Department of English

Islamic University, Bangladesh

Lecture Outline
Listening and Speaking Skills (1103)1

KLP: Definition of stress; Stress Variation: Word stress, Sentence stress, Stress shifting.

Stress
a. Physiologically, stress means greater articulatory effort. By putting stress on particular segments
we give it greater prominence. Various types of meaning are conveyed by distributing stress
pattern over speech segment in a controlled manner. (Dr. Sharad Rajimwale : 1997).
b. Stress is the term we use to describe the point in a word or phrase where pitch changes, vowels
lengthen, and volume increases. (Jeremy Harmer: 2003).
c. Extreme force used when speaking a particular word or syllable. (OXD: 2000).
d. Stress is the degree of force with which a sound or a syllable is uttered (RN Roy: 1992).
The word stress, in the study of language, can be defined as the muscular force or pressure given upon a
particular segment of a sound, a syllable, a word, a phrase or a sentence while speaking. It is used to
give prominence to the particular segments of our utterances that carry or convey meaning.

Why Stress
a. To convey meaning (the stressed part of any utterance carries meaning)
b. To make communication successful
c. To maintain the rhythm of the particular speech sound or language etc.
Major Aspects of Stress
a. Four Factors of Prominence : i) Loudness ; ii) Length ; iii) Pitch ; iv) Quality.
b. Marking the Stressed segment : i) Underlining [ ___ ] ; ii) Upward [ ' ] and Down ward straight line [ ‚ ]
; iii) Curve / Half moon / Crescent [ ] ; iv) Capitalization ; v) Circling [ ] etc.
c. Stressed or Not : i) Stressed segment/ part ; iii) Unstressed segment / part.
d. Level of Stress : i) Primary Stress (High Pitch Production of utterance) expressed
through a superscript mark; ii) Secondary Stress (Low pitch utterance).
e. Stress Variation : i) Word Stress ; ii) Phrasal or Sentence Stress, iii) Stress Shifting.
Type of stress
Three types of stress can be found in English
Primary Stress
Primary stress refers to the strong emphasis a speaker puts on the most important syllable of a particular
word.
Secondary Stress
Secondary stress refers to a less strong emphasis on the next most important syllable.
Zero Stress
Zero stress refers to any syllable that receives no stress, and it is also called unstressed syllable.
Special Type of Stress
Emphatic stress

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Prodip Kumar Adhikari, Associate Professor, Department of English, Islamic University, Bangladesh
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 Contrastive stress
Corrective stress
Emphatic Stress: To show that the meaning of something is of special importance. Stress can change
the focus and meaning of a sentence.
Examples
Did YOU drive to Rapid last weekend?
Did you DRIVE to Rapid last weekend?
Did you drive to RAPID last weekend?
Did you drive to Rapid LAST weekend?
Contrastive Stress : Stress the elements which need to be contrasted for clarity.
Examples
Are you going to go outside or stay inside for recess today?
Did you lose your math book or your reading book?
Are you walking or taking the bus?
Corrective Stress : To show or give the correct information.
Examples
"They've been to Mongolia, haven't they?"
"No, THEY haven't, but WE have.
Word Stress
Word stress generally refers to that particular segment or syllable of a word that is accentuated or made
prominent. [While uttering a monosyllable word we normally accentuate it or make it louder; but in our
normal speaking or oral communication we do not utter any word in isolation except some expressions
namely ‘yes’, ‘’no’; some adverbs namely ‘perhaps’, ‘probably’, ‘possibly’; some ‘wh’ namely ‘what’,
‘where’, ‘when’, ‘how’ etc. In most cases, therefore, communication is an attempt of uttering a
collection of word or chunk of sound in combination. This collection of words may be monosyllabic or
multi-syllabic. In the case of multi-syllabic words all syllables are not stressed or accentuated, if one is
stressed the other will be not. Therefore, this practice of utterance or production of sound for a particular
word may be defined as word stress]. Look at the following grid:

Total Stressed
Word/s Shape
syllables syllable

PHO TO GRAPH 3 #1

PHO TO GRAPH ER 4 #2

PHO TO GRAPH IC 4 #3

This happens in ALL words with 2 or more syllables: TEACHer, JaPAN, CHINa, aBOVE,
converSAtion, INteresting, imPORtant, deMAND, etCETera, etCETera, etcetera. The syllables that are
not stressed are weak or small or quiet. Native speakers of English listen for the STRESSED syllables,
not the weak syllables.

