INTONATION

PREPARED BY:
ABDULRAHMAN ALYOUSEF
KHALID AL GHAMDI
 Definition :
 Intonation is a part of
suprasegmental phonology .
 It is mainly a change of
pitchmovement .
 e.g "yes" can be said in many
ways.
 Yes Yes Yes Yes
 Each one has different meaning .

 Languages and Tone
 * Languages are divided into tone and
intonation languages. Tone languages
are like Chinese which depends on the
tone .

 e.g. the word " ma " in Chinses has
defferent meanings . It could mean
(mother- scold- hemp)
 depending on how it is pronounced.

 * English is not a tone language but it
uses intonation .
 *** Languages without intonation is
No languages is spoken in a
monotone
In fact, no languages is


spoken in a monotone.
 Every one has a melody of
its own.
 So it is already exist in our
language but we will focus
on how it is working in
details.
The Main Terms
 The main terms that we will study in
the concept of intonation are :
- tone unit
- tonic syllable
- pitch-
- pause
 Through these terms we will study the
forms and the functions of intonation.

Four important points:
 In the beginning we will start with
four important points to get the
concept of intonation.
 * The first point is to divide the
tone units .

 Q. What is tone unit?
 The tone unit or tone
group means a word or
a group of words in
which you believe that
constitute full meaning .
OR . Group of words
between two pauses.


 It could be one word or more.
 E.g. the word "Hello" if you
believe that it is meaningful
then it is a tone unit. Also
sometimes some words can't
be a tone unit, e.g. "to my
school"
 It is not a tone unit because it is
not meaningful.
 The tone unit must convey a
message and this message is
 In addition, we should know that the
tone unit is not related to the
sentences because some
sentences are two or three lines
and we can't consider these lines
as one form. So you have to divide
the tone units .
 In other words , you have to pause
in the right place.
 e.g. if you have a paragraph , you
can't read it in one level like a
machine but you have to divide
 Pause is where you stop. The
main function of pause is to
breath . Therefore, it is a
matter of fact that you pause
whether you like or don't.
 In intonation we need to pause
because you may mis-convey
the message.
 e.g. " Those who lie often get caught
"
 What does this sentence
 So it is related to the
speaker and the listener.
 As a speaker you have to
know where to stop.
 As a listener you have to
decide and recognize what
does the speaker mean by
this.?




 The second point is to

recognize the tonic
syllable .
 Q. What is the tonic syllable?
 It is the most important syllable in the
tone unit and every tone unit
must have a tonic syllable.
 It is the most prominent syllable in
the utterance over which the pitch
variation takes place.
 Q. What is pitch ?

  
 Pitch is the change of sound.
 It is determined by the vibration of vocal
cords. If you have a low vibration , you
will have a low level of pitch. And vice
versa.
 So vocal cords tell that there is high or
low level of pitch.
 Now, find the tonic syllable:
 "I am going to London"
 "I came yesterday"
 " I like grammar very much"

 OK.
 Q. where is the tonic
syllable in the tone unit?
 Q. Does it have an exact
place?

 The tonic syllable keeps
changing. How?
 It is related to many factors.

 They are effected by the stress.
 Tonic syllable must be stressed.
 1. As you know stress could be used for
new information. Then tonic syllable
will occur in the last lexical words.
 e.g. Where do you live?
 I live in Sana'a
 2. Stress also could be used to be
contrastive.
 e.g. Are going to Paris tomorrow ?
 I am going to London tomorrow.
 The tonic syllable will be in the opposite
word or information which is "London"
in the previous example.

 3. In addition, stress could be
emphatic.
 e.g. Do like Tennis ?
 I like it very much.
 The word "very" is neither new
information nor contrastive but it
is just stressed for emphasizing.
 We have to remember that these
types of stress are depending on
the questions which are asked.
Then you will have the exact
place of the tonic syllable.

 As we mentioned before , this point is
related to the speaker and the
listener.
 As a speaker you have to decide
where the tonic syllable is going to
be.
 As a listener you have to understand
and recognize where is the most
important information in the
utterance.?
 RULE:
 " If there are words repeated in the
question , they are not going to
have the tonic syllable”.
