The Gradually Descending Stepping Head

The High-Head

The Broken-Descending Stepping Head

The Ascending Head

The Low Head

The Sliding Head

The Scandent Head

Classification of Basic Intonation Patterns

The Rising Tone Pattern

The Falling Tone Pattern

The Falling-Rising Tone Pattern

The Rising-Falling Tone Pattern

Division of Utterances into Intonation Groups

Coordinative and Subordinate Relations, Mutual Dependence

Prosodic Coordination and Prosodic Subordination

Basic Types of Tone Sequences in English

Supraphrasal Units

Correlation between Extralinguistic and Linguistic Variation

Prosodic Peculiarities of Formal and Informal Speech

CLASSIFICATION OF HEAD TYPES

The head of an intonation-group stretches from the 1^st fully stressed syllable (the onset) & extends up to the nucleus. The head plays an important part in conveying the speaker’s attitude & feelings towards the listener, the subject-matter & the situation, it expresses the modal-attitudinal meaning & the emotional colouring of an utterance. Descriptions & classifications of heads are based on the following criteria: 1) The general contour of pitch movement over the head. 2) The pitch movement within each stress-group. 3) the distribution of relative prominence among the semantic items in the prenuclear part of an utterance.

According to the 1^st criterion head patterns in English are classified into 3 major types: 1. Descending – the 1^st fully stressed syllable is said on a high pitch, each following fully stressed syllable always begins lower than the preceding stressed syllable. E.g. I ˈthink you’d ˈbetter ˈask ˋHelen. 2. Ascending – the 1^st fully stressed syllable is said on a low pitch, each following fully stressed syllable always begins higher than the preceding one. E.g.I ˌ couldn’t ˈ possibly ˋ do it. 3. Level – there are no perceptible contrasts in the initial pitch-height of the successive stressed syllables. The Level head may be of a high, mid & low varieties.

According to the 2^nd criterion: 1. Stepping 2. Sliding3. Scandent

According to the 3^rd criterion: 1. one-peak or compact head 2. double-peak or diffuse head3. mixed type of head

THE GRADUALLY DESCENDING STEPPING HEAD

There are 2 or more fully-stressed syllables in the GDSH. Each fully stressed syllable is pronounced lower in pitch than the preceding syllable. Unstressed syllables are said on the same level as the stressed syllable. This type of head is used with any nuclear tone, in different utterences: general questions-with high-wide fall, statements can be pronounced with fall-rise undivided.. ‘What do you ‘think of his ‘new `job? (Special question, High Wide fall)

This head is sometimes called the most typical, or normal, kind of head in English. It is certainly the most frequently occurring single category of head, but this makes it a norm in a very weak sense. In fact, this head is characteristic of only some kind of English: reading aloud, formal conversation, lecturing or some other kind of didactic monologue, although it may be heard in any other variety of spoken English.

The High Head

All the syllables are said on the same rather high pitch. There is only one fully stressed syllable, i.e. one peak of prominence. This is the stressed syllable of the first important word: the onset. The other semantic items in the prenuclear part are given a smaller degree of prominence indicated by a high partial stress. The High Head is opposed to the Gradually Descending Stepping Head: there can be no more than one full stress in the High & more than one full stress in Descending. The Stepping Head presents an intensification of the High Head, which is achieved through pitch contrasts between the successive stressed syllables. It is commonly used in conversations, where it occurs more frequently than the Stepping Head.

 

4. THE BROKEN DESCENDING ST HEAD- сломанная постеп.низход. пошаговая шкала

The Broken Descending Stepping head. The gradually descending stepping head may have a monotonous effect. it can be avoided by making an upward break somewhere in the middle of the head, after which a downward movement of the pitch is resumed(возобновлено). This pattern is called The Broken Descending Stepping head

There are 3 or more fully stressed syllables in the head. The breake accurs on any fully stressed syllable beginning with the third.

The effect of an upward break is achieved by pronouncing one of the stressed syllables on a rather higher pitch-level than the preceding one. The pitch of the syllable carrying such a special, accidental, rise may or may not exceed the pitch of the onset, depending on the pitch-level of the latter and the intended degree of pitch prominence of the former. The break generally occurs on any fully stressed syllable beginning with the 3^rd.

