The tonal (pitch) subsystem of utterance prosody. Units of its analysis. Tones and tonal contours
Pitch subsystem, units of its analysis (see #20)
The basic unit used to describe the pitch component is the tone. Depending on whether the pitch of the voice varies or remains unvaried tones are subdivided into kinetic and static. Static tones may have different pitch level of the voice — the high static tone, the mid static tone, the low static tone. The differentiation of kinetic tones as high falling and low falling, high rising and low rising, etc. is also based on the differentiation of the pitch level of their initial and final points.
A tone contour is a tone which shifts from one pitch to another over the course of the syllable or word. When the pitch descends, the contour is called a falling tone; when it ascends, a rising tone; when it descends and then returns, a dipping or falling-rising tone; and when it ascends and then returns, it is called a peaking or rising-falling tone. A tone which remains at approximately an even pitch is called a level tone.
The structure of a prosodic contour (intonation group) in English. The functions of its elements
A PROSODIC CONTOUR/INTONATION GROUP is hierarchically higher than a rhythmic group. It is a division in which not only stresses, but pitch and duration (i.e. intonation in the broad sense) play a role.
Structure and functions:
1. THE NUCLEUS STRESS - falls on the semantically most important word (expresses communicative and attitudinal meanings, indicates the end of the intonation group)
2. THE PREHEAD - unstressed syllables preceding the 1st stressed one (the onset, determines the pitch movement within the intonation group)
3. THE HEAD - the 1st stressed syllable and the following stressed and unstressed ones
4. THE TAIL - unstressed or partially stressed syllables following the nucleus (not an independent functional element of an intonation group, since its pitch variations are determined by the nuclear tone)
Basic types of prosodic contours in English
The number of actual utterances produced by native speakers of English is obviously unlimited, yet they can be reduced to a comparatively small list of basic intonation patterns. The discrimination of the basic patterns relies primarily on the directional type of nuclear pitch change:
1. THE RISING TONE PATTERN
2. THE FALLING TONE PATTERN
3. THE FALLING-RISING TONE PATTERN
4. THE RISING-FALLING TONE PATTERN
Since the structure of an intonation group is changeable, each tone pattern is realized in a number of tunes. The most important subdivision is into tunes having head and those without a head.
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The rising tone pattern:
1. High/Stepping Head + High Narrow Rise (strong interrogative force transforming any sentence-type into a question)
2. High/Stepping Head + Low Wide Rise (interested, concerned, friendly)
3. Low Head + Low Narrow Rise (calm, disapproving)
The falling tone pattern:
1. High/Stepping Head + Mid Wide/Low Narrow Fall (calm, serious, hostile)
2. High/Stepping Head + High Wide Rise (light, lively, insistent)
The falling-rising tone pattern:
1. Sliding/Faling Head + Fall-Rise Undivided (contradicting, warning)
2. Stepping/High Head + Fall-Rise Divided (appealing, cordial)
The rising-falling tone pattern:
Stepping/High Head + Rise-Fall Contour (impressed, quizzical, challenging)
Utterance stress in English, its phonetic nature and function. The relationship between utterance stress and word stress in English
UTTERANCE STRESS - the special prominence given to 1 or more words in an utterance. The means, with the help of which this prominence is achieved are variations of pitch, loudness, length and quality. Acoustically utterance stress is determined by variations of fundamental frequency, intensity, duration and formant structure.
Functions:
1. CONSTITUTIVE - stresses form the utterance by integrating words
2. SEGMENTATIVE AND DELIMITATIVE - stresses segment the speech continuum into rhythmic units, intonation groups and utterances, and delimit them 1 from another
3. DISTINCTIVE - differentiate utterances to their meaning, conditioning by the position and type of stress
4. IDENTIFICATORY - provide a basis for the hearer’s identification of the important parts and for his understanding of the content.
The accentual structure of an utterance is conditioned by the stress patterns of its words. Word stress and utterance stress are in close relation. Whenever utterance stress occurs it will normally fall on a syllable which also has word stress. The difference is that word stress is an essential part of word-shape, whereas utterance stress is a feature of an utterance.
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