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Tone Unit
For the purpose of intonation analysis, a unit which is generally greater in size than the syllable is
required – tone- unit (In its smallest form it may, however, consist of one syllable only).
is an utterance of 3 syllables, consisting of _______ tone-unit and the only syllable which
carries a tone is the ______ one.
Thus, a syllable which carries a tone is called a _____________________. Such syllables have a high
Some authors use terms nucleus and nuclear stress for tonic syllable and tonic stress.
Example:
Example:
The rest of the tone-unit in this example is called ________________. The head is all of that part of a
tone-unit which extends from the 1st stressed syllable up to, but not including, the tonic syllable.
For example:
The _________________________ consists of all unstressed syllables in a tone-unit preceding the 1st
stressed syllable.
Pre-heads can be found:
1. ______________________________________________________________________________
for example:
2. _______________________________________________________________________________
for example:
It often happens that some syllables follow the tonic syllable. Any syllables between the tonic syllable
and the end of the tone-unit are regarded as the ________________.
Example
If there are other syllables which follow the tonic syllable (if there exists a tale), the pitch movement
of the tone does not seem to be _______________________ on the tonic syllable.
If a tail follows a tonic syllable, almost always the tail syllable/syllables continues to move
_________________from the pitch of the tonic syllable.
Obviously, the pitch of the syllables in the tail is getting progressively ___________________. Thus,
the pitch movement is completed over the rest of the tone-unit (the tail), not within the tonic
syllable.
The similar situation can be found within the falling tone. On a single syllable the pitch
If there are syllables which follow, the fall is not completed on the tonic syllable.
Fall-rise and rise-fall tones can be difficult to recognize if they are extended over tails because their
typical pitch movements are frequently broken up by the structure of the syllables they occur on.
For example:
If a syllable is added, the fall is carried by the _____________ tonic syllable and the rise part by the
____________________one.
For example:
If there are 2 or more syllables in the tail, the syllable which immediately follows the tonic syllable is
always ________________________ and other syllables which follow are __________________.
Different pitch possibilities in the head can be observed, although they are limited to two:
The stressed syllable which begins the head is high in pitch within the high-head case.
The stressed syllable beginning the head is low within the low-head case. To mark such stressed
syllable a symbol as in ”low” is used.
If there is a tail of 2 or more syllables the normal pitch movement falls on the tonic syllable and
remains _______________ until the last stressed syllable in the tail. The pitch subsequently
________________from that point to the end of the tone-unit. If there is no stressed syllable in the
It is normal for unstressed syllables to continue the pitch of the _____________________ syllables: