INTONATION

I N T O N A T I O N

It´s the name given to the different levels of pitch.

Level of  Pitch

It refers to the level of voice.

Level 1 = Low   

Level 2 = Standard

Level 3 = High

The combination of the different levels gives a resul: rising, falling, non finaal.

• RISING INTONATION:  

It has level: 2=standard; and 3 high.

It´s usually in yes/no question (questions with auxiliaries in initial position)

 

The level 3 receives stress:

•    Verbs 
•           Adjectives
•   Nouns                                              
•   Demonstrative                             
•   Negative form
•   Adverbs

EXAMPLES 

PRACTICES

•  FALLING INTONATION                                               

It has levels:  2. Standard; 3. High and 1.      Low

It’s usually found in: 

- Short wh/question(Questions with WH in initial position)

Level 3 is stressed (high):

• Nouns
• Adjectives
• Verbs
• Adverbs
• Demostrations
• Negative forms

PRACTICE

 


INVESTIGATION 

I N T O N A T I O N

Intonation is the "music" of a language, and is perhaps the most important element of a good accent. Often we hear someone speaking with perfect grammar, and perfect formation of the sounds of English but with a little something that gives them away as not being a native speaker.

Therefore, it is necessary to realize that there is more than the correct pronunciation of the vowels and consonants of a language. This is very important and we do stress it in other articles. But it is only one of the three components to an accent, pronunciation, intonation, and linking.

In other places we will examine the correct pronunciation of vowels and consonants, and linking, the way that syllables within a word, and the beginning and ending of words come together.

Intonation is very important for communication, as it helps the addressee interpret the message. There have been different proposals to explain how intonation can help communication, some of which are:

1. Intonation enables us to express emotions and attitudes as we speak: the attitudinal function of intonation.

2. Intonation helps to produce the effect of prominence on stressed syllables: the accentual function of intonation.

3. Intonation helps to recognise the grammar and syntactic structure of the utterance: the grammatical function of intonation.

4. Intonation conveys the given-new information, or provides information for turn-taking: the discourse function of intonation.

So, there are three simple possibilities for intonation: level, fall and rise.

 

Intonation exists in every language, so the concept we're introducing isn't new. However, learners are often so busy finding their words that intonation suffers. Yet intonation can be as important as word choice - we don't always realise how much difference intonation makes:

• Awareness of intonation aids communication.

• Incorrect intonation can result in misunderstandings, speakers losing interest or even taking offence!

Though it's unlikely our learners will need native-speaker-level pronunciation, what they do need is greater awareness of intonation to facilitate their speaking and listening.