitudes Table 4.15: Average percentage of question 3 of two foreign teachers

Table 4.16: Students’ results about how naturally they speak English by two

foreign teachers

Table 4.17: Average percentage of question 4 of two foreign teachers

Table 4.18: Students’ results about how fluently they speak English of two foreign

teachers Table 4.19: Average percentage of question 5 of two foreign teachers

Table 4.20: Students’ results about how their pronunciation is

Table 4.21: Average percentage of question 6 of two foreign teachers

Table 4.22: Students’ compared results from the two tests in question 1

Table 4.23: Students’ compared results from the two tests in question 2

Table 4.24: Students’ compared results from the two tests in question 3

Table 4.25: Students’ compared results from the two tests in question 4

Table 4.26: Students’ compared results from the two tests in question 5

Table 4.27: Students’ compared results from the two tests in question 6

LIST OF CHARTS

Chart 4.1: Students’ choices about the frequency of learning intonation Yes/No

questions and Wh-questions in class

Chart 4.2: Students’ opinion about the impact of intonation on their speaking

skills Chart 4.3: Students’ responses to how intonation can improve their speaking

skills Chart 4.4: Students’ opinion about the important role of intonation in studying

English

Chart 4.5: Students’ choices about their interest towards learning intonation Chart 4.6: Students’ choices on the most suitable question in context 1

Chart 4.7: Students’ choices on the most suitable question in context 2

Chart 4.8: Students’ choices on the most suitable question in context 3

Chart 4.9: Teachers’ evaluation on the necessity of intonation teaching in

Yes/No Chart 4.10: Teachers’ opinion about the importance of English intonation in

communication

Chart 4.11: Teachers’ view on the improvement of speaking skills through

learning intonation in Yes/No questions and Wh-questions

Chart 4.12: Teachers’ choices of teaching intonation in Yes/No questions and

Wh-questions in class at VHU Chart 4.13: Average percentage of question 1 of the two foreign teachers

Chart 4.14: Average percentage of question 2 of the two foreign teachers

Chart 4.15: Average percentage of question 3 of two foreign teachers

Chart 4.16: Average percentage of question 4 of two foreign teachers

Chart 4.17: Average percentage of question 5 of the two foreign teachers

Chart 4.18: Average percentage of question 6 of two foreign teachers

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First of all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Ms Cao Thị Quỳnh Loan, M.A, my thesis supervisor, for her practical guidance, thoughtful comments, and valuable assistance from the beginning to the completion of this thesis Without her guidance and encouragement, I could not have finished this study

I am grateful to all my teachers for their helpful instructions during the TESOL course (2007-2010) I also highly appreciate the cooperation of the English teachers and students at Van Hien University - as well as the support provided by the administrators for conducting the study

Last but not least, I would like to dedicate the thesis to my parents and my sister who always encouraged and stood by me during the course

The results from the diagnostic tests reveal that the students have some problems in pronunciation, such as: (1) they pronounce incorrectly, (2) speak English unnaturally and slowly, and (3) they do not use intonation while speaking These problems come partly from their major and their level of awareness As the students’ majors are not English and there is no exam on intonation, they feel that studying intonation is not necessary Hopefully, this thesis raises the teachers’ and the students’ awareness of the importance of using intonation in communication Some recommendations, therefore, are given for both the teachers and the students

Based on the findings from the teachers’ questionnaire, this thesis provides a basic background of intonation such as some common intonation patterns and special patterns of intonation in the two types of question and a number of teaching strategies for intonation in general and intonation in Yes/No questions and Wh-questions in particular are also suggested by the researcher with the hope that these techniques can assist both the teachers and the students in teaching and learning

Chapter one

INTRODUCTION

Chapter one presents (1) the background to the study, (2) the purpose of the study, (3) the study’s significance, (4) the study’s limitation and delimitation, and (5) the organization of the thesis

1 1 Background to the study

Language conveys very specific information, such as how to get somewhere or what someone is doing It can be also used beyond the exact meaning of the words

to indicate how the speaker feels about what he is saying, or what he means Every language deals with expressing these emotional ranges in different ways Intonation

in English is a means to convey a range of meanings, emotions or situations, within the confines of standard grammar and fixed word order

