Intonation
In
chapter 6, the use of pitch as a phonetic feature was discussed in reference to
tone languages and intonation languages. In this chapter we have disscused the
use of phonetic features to distinguish meaning. We can now see that pitch can
be a phonetic feature in languages such as Chinese, or Thai, or Akan. Such
relative pitch are referred to phonologically as contrasting tones. We also
pointed out that there are languages that are not tone languages, such as
English. Pitch may still play an important role. It is the pitch contour or
intonation of the phrase or sentence that is important.
In
English, syntactic differences may be shown by different intonation contours.
We say John is going as a statement with a falling pitch, but as a question with
the pitch rising at the end of the sentence.
A
sentence which is ambiguous when it is written may be unambiguous when spoken.
For example :
1.
Tristram left direction for Isolde to follow.
If
Tristram wanted Isolde to follow him, the sentence would be pronounced with the
rise in pitch on the first syllable of follow, fllowed by a fall in pitch, as
in (2)
2.
Tristram left directions for Isolade to follow.
The
sentence can also mean that Tristram left a set of directions he wanted Isolde
to use. If this is the intention, the highest pitch comes on the second
syllable of directions as in (3) :
3.
Tristram left directions for Isolde to follow.
The
way we have indicated pitch is of course highly oversimplified. Before the big
rise in pitch the voice does not remain on the same low pitch. These diagrams
indicate merely when there is a special change in pitch.
The
primary function of intonation is to indicate sentence meaning, but many
linguist would also say that it has other functions. One is to signal the attitude
of the speaker. Feelings of anger, impatience, relief, surprise, and so on, can
all be expressed through intonation as well as by the words we use. For
example, the well-known Australian habit of ending a statement with a rise in
pitch indicates uncertainly usually a desire on the part of the speaker to
check that the message has been understood.
Although
we talk about intonation solely in terms of pitch contour, or direction, there
are other pitch features that affect our preception of sentences. Pitch range
(the degree of difference between the high pitches and the low pitches)
indicate emotional involvement. The range tends to widen with excitement, and
to narrow with boredom or wearniess. Pitch height tends to vary with the
familiarity of he context; the average pitch of the voice is often lower in
more intimate situations.
Such
variation in intonation is often parallelled by a difference in other prosodic
feature such as loudness; just as voice that is soft and low can signal warm
friendliness, loud tones with a raised pitch will often interpreted as
overbearing or aggresive. Rate of utterence serves several function. Variation
in the speed of talking may mark grammatical boundaries, indicate parenthetical
statements (‘Raelene’s boyfriend you know the one i mean called over last
nigh’), or may, like the other features, show differences in the intensity of
feeling.
Sentence
(4) can display a range of attitudes or ‘meaning’ depending on the prosodic
features which are associated with the words :
(4)
Come here
Varying
degrees of loudness, pitch range and height, combined with either fast or slow
utterance, will make the sentence sound peremptory, quietly menacing, or
resigned in tone, or could turn it into an intimate invitation. All these can
be expressed even though the pitch contour retains its standard falling pattern.
Word
stress
In English and many other languages, one or more of
the syllables in each content word (words other the ‘little words’ such as to,
the, a, of, and so on) are stressed. The stressed sylable is marked by an acute
accent ( ’) in the following examples :
These minimal pairs show that is contrastive in
English; it distinguishes between nouns and verbs.
In some words, more than one vowel is tressed, but if
so, one of these stressed vowels receives greater stress than the others. We
have indicated the most highly stressed vowel by an acute accent ( ’) over the
vowel (we say this vowel receives the accent, or primary stress, or main
stress); the other stressed vowels are indicated by marking a grave (`) over
the vowels (these vowels receive secondary stress).
Generally, speakers of a language know which syllable
receives primary stress or accent, which receives secondary stress, and which
syllables are not stressed at all; it is part of their knowledge of the
language. Sometimes it is hard to distinguish between primary and secondary
stress, but it is easier to distinguish between stressed and unstressed
syllables.
The stress pattern of a word may differ from dialect
to dialect. For example, in British and Australasian English the word
labo`ratory has only one stressed syllable; in most varieties of American
English it has two. Because the vowel qualities in English are closely related
to whether they are stressed or not, the British and Australasian vowels differ
from the American vowels in this word; in fact, the American version has an
‘extra’ vowel because of the way it is stressed.
Just as stressed syllables in poetry reveal the
metrical structure of the verse, phonological stress patterns relate to the
metrical structure of a language.
We can than, specify which syllable in the word is
stressed by marking the vowel in that syllable (because vowels constitute the
syllable peaks) as either [+ stress] or [- stress]. We can also designate
stress by numbers. The primary stressed or accented vowel can be designated by
placing a ‘1’ over the vowels; secondary stress can be designated by a ‘2’;
unstressed vowels are left unmarked.
Alternatively, we can use a system popular in many
dictionaries (including the Macquarie Dictionary): high and low vertical bars
indicate the two levels of stress.
Stress is property of a syllable rather than a
segment, so it is a prosodic or suprasegnental feature. Tone may also be a
property of a syllable rather than a single vowel; it, too, then, would be a
suprasegmental feature.
To produce a stressed syllable, we may change the
pitch (usually by raising it), make the syllable louder, or make it longer. We
often use all three of these phonetic features to stress a syllable.
Sentence
and phrase stress
When words are combined into phrases and sentences,
one of the syllables receives greater stress than all other. That is, just as
there is only one primary stress in a word spoken in isolation (foe example, in
a list), only one of the vowels in a phrase (or sentence) receives primary
stress or accent; all the other stressed vowels are ‘reduced’ to secondary
stress. A syllable that receives the main stress when the word is not in a
phrase may have only secondary stress in a phrase. Is illustrated by these
examples :
In English, we place primary stress on an adjective
followed by a noun when the two words are combined in a compound noun (usually,
but not always, written as one sound), but we place the stress on the noun when
the words are not joined in this way. The differences between the pairs above
are therefore predictable :
These minimal pairs show that stress may be
predictable if phonological rules include non-phonological information; that
is, the phonology is not independent of the rest of the grammar. The stress
differences between the noun and verb pairs (foe example, subject as noun and
verb) discussed in the previous section are also predictable from the word
category.
In the English sentences we used to illustrate
intonation contours, we may also describe the differences by referring to the
word on which the main stress is placed, as in the following examples :
1 Tristram left directions for Isolde to follow.
2. Tristram left directions for Isolde to follow.
In sentence (1) the primary stress is on the word
follow, and in sentence (2) the primary stress is on directions.