Importance of Word Stress in English

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Word stress in English is very important since native speakers of English listen for the stressed syllables,
not the weak ones. Word stress is not an optional extra that we can add to the English language if we
want. It is a part of the language. English speakers use word stress to communicate rapidly and
accurately, even in difficult conditions. If, for example, we do not hear a word clearly, we can still
understand the word because of the position of the stress.

Types of Word Stress

It is possible to distinguish many levels of stress, but from the practical point of view, it is sufficient to
distinguish three principal kinds:
(1) Primary stress — heavily stressed, usually marked with a vertical stroke on the upper left hand
corner of a syllable carrying the stress.
(2) Secondary stress — stressed but subordinate to the primary stress, usually marked with a vertical
stroke on the lower left hand corner of a syllable concerned, as in |contri|bution.
(3) Double stress /even stress — Certain English words have double stress or even stress. Double
stress can be marked by a high vertical stroke before each of the stressed syllables, as in |fif|teen,
|Ber|lin.

Challenges of English Word Stress

Word stress in English is not easily predictable as it varies in terms of language use. In some languages
namely Japanese, French, Polish, Czech etc., stress may be assumed. In French, the last syllable is
stressed; in Polish, the syllable before the last – the penultimate syllable – is usually stressed; in Czech,
the first syllable is stressed. However, to cope with the challenges of Word stress in English we had
better make use of some or all of the following information:
i) Whether the word is morphologically simple, or whether it is complex as a result either of
containing one or more affixes (prefixes or suffixes) or of being a compound word.
ii) What the grammatical category of the word is (noun, verb, adjective, etc).
iii) How many syllables the word has.
iv) What the phonological structure of those syllables is.
Rules of Word Stress in English
There are two very simple rules about word stress:
1. One word one stress:
One word cannot have two stresses. If we hear two stresses, we hear two words. Two stresses
cannot be one word. It is true that there can be a "secondary" stress in some words. But a
secondary stress is much smaller than the main [primary] stress, and is only used in long words.
2. Stress on vowels, not on consonants
Here are some more, rather complicated, rules that can help us understand where to put the
stress. But we must not rely on them too much, because there are many exceptions. It is better to
try to "feel" the music of the language and to add the stress naturally.
1) Stress on first syllable
Rule/s Example/s

Most 2-syllable nouns PRESent, EXport, CHIna, TAble

Most 2-syllable adjectives PRESent, SLENder, CLEVer, HAPpy

2) Stress on last syllable

Rule/s Example/s
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 Most 2-syllable verbs preSENT, exPORT, deCIDE, beGIN

There are many two-syllable words in English whose meaning and class change with a change in stress.
The word present, for example is a two-syllable word. If we stress the first syllable, it is a noun (gift) or
an adjective (opposite of absent). But if we stress the second syllable, it becomes a verb (to offer). More
examples: the words export, import, contract and object can all be nouns or verbs depending on
whether the stress is on the first or second syllable.
3) Stress on penultimate syllable (penultimate = second from end)
Rule/s Examples

Words ending in –ic GRAPHic, geoGRAPHic, geoLOGic

Words ending in -sion and –tion teleVIsion, reveLAtion

For a few words, native English speakers do not always "agree" on where to put the stress. For example,
some people say teleVIsion and others say TELevision. Another example is: CONtroversy and
conTROversy.