Intonation is important for English learners, especially for those whose native language does not have a similar intonation system as English It is widely known that “English is an intonation language” (Roach, 1991) while “Vietnamese is a tone language” (Avery and Ehrlich 1992: 77) Intonation does not seem to be a problem

for English major students, because Phonetics and Phonology is one of their

required subjects at tertiary level For non-English major students at Van Hien University (VHU), however, intonation has never been included in any official course at VHU, either obligatory or optional, even though the knowledge of intonation certainly helps the students to improve their speaking skills If VHU’s non-English major students are to achieve fluency and comprehensibility, while

communicating in English, an integrated course covering the four basic language

skills, including intonation in Yes/No questions and Wh-questions to the student subjects, is undoubtedly and urgently needed

1 2 Purpose of the study

The study done for my M.A thesis aimed at (1) finding out whyintonation has been neglected in the process of teaching pronunciation to non-English major students at VHU, (2) proving that teaching intonation in Yes/No questions and Wh-questions to the students has some positive effects on their speaking skills, and (3) suggesting some useful in-class activities to teach intonation in Yes/No questions and Wh-questions to non-English major students at VHU

1.3 Significance of the study

The study done for and then reported in this M.A thesis tried to find out some reasons leading to the neglect of teaching intonation to non-English major students at VHU Experimental teaching based on the Communicative Approachwas then carried out to demonstrate the effectiveness of intonation in Yes/No questions and Wh-questions on improving the students’ speaking skills Hopefully, the study’s findings concerning teaching intonation in Yes/No questions and Wh-questions and its teaching implications may serve as a reference document for teachers of English who are interested in improving their students’speaking skills

in general and correct use intonation in particular

1.4 Limitation and Delimitation

1.4.1 Limitation

This research was done at only one university, i.e VHU, with 56 English major students during a limited time Therefore, the study will confine itself (1) to find out the reasons why teaching intonation in Yes/No questions and Wh-questions to the student subjects has been neglected and (2) to prove some potential benefits brought from teaching intonation in Yes/No questions and Wh-questions to the students’ speaking skills

non-1.4.2 Delimitation

Despite of the limited number of the students involved in the study and the limitation of time spent on its experimental teaching, as well as data collection and analysis, the results of this study can hopefully be applied to other students facing the same problems in other universities

1.5 Organization of the Thesis

This thesis consists of five main chapters, not including the conclusion:

- Chapter one includes (1) the background to the study, (2) purpose of the study, (3) significance of the study, (4) limitation and delimitation of the study and (5) the organization of the thesis

- Chapter two provides a review of relevant literature, which serves as the theoretical background of the thesis

- Chapter three presents the research questions, research design and the methodology used in the study

- Chapter four analyzes the results from the students’ questionnaire, the two tests and the teachers’ questionnaire

- Chapter five gives recommendations to teachers and also states the findings

of the thesis

Chapter two

LITERATURE REVIEW

The purpose of this review of relevant literature is to discuss the important impact of teaching intonation in Yes/No questions and Wh-questions on students’ speaking skills Some normal and special intonation patterns in Yes/No questions and Wh-questions are also covered in this chapter Thus, this chapter focuses on the following issues:

(1) Descriptions of intonation

(2) The framework of English intonation

(3) Intonation patterns of questions

(4) The importance of teaching intonation in Yes/No questions and Wh questions in the process of teaching language skills based on Communicative Approach

-2 1 Descriptions of intonation

2 1 1 Concepts of intonation

O’Connor (1980: 108) stated that “every language has melody in it; no language is spoken on the same musical note all the time” He also confirmed the importance role of intonation in languages

The voice goes up and down and the different notes of the voice combine to make intonation Generally, intonation plays an important part in languages For example, in some languages such as Chinese languages, many languages in south-east Asia, Africa and America, intonation belongs to the word The same sounds said with different intonation patterns may make quite different words However, in English and many other languages, intonation belongs to the word group We can say a word group definitely, hesitantly, angrily or kindly, with interest or without interest, and these differences are largely made by intonation we use: the words do not change their meaning, but intonation we use adds something to the words, and what it adds is the speaker’s feelings at that moment

Some people think that intonation is the same for all languages, but it is not

true English intonation is English: it is not the same as the intonation of other

languages (O’Connor 1980: 108) Celce-Murcia and Olshtain (2000: 33) said that most of the world’s languages can be classified as either tonal languages or intonation languages, of which English is intonation language In tonal languages, pitch applies lexically to distinguish words; on the contrary, in intonation languages, pitch patterns are applied to entire utterances