The upward break is usually made on words of sufficient semantic importance:

1)Nouns-crowds, hundreds 2)Adjectives- awful, fantastic3)Adverb- too, more, very 4)Verbs- cry. Shout

The syllable on which a special rise is made can be indicated in diff. ways:1)By a straight upward arrow beside the high static tone 2)By a high static tone while the presiding stressed syllable is marked by a mid static tone3)By an emphatic high static tone mark after normal high static tones.

The BDSH is used in everyday English and in formal conversation.

THE LOW HEAD

The stressed & unstressed syllables are pronounced in the low pitch zone of the speaker’s voice-range. Prominence on the relevant syllables is achieved by a greater force of articulation & longer duration. The stressed syllables are indicated with a low-stress mark. It is used in combination with low nuclear tones which are often of a narrow variety. The most frequent nuclear tones are the Low Head & the Low Narrow Fall & the Low Narrow Rise. The whole utterance is pronounced within a narrow voice-range there is an impression of smaller overall prominence. Such utterances often convey a cool, detached, phlegmatic, disinterested or disapproving attitude. When full stress is given to the first important word only (the one-peak head) the intermediate partially stressed words in the Ascending Head must take a low pitch & the difference between heads is neutralized. But the Low Head isn’t the weakened variant of the Ascending Head: the Ascending is used with High tones, the Low – with Low. Partially stressed syllables don’t occur in the prehead before the two heads: there would be hard to distinguish from the head, especially in the case of the Low Head.

THE ASCENDING STEPPING HEAD

Each of the stressed syllables of the Ascending head takes a static tone pitched higher than the preceding one, so the onset syllable occupies the lowest pitch in the head. Intervening unstressed syllables are said on the same pitch as the stressed syllable to which they are attached. Since all the stressed syllables are contrasted to one another in pitch they are all regarded as full stresses, & the words carrying them as more or less equally important.

Utterances pronounced with the AH cause the listener to anticipate the main point of information at the end. The Ascending head is typically combined with the High-Fall & High-Rise. There is often a feeling of impatience, surprise, protest, disbelief or, vice versa, a note of enthusiastic approval & support.

E.g. I’ve been ˌ waiting for half an ˈ hour alˋready.

THE SLIDING HEAD

The sliding head is formed by a sequence of slides, i.e. downward pitch movements, associatedwith each fully stressed syllable of the head. To symbolize the sliding head a downward arrow is placed above each stressed syllable. The stressed syllables may start on the same pitch or form a gradual ascent or descent. The last type seems to be the most frequent. In the descending sliding head each preceding stressed syll.starts on a higher pitch than the following one, the 1^st full stress beginning on the highest pitch. The descent in pitch has a jumpy or wave-like character.

Partially stressed syll.as well as the unstressed ones gradually carry the

Pitch down, so that when a full stress is given only to the 1^st notional word and the other prenuclear words are partially-stressed(one-peak head), the pitch pattern of the head is falling rather than sliding.

For.ex. you can’t wait here all day.

The difference between sliding head and the falling one is that in the sliding h.semantic prominence is balanced and this emphasizes the meaning of the whole utterance, increasing its overall prominence. In the falling h.sem.prominence is concentrated on the 1^st semantic item(besides the nucleus). Sliding and falling heads are widely used in lively, expressive conversation and in reading emotionally coloured texts. The two heads are mostly combined with the fall-rise, although they may occur with any other nuc.tone.

THE SCANDENT HEAD

The ScH is formed by a sequence of climbs: upward pitch movements on each f-s syl of the head. The ScH is marked by an upward arrow or a climbing arrow.. The ScH expresses surprise, encouragement, improbability, interest.cheerfulness,etc.

e.g. I’d rather do it myself.

The str.syll.may also form a descending or ascending contour(the desc.scandent h, the asc.scandent h.)

Ascending scadent head with one full stress is very sim.to the ascending stepping head, although the rise in the former is more gradual. This variety of the scandent head is called the rising head. It’s indicated in the same way as the scandent h., but the tonetic mark is given to the onset syllable only.

e.g. I’m not going to promise you anything.