4) Stress on ante-penultimate syllable (ante-penultimate = third from end)

Rule/s Examples

deMOcracy, dependaBIlity, phoTOgraphy,

Words ending in -cy, -ty, -phy and –gy
geOLogy

Words ending in –al CRItical, geoLOGical

5) Compound words (words with two parts)

Rule/s Examples

For compound nouns, the stress is on the first part BLACKbird, GREENhouse

For compound adjectives, the stress is on the

bad-TEMpered, old-FASHioned
second part

For compound verbs, the stress is on the second

underSTAND, overFLOW
part

How to pronounce word stress

When a syllable is stressed, it is pronounced
• longer in duration
• higher in pitch
• louder in volume

Sentence Stress
Sentence Stress in English

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Sentence stress signifies giving emphasis, while speaking, on those particular segments of a sentence
those carry or convey meaning. It is what gives English its rhythm or "beat". We note that when a
speaker speaks he does not put emphasis equally on every word he utters. Somewhere the prominence
over some words is perceived overtly sometimes not. This prominence over the particular word of a
sentence therefore may be defined as sentence stress. Here we can remember that word stress is accent
on one syllable within a word whereas sentence stress is accent on certain words within a sentence.
Sentence stress may be told the music of spoken English too.

Importance of Sentence Stress

• It gives English spoken language its rhythm.
• Like word stress, sentence stress can help us understand spoken English, especially when spoken
fast.
• It helps successful communication.

Where sentence stress occurs

• It occurs on the words that carry meaning.
• It occurs on the content words namely Noun, Principal Verbs, Adjectives, and Adverbs etc.
• It occurs on some functional words or structure words.

Content Words and Functional Words

Most sentences have two types of word namely content words and functional words or structure words.
Content words : These are the key words of a sentence. They carry the meaning of the sentence.
Normally Noun, Adjective, Main Verb, Adverb, Some Negative Auxiliary etc., constitute the content
word groups. If we remove content words from a sentence we shall not understand the sentence.

Functional Words or Structure Words

These are grammatical words of a sentence. These words do not have a dictionary meaning in the way
that we normally expect nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs to have. Generally auxiliary verbs, articles,
conjunction, prepositions, contractions etc., constitute functional words. Structure words are not very
important words. They are small, simple words that make the sentence correct grammatically. They give
the sentence its correct form or "structure". If we remove the structure words from a sentence, we will
probably still understand the sentence.
Imagine the following telegram
Will you SELL my CAR because I've GONE to FRANCE

This sentence is not complete. It is not a "grammatically correct" sentence. But you probably understand
it. These 4 words communicate very well. Somebody wants you to sell their car for them because they
have gone to France.
Classification of sentence stress
Sentence stress can be classified into three types : sense stress, logical stress and emotional stress.
1) Sense stress
Sense stress is very common phenomenon in connected speech. The distribution of such stresses
is subject to the meaning that the speaker wishes to convey. In normal speech we put stress on words
semantically important. Such words are called content words; the unimportant ones are called form
words, they are unstressed.
2) Logical stress
The distribution of logical stress is subject to the speaker’s will. The speaker puts stress on any
word he wishes to emphasize. So a word logically stressed may stand at the beginning, in the middle or

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at the end of a sentence and it usually implies some idea of contrast. E.g. ``We heard Mary singing
upstairs. ( Not they heard .) Sometimes the idea of contrast is clearly pointed out. E.g.
I bought it for `you, not for `him.
`They can’t do it, but `we can.
3) Emotional Stress
Emotional stress is a special kind of stress. In spoken English when the speaker wants to show strong
emotion, he can put strong stress on the word he wishes to emphasize. But such kind of stress does not
imply any idea of contrast. The high –falling tone should be used in speaking or reading aloud such
stressed word. E.g.
It’s `` wonderful! We suc``ceeded.