Intonation has been defined by many linguists Cruttenden (1986: 9), for example, seems to equate intonation specifically with pitch movement, while Coulthard (1992: 96) has identified it with prosody in general, which would therefore, not only include pitch movement but also loudness, length, speed, and even voice quality Pitch, however, is the common thread running through most descriptions Intonation, then, can be narrowly described as “the movements or variations in pitch to which we are attached familiar labels describing levels (e.g

high-low) and tones (e.g falling-rising), etc.” (Mika Higuchi 2002: 1) Or it can be

broadly defined as “systematic variations in pitch level, pitch movement and prominence.” (Mika Higuchi 2002: 1)

Another definition about intonation given by Bradford (1988: 1, 2) is that intonation is a “feature of spoken language It consists of the continuous changing

of the pitch of a speaker’s voice to express meanings” People can mean different things by using the same group of words, arranged in the same order, by saying them in different ways A speaker is able to make a group of words mean what he/she wants it to by choosing the right intonation Without intonation, it’s impossible to understand the expressions and thoughts that go with words

2.1 2 Functions of Intonation

According to Gussenhoven (2004: 50), “…people use it (intonation) to express their feelings; it encodes information structure of the sentence; it appears sensitive to syntactic categories like ‘argument’ and ‘predicate’; it appears to have different phonetic forms in different segmental conditions; it is integrated with lexical tone distinctions in tone languages…”

Crystal (1995: 249) identified six functions of intonation: emotional, grammatical, informational, textual, psychological and indexical, whereas Roach (1991: 163) pointed out four: attitudinal, accentual, grammatical and discourse Couper-Kuhlen (1986: 111, 113) also summarized six functions that have been attributed to English intonation: (1) informational, (2) grammatical, (3) illocutionary, (4) attitudinal, (5) textual/discourse, and (6) indexical

Specifically, Kenworthy (1987: 88, 89, 90) proposed eight functions of intonation:

(1) Foregrounding Intonation is used to put words in the foreground (2) Backgrounding Just as high pitch or drastically changing pitch is used

to show prominence, low pitch is used to put things in the background, to treat something as old or shared information

(3) Intonation is used to signal ends and beginnings

(4) Intonation is used to show whether a situation is basically ‘open’ or

‘closed’

(5) Intonation is used to show involvement

(6) Intonation is used to show expectations

(7) Intonation is used to show that one speaker respects or cares about the other (especially as regards his or her status or feelings)

(8) Intonation is used to show the relationship between the parts of a speaker’s message

2.2 The framework of English intonation

For Cruttenden (1986: 35), intonation has three important features (1) division of a stream of speech into intonation units (2) selection of a syllable (of a word), which is assigned the tonic status, and (3) selection of a tone for the intonation unit, another feature can be added: pitch range, or key (Brazil et al 1980)

It was also proposed that a framework of English intonation should include four

major intonational features: intonation unit, stress, tones, and pitch range (Celik: 2001)

2.2.1 Intonation unit (tone group)

An “intonation unit”_ has been defined by many linguists and scholars Halliday (1970: 40) stated that “The tone group is a unit of information The speaker decides how he wants to break up the message-unconsciously, of course - into blocks or units of information, and each of these is expressed as one tone group” According to Celce-Muria et al (1996: 175; cited in Gilbert 1983; Schuetze-Coburn 1993), intonation units describe the semantically and grammatically coherent segments of speech, and that every unit of speech has its own intonation contour or pitch pattern and typically contains one prominent element A single utterance or sentence may include several intonation units Additionally, Halliday (1970: 3) stated that the intonation unit in English is also called the tone group Celce-Murcia et al (1996: 175) summarized the characteristics of a typical intonation unit:

(1) is set off by pauses before and after

(2) contains one prominent element

(3) has an intonation contour of its own

(4) has a grammatically coherent internal structure

In many cases, in conversational English, intonation units correspond most frequently with grammatical clauses, but it is not the case that every clause is one tone group because the tone group is a meaningful unit in its own right For Halliday (1970: 3), a tone group is one information unit, one ‘block’ in the message that the speaker is communicating; and so it can be any length, for example, in rapid speech, intonation units may be fairly long and in slower speech, they may be shorter Additionally, Halliday (1970: 40) asserted that “Information units are not the same as sentences or clauses or phrases, but represent a different kind of

organization that exists side by side with structure of sentences” However, pausing may bring about a change of meaning; certain pauses in a stream of speech can have significant variations in the message to be conveyed Consider the examples below,

in which slashes correspond to pauses; the meaning is given in brackets:

Those who sold quickly / made a profit

(A profit is made by those who sold quickly)

Those who sold /quickly made a profit

(A profit was quickly made by those who sold)

