Intonation (linguistics)

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Not to be confused with inflection, tone (linguistics), or pitch accent. In linguistics, intonation is variation of pitch while speaking which is not used to distinguish words. It contrasts with tone, in which pitch variation does distinguish words. Intonation, rhythm, and stress are the three main elements of linguistic prosody. Intonation patterns in some languages, such as Swedish and Swiss German, can lead to conspicuous fluctuations in pitch, giving speech a sing-song quality.[1] Fluctuations in pitch either involve a rising pitch or a falling pitch. Intonation is found in every language and even in tonal languages, but the realisation and function are seemingly different. It is used in

non-tonal languages to add attitudes to words (attitudinal function) and to differentiate between wh-questions, yes-no questions, declarative statements, commands, requests, etc. Intonation can also be used for discourse analysis where new information is realised by means of intonation. It can also be used for emphatic/contrastive purposes. All languages use pitch pragmatically as intonation for instance for emphasis, to convey surprise or irony, or to pose a question. Tonal languages such as Chineseand Hausa use pitch for distinguishing words in addition to providing intonation. Generally speaking, the following intonations are distinguished:

Rising Intonation means the pitch of the voice increases over time []; Falling Intonation means that the pitch decreases with time []; Dipping Intonation falls and then rises []; Peaking Intonation rises and then falls [].

Those with congenital amusia show impaired ability to discriminate, identify and imitate the intonation of the final words in sentences.[2]
Contents

o o

1 Transcription 2 Uses of intonation 3 Intonation in English 4 Intonation in French 4.1 Summary 4.2 Detail

5 See also 6 References

4.2.1 Continuation pattern 4.2.2 Finality pattern 4.2.3 Yes/no pattern 4.2.4 Information question pattern

[edit]Transcription

In the International Phonetic Alphabet, global rising and falling intonation are marked with a diagonal arrow rising left-to-right [] and falling left-to-right [],

respectively. These may be written as part of a syllable, or separated with a space when they have a broader scope: He found it on the street? [ hi fand t | n stit ] Here the rising pitch on street indicates that the question hinges on that word, on where he found it, not whether he found it. Yes, he found it on the street. [js hi fand t | n stit ] How did you ever escape? [ha ddju | v | skep ] Here, as is common with wh- questions, there is a rising intonation on the question word, and a falling intonation at the end of the question. More detailed transcription systems for intonation have also been developed, such as ToBI (Tones and Break Indices), RaP (Rhythm and Pitch), and INTSINT [3].
[edit]Uses

of intonation

The uses of intonation can be divided into six categories:

[4]:ch.6

informational: for example, in English I saw a

man in the garden answers "Who did you see?" or "What happened?", while I saw a man in the garden answers "Did you hear a man in the garden?"
grammatical: for example, in English a rising pitch

turns a statement into a yes-no question, as in He's going home? This use of intonation to express grammatical mood is its primary grammatical use (though whether this grammatical function actually exists is controversial).[4]:pp.140, 151 Some languages, like Chickasaw and Kalaallisut, have the opposite pattern from English: rising for statements and falling with questions.

 illocution: the intentional force is signaled in, for

example, English Why don't you move to California? (a question) versus Why don't you move to California? (a suggestion).
attitudinal: high declining pitch signals more

excitement than does low declining pitch, as in English Good morning versus Good morning.
textual: linguistic organization beyond the sentence

is signaled by the absence of a statement-ending decline in pitch, as in English The lecture was canceled [high pitch on both syllables of "canceled", indicating continuation]; the speaker was ill. versus The lecture was canceled. [high pitch on first syllable of "canceled", but declining pitch on the second syllable, indicating the end of the first thought] The speaker was ill.
indexical: group membership can be indicated by

the use of intonation patterns adopted specifically by that group, such as street vendors, preachers, and possibly women in some cases (see high rising terminal.)
[edit]Intonation

in English

Halliday and Greaves[5] have made a detailed case that three types of meaningstextual, interpersonal, and logicalare all in part achieved through intonation. This is done, they have argued, through the choices we make in terms of (i) rising and falling pitch contour, (ii) where we locate that contour as part of a clause, throughout a whole clause, or over more than a single clause; and (iii) the shape of the contour. According to some accounts, American English pitch has four levels: low (1), middle (2), high (3), and very high (4). Normal conversation is usually at middle or high pitch; low pitch occurs at the end of utterances other than yes-no