Rules for Sentence Stress in English

The basic rules of sentence stress are:
1. Content words are stressed
2. Structure words are unstressed
3. The time between stressed words is always the same
4. Give stress on the final word of a list

The following tables can help us decide which words are content words and which words are structure
words.
Content words - stressed

Words carrying the meaning Example

main verbs SELL, GIVE, EMPLOY

nouns CAR, MUSIC, MARY

adjectives RED, BIG, INTERESTING

adverbs QUICKLY, LOUDLY, NEVER

negative auxiliaries DON'T, AREN'T, CAN'T

Structure words - unstressed

Words for correct grammar Example

pronouns he, we, they

prepositions on, at, into

articles a, an, the

conjunctions and, but, because

auxiliary verbs do, be, have, can, must

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Exceptions
The above rules are for what is called "neutral" or normal stress. But sometimes we can stress a word
that would normally be only a structure word, for example to correct information. Look at the following
dialogue:
"They've been to Mongolia, haven't they?"
"No, THEY haven't, but WE have.
Note also that when "be" is used as a main verb, it is usually unstressed (even though in this case it is a
content word).

More about Functional Words

Almost all the words which have both a strong and weak form belong to a category that may be called
functional words. There are some fairly simple rules. They are as follows:
Functional words signifying strong forms
i) Weak forms turning to strong forms if used at the end:
Weak : “I’m fond of chips”. (aim 'fɒnd əv 'ʧips.)
Strong : “Chips are what I’m fond of . (ʧips ə 'wɒt aim 'fɒnd ɒv. )
Stress Shifting
Stress shifting refers to the trend of accentuating on the particular segment of some words that go under
changes in terms of their word class in a sentence. We have some English content words those can be
used either as a noun or verb; noun or adjective etc. When a content word is used as a noun, normally
the stress goes on the first syllable and on the final segment when it is a verb. The following two
sentences may well exemplify this trend:
Word Examples Word Class Stress on
Extract a. This is an extract from the Ode on a Grecian urn. Noun The first syllable
b. This line has been extracted from the Ode on a
Grecian urn. Verb The last syllable

The following words however carry the trend of shifting their stress when used in a sentence: Award,
Connect, Conduct, Exercise, Gift, Import, Present, Export, Product, Perfect, Subject,

Suggested Reading
Alfred Charles Gimson. An Introduction to the Pronunciation of English. New York: E. Arnold.1989.
Jeremy Harmer. The Practice of English Teaching. London: Longman, 2003
Joseph Desmond O'Connor. Better English Pronunciation. Cambridge: CUP.1980.
Mohammad Maniruzzaman. Introduction to English Language Study. Dhaka: Friends’ Book. 2006.
Peter Roach. English Phonetics and Phonology. Cambridge: CUP.2000.
Sharad Rajimwale. Elements of General Linguistics. VL 1. New Delhi: Rama Brothers.1997.

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 Department of English
Islamic University, Bangladesh
Lecture Outline
Listening and Speaking Skills (1103)2
Tone and Intonation

Tone
Tone usually refers to the emotion that is conveyed in the voice. For instance, the following expression
"I didn't like his tone of voice", either can show anger, impatience, etc.

Intonation
✓ Rise and fall of the voice in speaking [OFD].
✓ The way your voice goes up and down when you speak. [Cambridge School Dictionary].
✓ The variations which take place in the pitch of the voice in connected speech, i.e. the variations
in the pitch of the musical note produced by vibration of the vocal cords. Jones (1960)
In the scientific study of language (linguistics) the term intonation suggests the rise and fall of the pitch
(the degree of highness or lowness with which one speaks) of the voice when we speak. It is one of the
main elements (intonation, rhythm, and stress) of linguistic prosody.
It is closely related to stress. In fact, we cannot consider intonation without thinking of stress. If the
intonation is right, the stress does not matter so greatly, for the result is an English tune: whereas if the
intonation is wrong, the result is not English, regardless of the stress.
Intonation may vary from region to region and from person to person, but in general, there are certain
regular speech tunes, which are very important in conveying meaning.