Roach (1983: 146) Also, Halliday (1970: 3, 4) stated that in reading aloud, or in more formal speech, clauses tend to be divided into quite a number of tone groups, because they are rather long and full of information, and the speakers are active in deciding how

to segment the information Similarly, Celce-Murcia et al (1996: 176) said that

“where the utterance divisions fall will also depend on the individual speaker”, or in other words, such divisions are dependent on the performance context Celce-Murcia et al (1996) explained that “public speakers tend to pause frequently to make their messages clearer or more emphatic, as in a political statement (p.176):

I promise / to serve / my fellow citizens / to the best / of my ability

On the contrary, the intonation unit may be longer if the speaker is in an emergency situation Consider the following example:

I promise that I’ll get you the back-ordered merchandise / just as soon as it arrives in the warehouse

Conversely, Halliday (1967: 200) said that the speaker is free to decide how

he wishes to package the information, where each information unit begins and ends, and how it is organized internally For example, the sentence ‘John has gone into the garden with Mary’ may be spoken in one chunk as in

(a) John has gone into the garden with Mary

Or two or three chunks as in

(b) John – has gone into the garden with Mary

(c) John – has gone into the garden with – Mary

(Brown & Yule 1983: 155) Brown and Yule (1983: 155) said that the ‘internal organization’ of the information unit, relates to the way in which given and new information is distributed within the unit Characteristically, Halliday (1970: 40, 41) suggested that the speaker will order given information before new information The ‘unmarked’ sequencing of information structure is taken to be given-new Normally, information units which are initial in a discourse will contain only new information

In addition, Brown and Yule (1983: 177) explained that given and new information

in sentences is signaled by stress or accent on particular words

However, not all linguists agreed that it is a straightforward matter to isolate tone groups Evidence shows that even trained native speakers find it very difficult

to break talk up into such units and to identify tonics in speech (Brown and Yule 1983: 158) The examples, mentioned above, illustrate the significance of pausing, and that right pausing may be necessity to be understood well

2.2.2 Stress

2.2.2.1 Word stress

2.2.2.1.1 Definitions of word stress

According to Celce-Murcia et al (1996: 131), syllables in utterances which are longer, louder, and higher in pitch are called stress syllables and Avery and Ehrlich (1992: 63) stated that stress vowels are longer and louder vowels Meanwhile, stress has been defined as the degree of force by Jones (1998: 141) that

a speaker makes when he pronounces a sound or a syllable Also, Kelly (2001: 66)

said that “each stressed syllable, in a word in isolation, also has a change in the pitch, or the level of the speaker’s voice, and the vowel sound in that syllable is lengthened”

2.2.2.1.2 Levels of word stress

According to Celce-Murcia et al (1996: 132), English language-teaching texts generally speak of three levels of word stress, or the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables within one word These levels are often referred to as strong, medial, and weak (or alternatively, primary, secondary, and tertiary) For pedagogical purposes, these levels are called strongly stressed, lightly stressed, and unstressed syllables However, Kelly (2001: 69) argued that within longer words syllables can have different degrees of stress While some commentators have outlined up to five different levels of stress in a single word, most commentators settle on a three-level distinction of primary stress, secondary stress and unstressed However, in practical terms a two-level division (stressed and unstressed) is usually adequate for teaching purposes Characteristically, Gussenhoven (2004: 20 cited in Bolinger 1958, 1981 and Vanderslice and Ladefoged 1972) summarized ‘degrees’

of stress as follows

‘Degrees of stress’ Position in structure Phonetic correlates, and

example

Unstressed

Stressed unaccented

Accented

Weak syllable in a foot

Strong syllable in a foot

Stressed syllable with an intonational pitch accent

Qualitative and durational reduction, steep spectral

tilt e.g po- and –to in

potato

Vowels without qualitative and durational reduction Less steep

spectral tilt e.g caul- and

‘sentence accent’ e.g

caul- in the utterance I

like CAULiflower

Table 2.1 ‘Degrees’ of stress

2.2.2.1.3 Rules of word stress

According to Avery and Ehrlich (1992: 67) and Kelly (2001: 68), there are

no hard and fast rules for word stress Factors that influence stress placement include the historical origin of a word, affixation, and the word’s grammatical function in an utterance (Celce-Murcia et al 1996: 133) However, there are a few generalizations regarding the placement of stress in English

Two - syllable words

Many ‘everyday’ nouns and adjectives of two-syllable length are stressed on the first syllable It is illustrated by the following examples:

Three - syllable words

With words of three syllables, the major stress usually falls on the first or the second syllable Consider the list below:

Compound words – words formed from a combination of two words – tend

to receive strong stress on the first element While there are many kinds of compounds in English such as noun compounds, adjective compounds and verb

compounds, all of them follow the same stress patterns as mentioned above whether the compound is simple or complex:

* Noun compounds

* Adjective - noun phrases

That’s a BLACK BOARD (a board that is black)

He works in a GREEN HOUSE (a house that is green)

I saw a BLACK BIRD (a bird that is black)

* Adjective - noun compounds

That’s a BLACKBOARD (a board for writing on)

He works in a GREENHOUSE (a place to grow plants)

I saw a BLACKBIRD (a kind of bird)

In the adjective-noun phrases above, major stress falls on the noun and minor stress falls on the adjective On the contrary, in the adjective-noun compounds, major stress falls on the adjective and minor stress falls on the noun According to Celce-Murcia et al (1996: 140), when such word sequences are used as noun compounds, they are often spelled as one word The same pattern can occur in more complex contrasts, such as the following examples which are adapted from Celce-Murcia et al (1996: 140):

Billy found a BLACKbird NEST (a nest used by blackbirds)

Billy found a BLACK BIRD NEST (a bird nest that happened to be black in

color)

In the first sentence black receives major stress because the word sequence

blackbird nest functions as a complex noun compound In the second sentence bird

– in the noun compound bird nest – receives major stress Meanwhile, black is an adjective modifying the noun compound bird nest

To sum up, Avery and Ehrlich (1992: 69) concluded that “the difference between adjective-noun phrases and adjective-noun compounds illustrate the importance of stress in determining meaning”

Words having a dual role

In the case of words which can be used as either a noun or a verb, the noun will tend to be stressed on the first syllable and the verb on the last syllable Examples are:

Prefixes and Suffixes

According to Kelly (2001: 51), prefixes and suffixes are not usually stressed

in English Similarly, Celce-Murcia et al (1996: 134-137) also said that prefixes and suffixes either are unstressed or lightly stressed However, there are also exceptions

Prefixes

When some prefixes such as fore-, out-, over-, under-, or up- are attached to

a word to form a noun compound, the prefix or the first syllable of the compound is strongly stressed Consider these examples which are adapted from Celce-Murcia et

al (1996: 134):

FORECAST OUTLINE OverALLS UNderWEAR UPSHOT

FOREGROUND OUTPUT OverDOSE UNderPASS UPKEEP

FOREARM OUTLOOK OverPASS UNderDOG UPSTART

Suffixes

Some suffixes which were borrowed from French such as aire, ee, eer,

-ese, -esque, -ique, -eur/-euse, -oon, -ette, -et/ey tend to receive strong stress

(Celce-Murcia et al 1996: 134) The following examples are adapted from Kreidler (1989: 307):

doctriNAIRE refuGEE engiNEER LebaNESE millionAIRE tuTEE mountainEER SudaNESE questionNAIRE trusTEE volunTEER VietnaMESE

groTESQUE bouTIQUE masSEUSE balLOON araBESQUE techNIQUE chanTEUSE saLOON picturESQUE anTIQUE chaufFEUR bassoon

bassiNETTE balLET

kitchenETTE vaLET

When some suffixes such as eous, graphy, ial, ian, ic, ical, ious, ity,

-ion, are added to the root word, they can move the stress of the root word to the

syllable preceding the suffix

Celce-Murcia et al (1996:137)

2.2.2.2 Sentence stress

The use of stress in speech helps learners to both deliver and understand meaning in longer utterances and Kelly (2001: 71) said that it is closely linked with intonation At the clausal level, words that carry higher information content in the utterance are normally given higher stress than those carrying lower input and those that are predictable in the context Words that carry higher information content are called ‘content’ words, as opposed to ‘function’ words – which are used in order to make the sentences grammatically correct According to Jones (1998: 145), the stressings of words in sentences vary according to the degrees of emphasis one wishes to give to particular words Kelly (2001: 72) and Celik (2001) had the same opinion about the classification between content words and functions They said that this classification conforms to grammatical consideration The following table categorizes content words and function words, and illustrates which words in a sentence or utterance tend to receive stress and which do not

Content / Stressed Words Function / Unstressed Words

- Negative contractions (can’t,

isn’t) or even the negative

particle not

- Demonstrative pronouns ( this,

that, these, those)

