Speech melody as a component of English intonation

Intonation may be defined as the variations which take place in the pitch of the voice in connected speech, i.e. variations in the pitch of the musical note produced by the variations of the vocal cords

Pitch The pitch component of intonation, or speech melody is the variations in the pitch of the voice which take place with voiced sounds. Acoustically, speech melody today is the variations of the fundamental frequency, generated by the vibrations of the vocal cords. To describe the melody of an utterance it is necessary to determine the relevant pitch levels, pitch ranges, directions and rate of pitch movement in the terminal zone and pre—terminal part of each of its intonation groups.

The pitch level of the whole utterance (or intonation group) is determined by the pitch of its highest—pitched syllable. It shows the degree of semantic importance the speaker attaches to the utterance (or intonation group) in comparison with any other utterance (or intonation group), and also the speaker's attitude and emotions. Parenthetical phrases and other semantically less important intonation groups of an utterance are characterized by a lower pitch level than the neighboring intonation groups, as, for example, in This „castle| as far as I remember, was build in the'l5thvcentury, or' Where did the' charitable, gentleman {who had a,first—class (ticket for this, seaside resort (find you?

The number of linguistically relevant pitch levels in English has not been definitely established yet: in the works of different phoneticians it varies from three to seven. In unemphatic speech most phoneticians distinguish 3 pitch levels: low, mid and high. These levels are relative and are produced on different registers depending on the individual peculiarities of the voice. Besides low, mid and high levels some phoneticians distinguish the emphatic (higher and lower) and the emotional (higher and lower) pitch levels [88]. American linguists K.Pike, J.Trager, G.Smith, R.Wells and others distinguish 4 relevant pitch levels (low, mid, high, extra-high), which they term "pitch phonemes". The sequence of pitch phonemes in pronouncing an intonation group are called intonation contours

Pitch range categories are normal, wide, narrow. (upper and lower limits of human voice) In general, linguists distinguish several types of English intonation. Falling intonation and rising intonation are the two basic types used in different types of sentences. Falling intonation is formed by pitch changes from high to low, and rising intonation is formed by pitch changes from low to high. As to the direction of the nucleus, there is a system of simple (fall, rise, level), complex (fall rise, rise fall) and compound tones in English. They can have emphatic variations – rise fall, fall rise, rise-fall0rise. Also there are level tones. High-level tone is typical for emotional speech. Low-level tone shows grumbling. Mid level is used when the speaker gains time forming idea. The falling tone expresses finality. It’s definite and categorical. It is used categorical statements, orders, commands, in urgent requests, in special question in the corresponding parts of alternative and disjunctive questions, exclamations. The rising tone expresses non-finality, hesitation, doubt. It is used in general questions, polite respects and in the corresponding parts of alternative and disjunctive questions. The fall-rise expresses various implications such as doubts, hesitation, contradiction, friendliness. If you want to sound fluently you can pronounce it in special questions. The rise fall sounds more categorical. It expresses surprise, disagreement, protest.

Intonation performs several important functions in English. The first function is uniting separate words into sentences in oral speech. The second function of intonation is distinguishing between types of sentences (i.e., statements, questions, commands, requests, exclamations).(syntactical) Also, intonation allows us to express various emotions: finality, confidence, interest, surprise, doubt, joy, pain, irony, etc.(emphatic)

Дата добавления: 2015-08-17