Where used
✓ Intonation is used in all languages. It is apparent in stressed languages; sometimes it can be
even used in non-tonal languages.
✓ Tone and Intonation are especially applicable for spoken language.
✓ Some tonal languages: Chinese, Thai, Hausa, Malaysian, Indonesian etc.
✓ The variation of
Why Intonation
✓ To focus on attitudinal functions, that is to add attitudes.
✓ To differentiate between wh-questions, yes–no questions, declarative statements, commands,
requests, etc.
✓ To convey or realise new information from a discourse analysis.
✓ To imply emphatic/contrastive purposes.
Features of Intonation:
✓ It's divided into phrases, also known as 'tone-units'.
✓ The pitch moves up and down, within a 'pitch range'. Everybody has their own pitch range.
Languages, too, differ in pitch range. English has particularly wide pitch range.
✓ In each tone unit, the pitch movement (a rise or fall in tone, or a combination of the two) takes
place on the most important syllable known as the 'tonic-syllable'. The tonic-syllable is usually a
high-content word, near the end of the unit.
✓ These patterns of pitch variation are essential to a phrase's meaning. Changing the intonation can
completely change the meaning.

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Prodip Kumar Adhikari, Associate Professor, Department of English, Islamic University, Bangladesh
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Example
Say: 'It's raining'.
Now say it again using the same words, but giving it different meaning. You could say it to mean 'What
a surprise!', or 'How annoying!’, or 'That's great!'. There are many possibilities.

Expressions Rise / Falling Tone Attitude Note

“Yes / No” Falling - from a higher A definite final manner (a firm Can I go now?
to a lower pitch refusal or acceptance) No
“Yes / No” Rising As an answer to a question to “Have you heard the
show interest news?”
“No”
“Thank you” Falling A genuine gratitude

“Thank you” Rising To acknowledge sth unimportant

Differences between Tone and Intonation

✓ All languages use pitch pragmatically as intonation — for instance for emphasis, to convey
surprise or irony, or to pose a question.
✓ Tonal languages such as Chinese and Hausa use pitch for distinguishing words in addition to
providing intonation.
✓ The uses of intonation can be divided into six categories.
Intonation types
✓ Rising Intonation(tone) means the pitch of the voice increases over time [].
✓ Falling Intonation means that the pitch decreases with time [].
✓ Dipping Intonation falls and then rises [  ].
✓ Peaking Intonation rises and then falls [ ].

Details on Intonaation
In linguistics, intonation is variation of pitch while speaking which is not used to distinguish words. It
contrasts with tone, in which pitch variation does distinguish words. Intonation, rhythm, and stress are
the three main elements of linguistic prosody. Intonation patterns in some languages, such as Swedish
and Swiss German, can lead to conspicuous fluctuations in pitch, giving speech a sing-song quality.[1]
Fluctuations in pitch either involve a rising pitch or a falling pitch. Intonation is found in every language
and even in tonal languages, but the realisation and function are seemingly different. It is used in non-
tonal languages to add attitudes to words (attitudinal function) and to differentiate between wh-
questions, yes-no questions, declarative statements, commands, requests, etc. Intonation can also be
used for discourse analysis where new information is realised by means of intonation. It can also be used
for emphatic/contrastive purposes.
All languages use pitch pragmatically as intonation — for instance for emphasis, to convey
surprise or irony, or to pose a question. Tonal languages such as Chinese and Hausa use pitch for
distinguishing words in addition to providing intonation.
Generally speaking, the following intonations are distinguished:
✓ Rising Intonation means the pitch of the voice increases over time [];
✓ Falling Intonation means that the pitch decreases with time [];
✓ Dipping Intonation falls and then rises [];
✓ Peaking Intonation rises and then falls [].

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Those with congenital amusia show impaired ability to discriminate, identify and imitate the intonation
of the final words in sentences.
Transcription
In the International Phonetic Alphabet, global rising and falling intonation are marked with a diagonal
arrow rising left-to-right [] and falling left-to-right [], respectively. These may be written as part of a
syllable, or separated with a space when they have a broader scope:
He found it on the street?
[ hi:'faʊnd ɪt | ɒn ðə 'stri:t ║]
Here the rising pitch on street indicates that the question hinges on that word, on where he found it, not
whether he found it.
Yes, he found it on the street.
['jɛs ║ hi'faʊnd ɪt | ɒn ðə 'stɹi:t ║]
How did you ever escape?
[''haʊ dɪdju: 'ɛvɚ | ə'skeɪp ║]
Here, as is common with wh- questions, there is a rising intonation on the question word, and a falling
intonation at the end of the question.
More detailed transcription systems for intonation have also been developed, such as ToBI (Tones and
Break Indices), RaP (Rhythm and Pitch), and INTSINT.

Uses of intonation
W. R. Lee proposed ten.
J.C. Wells and E. Couper-Kuhlen) both put forward six functions. (Cooper – 3)
Wells's list is given below; the examples are not his:

Informational: for example, in English I saw a man in the garden answers "Who did you see?" or
"What happened?", while I  saw a man in the garden answers "Did you hear a man in the garden?"

Grammatical: for example, in English a rising pitch turns a statement into a yes-no question, as in He's
goinghome? This use of intonation to express grammatical mood is its primary grammatical use
(though whether this grammatical function actually exists is controversial) [Cooper: 140]. Some
languages, like Chickasaw and Kalaallisut, have the opposite pattern from English: rising for statements
and falling with questions.
Common intonation practice in grammar
✓ Wh-word questions: falling intonation
✓ Yes/No questions: rising
✓ Statements: falling
✓ Question-Tags: 'chat' - falling; 'check' - rising
✓ Lists: rising, rising, rising, falling
Illocution
The intentional force is signaled in, for example, English Why don't you move to California? (a
question) versus Why don't you move to California? (a suggestion).
Attitudinal
High declining pitch signals more excitement than does low declining pitch, as in English Good
morn ing versus Good morn ing.

Textual
Linguistic organization beyond the sentence is signaled by the absence of a statement-ending decline in
pitch, as in English The lecture was canceled [high pitch on both syllables of "canceled", indicating
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continuation]; the speaker was ill. versus The lecture was canceled. [high pitch on first syllable of
"canceled", but declining pitch on the second syllable, indicating the end of the first thought] The
speaker was ill.

Indexical
Group membership can be indicated by the use of intonation patterns adopted specifically by that group,
such as street vendors, preachers, and possibly women in some cases.

Intonation in English
Halliday and Greaves [Cooper: 140] have made a detailed case that three types of meanings—textual,
interpersonal, and logical—are all in part achieved through intonation. This is done, they have argued,
through the choices we make in terms of (i) rising and falling pitch contour, (ii) where we locate that
contour as part of a clause, throughout a whole clause, or over more than a single clause; and (iii) the
shape of the contour.
According to some accounts, American English pitch has four levels: (1) low, (2) middle, (3)
high, and (4) very high. Normal conversation is usually at middle or high pitch; low pitch occurs at the
end of utterances other than yes-no questions, while high pitch occurs at the end of yes-no questions.
Very high pitch is for strong emotion or emphasis [Celce: 184]. Pitch can indicate attitude: for example,
Great uttered in isolation can indicate weak emotion (with pitch starting medium and dropping to low),
enthusiasm (with pitch starting very high and ending low), or sarcasm (with pitch starting and remaining
low).
Declarative sentences show a 2-3-1 pitch pattern. If the last syllable is prominent the final
decline in pitch is a glide. For example, in This is fun, this is is at pitch 2, and fun starts at level 3 and
glides down to level 1. But if the last prominent syllable is not the last syllable of the utterance, the pitch
fall-off is a step. For example, in That can be frustrating, That can be has pitch 2, frus- has level 3, and
both syllables of -trating have pitch 1[Celce: 185]. Wh-questions work the same way, as in Who (2) will
(2) help (31)? and Who (2) did (3) it (1)?
But if something is left unsaid, the final pitch level 1 is replaced by pitch 2. Thus in John's (2)
sick (32) ..., with the speaker indicating more to come, John's has pitch 2 while sick starts at pitch 3
and drops only to pitch 2.