- Possessive pronouns (mine,

- Pronouns (Personal pronoun)

- Indefinite adjectives (some, such, any)

- Possessive adjectives

Table 2.2 Content words versus function words

It is necessary to remember that these basic rules are only suitable for starters In everyday speech, stress depends on the speaker’s feeling/attitude, the context, the information that the speaker wants to share with the hearer Therefore, four major types of stress in sentence have been identified:

(1) unmarked tonic stress

(2) emphatic stress

(3) contrastive stress

(4) new information stress

2.2.2.2.1 Tonic stress

An intonation unit almost always has one peak of stress, which is called

‘tonic stress’ or ‘nucleus’ Because stress is applied to syllables, the syllable that receives the tonic stress is called the ‘tonic syllable’– it is generally longer, louder, and carries the main pitch movement in an utterance Tonic stress is almost always found in a content word in the final position of an utterance In the following examples, the tonic syllable is capitalized and underlined:

I’m GOing

I’m going to LONdon

I’m going to London for a HOliday

Previously tonic assigned syllables are still get stressed, however, not as much as the tonic syllable, producing a three level stress of utterances Kelly (2001: 72) argued that tonic stress can be placed anywhere according to the context, or the information which the speaker wants to transmit to the hearer This is illustrated by the following example:

He lives in the house on the CORNer

It is necessary to go back to word stress in order to understand this example

easily The word corner has two syllables, the first one being stressed, and the second one unstressed, as above Corner is the most important word in the sentence

as it effectively answers the Where? If, on the other hand, one friend asks another to

confirm where John’s house is, the question might be ‘Where did you say John

lives?’ In this case, a possible answer is as follows:

He LIVES in the house on the CORner

Here, live is given some stress because it is the ‘onset syllable’ in this sentence That the word house is not stressed here implies that this is shared

knowledge between the speakers, and it is not necessary to point this out The new information that is being shared between speakers determines what the tonic syllable is Consider this example:

John lives in the block of flats on the corner, doesn’t he?

NO, he LIVES in the HOUSE on the corner

The onset syllable is again lives, but the tonic syllables are now house and

no, reflecting the importance of this word within the utterance, while corner is not

given any stress, as it is knowledge already shared between the speaker and the hearer The following example shows a similar effect:

John’s buying the house on the corner, isn’t he?

He ALready LIVES in the house on the corner

2.2.2.2.2 Emphatic stress

Emphatic stress is used when the speaker wishes to place special emphasis

on a particular element (Celce-Murcia et al 1996: 177) In fact, the element receiving emphatic stress usually communicates new information within the sentence In the phrase ‘I’m NEVer eating clams again’, for example, the speaker

might place emphatic stress on never to signal a particularly bad reaction she once

had when eating clams Similarly, in the following brief exchange, speaker B places

emphatic stress on really to indicate strong degree of enjoyment:

A: How do you like that new computer you bought?

B: I’m REALly enjoying it!

According to Avery and Ehrlich (1992: 189), the last content word of a sentence usually receives major sentence stress (also called tonic stress) However,

they also said that not every last content word is the main information the speaker wants to emphasize Variation in major sentence stress can be illustrated with a series of questions and answers The big dot is used to demonstrate the tonic stress



He drove to Ottawa



or He drove

In (b), the place, Ottawa, is no longer the main information and so does not

receive tonic stress The main information is now on the means of transportation

(drove)

2.2.2.2.3 Contrastive stress

In contrastive contexts, the stress pattern is quite different from the emphatic and non-emphatic stresses in that any lexical item in an utterance can receive the tonic stress (also called major sentence stress) provided that the contrastively stressed item can be contrastable in that universe of speech No distinction exists between content and function words regarding this The contrasted item receives the tonic stress provided that it is contrastive with some lexical elements in the stimulus utterance Syllables that are normally stressed in the utterance almost always get the same treatment they do in non-emphatic contexts Consider the following examples (Capital letters are used to represent contrastive stress and underlines for other normal stresses)

(1)

A: I hear that Susan bought another second - hand sweater

B: No, she bought a NEW sweater

(2)

A: Did Susan buy a new sweater or a second-hand one?

B: She bought a NEW sweater

In (1), the contrast takes the form of a contradiction In (2), the contrast takes the form of a choice between alternatives It might be expected the tonic stress in

speaker B’s responses to fall on sweater because it is the final content word

However, it is the contrasted information in speaker B’s responses that receives

tonic stress, i.e., the fact that the sweater is new This contrastive stress can be even

heavier and louder than the normal tonic stress, particularly in sentences where a contradiction is being made

To better understand the concept of contrastive stress, compare the following two dialogues:

(1)

A: How was the MOvie?

B: It was too LONG

(2)

A: Was it a LONG drive?

B: It was TOO long

Although speaker B says essentially the same thing in both dialogues, long receives the tonic stress in the first dialogue (with too also receiving light stress as a content word), since the idea of the movie’s being a long one is the main information speaker B wishes to communicate in answer to how However, in the second dialogue, too receives emphatic stress since the speaker, in response to the question about the length of the drive, wishes to highlight its excessiveness Moreover, in this utterance, long is old information and therefore does not receive

tonic stress

2.2.2.2.4 New information stress

Within an intonation unit, words spoken with strong stressed and higher pitch are new information (Celce-Murcia 1996: 176 cited in Chafe 1980) According

to Celik (2001), the concept of new information is much clearer to students of English in responses to Wh-questions than in declarative statements Therefore, it is best to start with teaching the stressing of the new information supplied to questions with a question word:

(1)

A: What’s your NAME?

B: My name’s GEORGE

(2)

A: Where are you FROM?

B: I’m from WALES

A: What’s your name?

B: (My name’s) George

The new information in this response is George The part referring to his

name is given in the question, so it may be omitted

2.2.3 Tones

There are different numbers of tones in different books about English intonation because the authors have their own ways to explain and teach language

(Halliday 1970: 8) Pointing to extensive variation in the taxonomy of English tones, Cruttenden (1986: 58) notes that “this is an area where almost every analyst varies in his judgment of what constitutes a major different of meaning and hence in the number of nuclear tones which are set up” Crystal (1969) and Ladefoged (1982) identified four basic tones (fall, rise-fall, rise, and fall-rise) while O’Connor and Arnold (1973) distinguished only two (rise and fall) Brazil (1997: 67), Roach (1983) and Mc Carthy (1991: 105) endorsed five tones (fall, rise, rise-fall, fall-rise, and level) Similarly, Halliday (1970: 9) suggested five simple tones (falling, high rising/falling-rising, low rising, falling-rising, rising-falling) and two compound tones (falling plus low rising, rising-falling plus low rising) whereas Cruttenden (1986) recognized seven tones (high-fall, low-fall, high-rise, low-rise, fall-rise, rise-fall, and mid-level)

Nevertheless, the core of this research is applying intonation in Yes/No questions and Wh-questions, therefore, this research focuses on studying tones applied to questions According to Brazil (1997: 99-113), proclaiming tone (fall-p

or rise-fall-p+) and the referring tone (rise-r or fall-rise-r+) convey different meanings when applied in different kinds of questions First, in declarative mood questions, referring tone means common ground shared between the speakers With proclaiming tone, on the other hand, the speaker signals an uncertainty Consider the following example adapted from Brazil (1997: 102):

//r you’re GOing OUT//

Addressed to someone who was in the act of buttoning up his/her overcoat, this can be interpreted as a presentation of the apparent intentions of the hearer as if they were negotiated common ground and simultaneous request for confirmation:

‘Please confirm that I am drawing the right conclusions from your actions’ With proclaiming tone, the utterance projects a context in which the speaker does not know what interpretation to put on the hearer’s conduct:

//p you’re GOing OUT//

(‘Is that it?’ Or if not, what are you going to do?)

Next, in Yes/No questions, Brazil (1997: 107) proposed that

“With proclaiming tone, the speaker asks for the removal of uncertainty with respect to one of a number of existentially possible options: he/she projects a context in which the response is so far un- negotiated and, trying out one of the options, offers it for the hearer to concur with or reject Concurrence or rejection will, it is acknowledged, alter the speaker’s world view With referring tone, the speaker tentatively projects a context in which the response has been negotiated: all he/she asks of a respondent is confirmation (or denial) that the assumption he/she is making about the

common ground is the proper one We may say that he/she modifies his/her world view in advance

and submits the modification for the hearer’s approval.”

