Lecture 7 Intonation 2 Lec. Maha Alwasidi

In Kono, a language of west Africa, we find the following: There are many languages in which the tone can determine the meaning of a word, and changing from one tone to another can completely change the meaning. * Examples, In Kono, a language of west Africa, we find the following: ¯ buu (horn) _buu (to be cross) *In Mandarin Chinese ¯ ma (‘mother’) ˏ ma (‘hemp’) ˎma (‘scold’) Languages such as the above are called tone languages. English, however, is not a tone language, and the function of tone in languages like English is syntactic more than meaningful. Such languages are called intonation languages. Lec. Maha Alwasidi

Examples of some functions of English tones: Falling ˎyes ˎno This tone about which least needs to be said, and which is usually regarded as more or less “natural”. If someone is asked a question and replies ˎ yes or ˎ no, it will be understood that the question is now answered and that there is nothing to be said. The fall could be said to give an expression of “finality” Rising ˏyes ˏno In a variety of ways, this tone conveys an impression that something more is to follow; a typical occurrence in a dialogue between two speakers whom we shall call A and B might be the following: A (wishing to attract B’s attention): Excuse me. B: ˏyes (B’s replay is, perhaps, equivalent to what do you want?) Another occurrence would be A: Do you know Norah? Lec. Maha Alwasidi

A: I’ve heard that it is a good school. B: ˬyes Rise-fall ̭yes ̭no Fall-rise ˬyes ˬno The fall-rise is used a lot in English and has some rather special functions. In the present context we will only consider one fairly simple which could perhaps be described as ‘limited agreement’ or ‘response with reservation'. For example, A: I’ve heard that it is a good school. B: ˬyes Rise-fall ̭yes ̭no This is used to convay rather strong feelings of approval, disapproval or surprise. It is not considered to be an important tone for foreign learners to acquire, although it is still useful to practice to learn to distinguish it from other tones. Here is an example. A: You would not do an awful thing like that, would you? B: ̭no Lec. Maha Alwasidi

A teacher calling the names of pupils. Level ˍyes ˍ no This tone is certainly used in English, but in a rather restricted context; it almost always convays a feeling of saying something routine, uninteresting or boring. Example, A teacher calling the names of pupils. A speech in which every syllable is said on the same level pitch, with no pauses and no changes in speed or loudness is refered to as ‘mechanical speech’. Lec. Maha Alwasidi

* Functions of Intonations * 1. Attitudinal function. Intonation enables us to express emotions and attitudes as we speak, and this adds a special kind of meaning to spoken language. this is often called the attitudinal function of intonation. 2. Accentual function. Intonation helps to produce the effect of prominence on syllables that need to be perceived as stressed, and in particular the placing of tonic stress on a particular syllable marks out the word to which it belongs as the most important in the tone-unit. 3. Grammatical function. The listener is better able to recognize the grammar and syntactic structure of what is being said by using information contained in the intonation;for example, the placement of boundaries between phrases, clauses or sentences, and the difference between questions and statements. Lec. Maha Alwasidi

4. Discourse function. Looking at the act of speaking in a broader way, we can see that intonation can signal to the listener what is to be taken as ‘new’ information and what is already ‘given’. Intonation can convey to the listener what kind of response is expected. Lec. Maha Alwasidi