TONICITY: WHERE DOES THE NUCLEUS GO?

TONICITY

BASIC PRINCIPLES

THE OLD & THE NEW

BROAD & NARROW FOCUS

TONICITY:

EXCEPTIONS

FINAL BUT NOT NUCLEAR

NUCLEUS ON LAST NOUN

PHRASAL VERBS

NUCLEUS ON A FUNCTION WORD

CONTRASTIVE FOCUS

TONICITY-BASIC PRINCIPLES

ON A STRESSED SYLLABLE ON OR NEAR THE LAST WORD CONTENT WORDS AND FUNCTION WORDS

TONICITY-BASIC PRINCIPLES

ON A STRESSED SYLLABLE

Within each intonation phrase , we select a word as particularly important for the meaning. Here we place the nucleus (nuclear accent) That syllable bears the nuclear tone:
Fall Rise Fall-rise Rise-fall

TONICITY-BASIC PRINCIPLES

PHONETICALLY When we accent a syllable we give: A prominent change in pitch or movement in pitch or the start of pitch movement. An accented syllable is always rhythmically stressed, it has a rhythmic beat. PRAGMATICALLY When we accent a word, we accent its stressed syllable .

This indicates the importance or relevance of the word for what we are saying.

TONICITY-BASIC PRINCIPLES
The most important decision the speaker

makes in selecting an intonation pattern is to decide:

Where the nucleus goes The nucleus is the last word to be accented This choice is known as the TONICITY of the intonation phrase.

TONICITY-BASIC PRINCIPLES
HOW TO DECIDE WHERE THE NUCLUES GO:

The nucleus must go on a stressed syllable.

By stressed syllable we mean the syllable that has

LEXICAL stress. To make the word the nucleus of an IP we put the tone on its lexically stressed syllable. NEVER we accent the first syllable ANNOYED- we accent the last syllable TOMORROW- we accent the second syllable FINE we accent its only syllable

TONICITY-BASIC PRINCIPLES
EXAMPLES: Have you been to

"Never An"noyed To"morrow "Fine

Canada? How did he look? Whens the test? How are you feeling?

ON OR NEAR THE LAST WORD

The nucleus is usually placed on or near the last word.

By definition, the nuclear accent is the last accent in the IP. The general tendency is for the nucleus to be towards the end of the IP

Example: I "want to buy a "lemon.

CONTENT WORDS AND FUNCTION WORDS

Words can be divided into two broad categories:

CONTENT

Nouns Adjectives Most verbs Most adverbs Pronouns Prepositions Articles Auxiliary verbs Modal verbs

FUNCTION

CONTENT WORDS AND FUNCTION WORDS

Generally speaking:
We

accent content words but not function words. The nucleus is typically placed on the last content word in an IP In particular, the nucleus does not usually go on a function word. Function words bear the nucleus only if special circumstances apply.

CONTENT WORDS AND FUNCTION WORDS

SELECTION STRATEGY
Start

from the end of the IP and work back. Work back towards the beginning, ignoring any function word, unless special circumstances apply. The nucleus should go on the first content word you encounter as you move backwards.
Example:

I think you ought to "tell me about it.