questions, while high pitch occurs at the end of yes-no questions. Very high pitch is for strong emotion or emphasis.[1]:p.184 Pitch can indicate attitude: for example, Greatuttered in isolation can indicate weak emotion (with pitch starting medium and dropping to low), enthusiasm (with pitch starting very high and ending low), or sarcasm (with pitch starting and remaining low). Declarative sentences show a 2-3-1 pitch pattern. If the last syllable is prominent the final decline in pitch is a glide. For example, in This is fun, this is is at pitch 2, and fun starts at level 3 and glides down to level 1. But if the last prominent syllable is not the last syllable of the utterance, the pitch fall-off is a step. For example, in That can be frustrating, That can be has pitch 2, frus- has level 3, and both syllables of -trating have pitch 1.[1]:p.185 Whquestions work the same way, as in Who (2) will (2) help (31)? and Who (2) did (3) it (1)? But if something is left unsaid, the final pitch level 1 is replaced by pitch 2. Thus in John's (2) sick (32) ..., with the speaker indicating more to come, John's has pitch 2 while sick starts at pitch 3 and drops only to pitch 2. Yes-no questions with a 23 intonation pattern[3] usually have subject-verb inversion, as in Have (2) you (2) got (2) a (2) minute (3, 3)? (Here a 24 contour would show more emotion, while a 12 contour would show uncertainly.) Another example is Has (2) the (2) plane (3) left (3) already (3, 3, 3)?, which, depending on the word to be emphasized, could move the location of the rise, as in Has (2) the (2) plane (2) left (3) already (3, 3, 3)? or Has (2) the (2) plane (2) left (2) already (2, 3, 3)? And for example the latter question could also be framed without subject-verb inversion but with the same pitch contour: The (2) plane (2) has (2) left (2) already (2, 3, 3)? Tag questions with declarative intent at the end of a declarative statement follow a 31 contour rather than a rising contour, since they are not actually intended as yes-

no questions, as in We (2) should (2) visit (3, 1) him (1), shouldn't (3, 1) we (1)? But tag questions exhibiting uncertainty, which are interrogatory in nature, have the usual 23 contour, as in We (2) should (2) visit (3, 1) him (1),shouldn't (3, 3) we (3)? Questions with or can be ambiguous in English writing with regard to whether they are either-or questions or yes-no questions. But intonation in speech eliminates the ambiguity. For example, Would (2) you (2) like (2) juice (3) or (2) soda (3, 1)? emphasizes juice and soda separately and equally and ends with a decline in pitch, thus indicating that this is not a yes-no question but rather a choice question equivalent to Which would you like: juice or soda? In contrast, Would (2) you (2) like (2) juice (3) or (3) soda (3, 3)? has yes-no intonation and thus is equivalent to Would you like something to drink (such as juice or soda)? Thus the two basic sentence pitch contours are risingfalling and rising. However, other within-sentence rises and falls result from the placement of prominence on the stressed syllables of certain words. Note that for declaratives or wh-questions with a final decline, the decline is located as a step-down to the syllable after the last prominently stressed syllable, or as a down-glide on the last syllable itself if it is prominently stressed. But for final rising pitch on yes-no questions, the rise always occurs as an upward step to the last stressed syllable, and the high (3) pitch is retained through the rest of the sentence. Pitch also plays a role in distinguishing acronyms that might otherwise be mistaken for common words. For example, in the phrase "Nike asks that you PLAY Participate in the Lives of America's Youth",[6] the acronym PLAY may be pronounced with a high tone to distinguish it from the verb 'play', which would also make sense in this context. Alternatively, each letter could be said individually, soPLAY might become "P-L-A-Y" or

"P.L.A.Y.". However, the high tone is only employed for disambiguation and is therefore contrastive intonation rather than true lexical tone. Dialects of British and Irish English vary substantially,
[7]

with rises on many statements in urban Belfast, and falls

on most questions in urban Leeds. [3]

[edit]