In the following example from Brazil (1997: 108)

//p WILL you have COFfee//

a proclaimed version suggests either one of a range of things the hearer might care

to drink:

coffee Will you have tea ?

etc

or perhaps, one of a range of things he/she might care to do (take a bath, go for a walk, ect.) The version with referring tone confirms the guest’s concurrence with the proposal:

//R WILL you have COFfee//

Brazil (1997: 110) said that the longstanding tradition that ‘falling’ tone occurs with elicitation of information questions He also added that “…it is not the only kind of situation in which information elicitations are produced” The two following examples are adapted by Brazil (1997:111):

(1) // p WHAT TIME is it//

(2) // r WHAT TIME is it//

The first example projects a context of interaction in which a respondent is expected to select from a set of times, while the second example characteristically has the kind of checking function that might otherwise be realized with a Yes/No elicitation like: ‘Is it as late as I think it is?’ or ‘Isn’t it time we were leaving?’

Brazil (1997: 112) made a conclusion about the P/R system in both types of questions-information questions and Yes/No questions

“With both types, the choice of a referring tone projects the speaker’s wish to have his/her assumptions confirmed with respect to a truth which he/she presents as having been negotiated Proclaiming tones used with both types projects a wish that the respondent should provide a selection from a so-far unnegotiated set.”

2.3 Stress-timed language vs syllable-timed language

Avery and Ehrlich (1992: 73) and Celce-Murcia et al (1996: 152) claimed that “English is a stress-timed language” which the length of a sentence is affected

by the amount of stressed syllables Meanwhile, in syllable-timed language, the length of an utterance is determined the number of syllables The following sentences are used to illustrate the stressed-time nature of English:

The birds eat the worms

The birds will eat the worms

The birds will have eaten the worms

Avery and Ehrlich (1992:74)

Hence, it is very difficult for learners whose native language is timed language because they usually give equal stress to every syllable in an utterance and this may lead to incomprehensibility of their English

syllable-2.4 Intonation patterns of questions

Intonation doesn’t exist in isolation So it makes sense to approach it along with factors such as grammar, the speaker’s emotions, feelings, or attitudes Here, the relationship between intonation and grammar is initially discussed

2.4.1 Normal intonation patterns of questions

2.4.1.1 Yes/No questions

According to Celce-Murcia et al (1996: 201), rising intonation is used in unmarked Yes/No questions1 In addition, Halliday (1970: 23) pointed out that rising tone is used in Yes/No questions where the speaker is sure that he does not know the answer, and that addressee knows the answer Consider the following question uttered with a rising tone, the answer of which could be one of the three options:

Is he NICE?

i Yes

ii No

iii I don’t know

Celce-Murcia et al (1996: 201) also added that “Since the intonation can rise

on whichever constituent is in focus, this intonation pattern often has two or three possible contours depending on the syntactic complexity and length of the question” It is illustrated by the following example adapted from Celce-Murcia et

al (1996: 201):

Did JOHN COOK DINner?

Did JOHN COOK DINner?

A statement pronounced with rising tone is considered as an uninverted question (Celce-Murcia et al 1996: 202) This kind of Yes/No questions can take two different prosodic patterns The first pattern has normal stress and rising intonation, however, it has several possible contours because of the difference on

primary stress and rise on constituents in focus Excellent examples for this pattern are adapted from Celce-Murcia et al (1996: 202):

JOHN COOK DINner? (focus on dinner)

JOHN COOKED DINNER? (focus on John)

JOHN COOKED DINner? (focus on cooked)

Meanwhile, the second pattern has emphatic stress, high pitch, and exaggerated intonation on one or two focused constituents to express the speaker’s surprise or disbelief Again, several contours are possible in focus:

JOHN COOKED DINner? (focus on dinner)

JOHNCOOKED DINner? (focus on John)

JOHN COOKED DINner? (focus on cooked)

JOHN COOKED DINner? (focus on entire proposition)

2.4.1.2 Wh- questions

Halliday (1970: 23) stated that falling tone is used in Wh-questions Similarly, Brazil (1997: 110) also proposed that falling tone occurs in this type of question as the longstanding tradition

WHY is she CRY ing?

WHAT can I DO for YOU?

However, according to Celce-Murcia et al (1996: 204), “Wh-questions follow the same rising-falling intonation as statements when they are unmarked, with the rise corresponding to the most prominent element in the utterance” They also added that “Often with Wh-questions, there are two or more different contours depending on whether the result of the action or the agent of the action is in focus”

WHAT did ANN BRING? (focus on result)

WHAT did ANN BRING? (focus on agent)

In addition, Celce-Murcia et al (1996: 185, 186) also gave an indepth explanation about this type of intonation “Rising-falling intonation patterns of the 2-3-1 ‘certain’ type (i.e., the utterance begins at level 2, rises to level 3, and then falls

to level 1) typically signal the following types of utterances: declarative statements,

Wh-questions, and commands or directives”