Yes-no questions with a 23 intonation pattern [Hirst: 2] usually have subject – verb inversion, as in
Have (2) you (2) got (2) a (2) minute (3, 3)? (Here a 24 contour would show more emotion, while a
12 contour would show uncertainly.) Another example is Has (2) the (2) plane (3) left (3) already (3,
3, 3)?, which, depending on the word to be emphasized, could move the location of the rise, as in Has
(2) the (2) plane (2) left (3) already (3, 3, 3)? or Has (2) the (2) plane (2) left (2) already (2, 3, 3)? And
for example, the latter question could also be framed without subject-verb inversion but with the same
pitch contour: The (2) plane (2) has (2) left (2) already (2, 3, 3)?

Tag questions with declarative intent at the end of a declarative statement follow a 3 1 contour rather
than a rising contour, since they are not actually intended as yes-no questions, as in We (2) should (2)
visit (3, 1) him (1), shouldn't (3, 1) we (1)? But tag questions exhibiting uncertainty, which are
interrogatory in nature, have the usual 23 contour, as in We (2) should (2) visit (3, 1) him (1), shouldn't
(3, 3) we (3)?
Questions with or can be ambiguous in English writing with regard to whether they are either-or
questions or yes-no questions. But intonation in speech eliminates the ambiguity. For example, Would
(2) you (2) like (2) juice (3) or (2) soda (3, 1)? emphasizes juice and soda separately and equally and
ends with a decline in pitch, thus indicating that this is not a yes–no question but rather a choice
question equivalent to Which would you like: juice or soda? In contrast, Would (2) you (2) like (2) juice
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(3) or (3) soda (3, 3)? has yes–no intonation and thus is equivalent to Would you like something to drink
(such as juice or soda)?
Thus, the two basic sentence pitch contours are rising–falling and rising. However, other within-
sentence rises and falls result from the placement of prominence on the stressed syllables of certain
words.
Note that for declaratives or wh–questions with a final decline, the decline is located as a step-
down to the syllable after the last prominently stressed syllable, or as a down-glide on the last syllable
itself if it is prominently stressed. But for final rising pitch on yes-no questions, the rise always occurs as
an upward step to the last stressed syllable, and the high (3) pitch is retained through the rest of the
sentence.
Pitch also plays a role in distinguishing acronyms that might otherwise be mistaken for common
words. For example, in the phrase "Nike asks that you PLAY—Participate in the Lives of America's
Youth", the acronym PLAY may be pronounced with a high tone to distinguish it from the verb 'play',
which would also make sense in this context. Alternatively, each letter could be said individually, so
PLAY might become "P-L-A-Y" or "P.L.A.Y.". However, the high tone is only employed for
disambiguation and is therefore contrastive intonation rather than true lexical tone. Dialects of British
and Irish English vary substantially, with rises on many statements in urban Belfast, and falls on most
questions in urban Leeds.

▪ Intonation in French
▪ French intonation differs substantially from that of English.[8] There are four primary patterns.
▪ The continuation pattern is a rise in pitch occurring in the last syllable of a rhythm group
(typically a phrase).
▪ The finality pattern is a sharp fall in pitch occurring in the last syllable of a declarative statement.
▪ The yes/no intonation is a sharp rise in pitch occurring in the last syllable of a yes/no question.
▪ The information question intonation is a rapid fall-off from high pitch on the first word of a non-
yes/no question, often followed by a small rise in pitch on the last syllable of the question.

Suggested Reading
Alfred Charles Gimson. An Introduction to the Pronunciation of English. New York: E. Arnold.1989.
Jeremy Harmer. The Practice of English Teaching. London: Longman, 2003
Joseph Desmond O'Connor. Better English Pronunciation. Cambridge: CUP.1980.
Mohammad Maniruzzaman. Introduction to English Language Study. Dhaka: Friends’ Book. 2006.
Peter Roach. English Phonetics and Phonology. Cambridge: CUP.2000.
Sharad Rajimwale. Elements of General Linguistics. VL 1. New Delhi: Rama Brothers. 1997.

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 More about Intonation
What intonation is
Jones (1960) - "the variations which take place in the pitch of the voice in connected speech, i.e. the
variations in the pitch of the musical note produced by vibration of the vocal cords."
Approaches to intonation prior to Liberman (1975) were based on impressionistic pitch records,
supplemented by some instrumental analysis of f0. Pierrehumbert (1980: 3):
What will be used here as the phonetic representation, or the output of these implementation rules, is the F0
contour. The choice of this representation as against a fine transcription in the character of IPA segmental
transcription is theoretically motivated. One of the main themes of the work presented here is that interesting
language-specific rules can be found all the way down to a quantitative description of speech. There is no
well-defined level of description ... at which the linguist may leave off and turn his work over to the
physiologist.
Liberman, Pierrehumbert and Beckman were engaged in the construction of speech synthesis systems
for English and Japanese, which required explicit control of f0and segmental durations (including
pauses) [Pierrehumbert, 1981]. All other phonetic parameters were generated by a scheme for
concatenation of LPC-encoded diphones. Unlike much other research in linguistics, such work permits
no hand-waving.

2. Some properties of f0:

a) f0 corresponds to rate of vibration of the vocal cords.
b) Therefore, f0 = 0 during unvoiced speech e.g. during voiceless consonants as well as pauses.
c) f0 is therefore discontinuous, though there may be an underlying appearance of continuity (see fig.
1.5).
d) The overall shape of the f0 contour is under the conscious control of the speaker, but some speech
sounds introduce fine-scale "microprosodic" perturbations, often due to aerodynamic factors. In
particular, high vowels tend to raise f0; voiceless obstruents tend to raise f0 at the start of the following
vowel; and voiced consonants and the glottal stop are associated with a drop in f0. It is important not to
mistake such perturbations for accents.
e) Speakers do not usually use their full pitch range in speech. The actual range may vary e.g. be larger
in more animated speech. In addition, speakers may employ a higher or lower "register" within their
normal spoken pitch range. In some languages, register appears to be phonological.
f) A speaker's pitch range may fall or rise during speech, independently of the falls and rises of f0:

This phenomenon is called downdrift or declination.

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g) When the top line appears to step down, rather than gradually drift, we have the related phenomenon
of downstep, catathesis or tone terracing:

In tone languages, downstep typically affects H tones after a L. "List intonation" is similar eg.
"Blueberries, bayberries, raspberries, mulberries and brambleberries". The high-pitched "calling"
intonation in "Oh, Anna!" shows two high peaks. Pierrehumbert (1980) analysed such cases as an
instance of down-step, with an H on the stressed syllable (the first syllable of "Anna"), combined with a
L target at the end of the first syllable, which conditions downstep of another H tone on the final
syllable.

References

Huang, C. T. J. (1985) The Autosegmental and Metrical Nature of Tone Terracing. In D. L.

Goyvaerts, ed. African Linguistics: Essays in Memory of M. W. K. Semikenke. Amsterdam: John
Benjamins. 209- 238.
Jones, D. (1960) An Outline of English Phonetics. Ninth edition. Cambridge: Heffer.
Liberman, M. (1975) The Intonation System of English. PhD dissertation, MIT. [IULC edition,
1978]
Liberman, M. and J. Pierrehumbert (1984) Intonational Invariance under Changes in Pitch Range
and Length. In M. Aronoff and R. T. Oehrle, eds. Language Sound Structure: Studies in Phonology
Presented to Morris Halle by His Teacher and Students. MIT Press. 157-233.
Pierrehumbert, J. B. (1980) The Phonology and Phonetics of English Intonation. PhD
dissertation, MIT. [IULC edition, 1987].
Pierrehumbert, J. B. (1981) Synthesizing intonation. Journal of the Acoustical Society of
America 70 (4). 985-995.
Pierrehumbert, J. B. and M. E. Beckman (1988) Japanese Tone Structure. MIT Press.
van den Berg, R., C. Gussenhoven and T. Rietveld (1992) Downstep in Dutch: implications for a
model. In G. J. Docherty and D. R. Ladd, eds. Papers in Laboratory Phonology II: Gesture, Segment,
Prosody. Cambridge University Press. 335-35.

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