Accounting for intonation choices

In line with one of the activities you will be required to do in the upcoming test, below are tentative explanations of some tone units contained in the text used for dictation on October 3rd. Remember that in order to make (sense of) choices in intonation you will probably need to refer to the linguistic context that a text (a conversation, in this case) usually provides. Also, it is sometimes necessary to make use of knowledge of the world, cultural and social values, and other aspects of language used in context to fully understand why one tone rather than another has been used. Besides, it must be noted that a stretch of discourse may be uttered in several possible ways, that is, making alternative intonation choices. This will depend, among other things, on who the speakers are and the meanings they want to make. I hope the following analysis helps you better understand intonation in context. Finally, you may wonder where some of the sources permanently referred to can be found. Apart from libraries and book stores, here are the links where you will find (parts of) two works on English intonation: The communicative value of intonation in English  and English Intonation: An Introduction.

1) You're Elena Burgess, aren't you? = First and last names are usually made prominent in an out-of-the-blue statement. In this case, a falling is used to indicate a newly introduced piece of information into the discourse.  The question tag, which appears (as is frequently the case for tags) in a separate tone unit, has the function of a true question-type tag. The rising is typically used when the speaker is really interested in making sure about the statement preceding. It acts as a real question.

2) I see you have two jobs available for psychologists = Each of the highlighted words is important for the meaning of the statement the speaker makes. Job is arguably not made prominent as this seems to be a job interview, in which case this word is 'shared' in the context of utterance. Although the information contained in this tone unit is not strictly speaking 'new', the tone unit produced has a falling tone because statements normally take what Wells (2006: 25) calls the definitive fall.

3) Well, people say I have a lot of compassion = We have said on many occasions that 'people' is a very general word and is typically not made prominent. However, it can be said that here it is used in contrast to 'I think/I say' and is, therefore, highlighted. As to the falling-rising on 'compassionate', let's recall that speakers often use this tone in a statement when they want to sound tentative about what they say. Wells (2006:27) calls this implicational fall-rise, with an implication that has not been stated. The implication here can be stated in these terms "...people say I have a lot of compassion and I agree or and I hope you find the same". It may sound as if the truth of what Elena says is left up to the interlocutor to be discerned.

 
4) You're compassionate? In what way? = These two tone units, each with a fall, have a question mark but we can say more than just "They're questions". In the first one, the interviewer seems to be acknowledging the idea of compassion, as if s/he were saying "aha", "mhmm", "I got it" or something of the sort. It doesn't seem to be a typical echo question and, therefore, doesn't seem to be expressing surprise or amazement at what the other speaker has said (Wells, 2006:55). In the next tone unit, the interviewer seems to be prompting Elena to expand on "how she is compassionate", so to speak. It can safely be interpreted as a finding-out question.  

5) Both my parents are psychologists, too. =  This sentence is said in two tone units. In the first one, 'parents' is neither prominent nor tonic because the word was said immediately before and, therefore, there's no need for higlighting it again. It's become part of the common ground. The falling-rising may be taken as an implicational fall-rise. Analyzed syntactically, this unit coincides with the subject of that sentence. Subjects can have a tone unit of their own when “a new sentence involves a change of grammatical subject” (Wells, 2006, p. 193). Furthermore, this fall may be taken as accompanying items conveying new information.

Reference:
Wells, J. (2006). English Intonation: An introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Marking intonation

This is the text we worked with today. As I always tell you, there can be several ways of marking intonation and, therefore, of reading a text. The markup shown in the text below faithfully represents the choices I made in today's dictation, and fairly resembles (except for some tone units) the choices made in the audio version. I hope you find it useful*. I would also like to read in the comments area how you interpret some of the choices made. Your analyses do not need to be highly technical but you are invited to explain the choices as has been done in class.

* The text above was taken from

Saslow, J. & Ascher, A. (2006). Top notch 3. Teacher’s edition and lesson planner. New York: Pearson Longman.

Who's got the power?

It is said that the real meanings of utterances can only be understood (if it really can) by analyzing how they are actually said in the context of interaction. A powerful tool speakers have at their disposal in oral communciation is, of course, intonation. As we all have studied, a tone used at different moments may be accompanying (or, probably, realizing) different meanings. Let's consider the following conversation*. Remember that the marking you will find represents only one version of the multiple possible options of reading, or better still, saying things in actual conversation.    

You may have seen that almost every tone option is exploited in this conversation. Both speakers, for example, use the rising, a tone said to express dominance or some kind of power (Brazil, 1997). In addition, you may have noticed that each speaker has a specific function: Kurtis, probably, being a customer service agent and Salena, a dissatisfied customer. Who do you think is powerful? Do you think power remains constant in a conversation?

In the passage OK, let me just pull up your account. Just a moment, the speaker has the power to conduct the conversation following a procedure (normally scripted, for instance,  for call centers), and so he controls communication at this stage, telling the hearer that she has to wait until he accesses her account and does what needs to be done. In this light, we can make sense of this use of this so-called dominant tone.

At a certain moment, the customer says I've been down that road. A few times in fact. Apart from being shared information at this stage (hence the use of the referring tone), these tone units represent Salena's complaint to the company for a service that hasn't probably been rendered properly. It can be said that she adopts a powerful position at this time, questioning the information passed by Kurtis and stating that she shouldn't be experiencing what she actually is. 

This little analysis goes to say that we can't say a priori that in a two-party conversation like the one above, one speaker (for whatever reason) will systematically be powerful and the other, powerless. As much as everything in life, oral communication is more dynamic and sometimes unpredictable, with power possibly being fought for by any speaker at any stage.   

    

* The text above was adapted from

Varra, R. (2006). Easy American idioms. New York: Living Language.


Reference
Brazil, D. (1997). The communicative value of intonation in English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Intonation of questions

A great deal has been written on the intonation of questions. Some people have said that for a question to be heard as such, we need a rising tone (as you may infer from the picture). But we have already studied a couple of examples that contradict this assertion. We may well say Are you Claire? with a fall on Claire, which would perfectly be understood as a kind of seeking-information question, as though we were inviting our interlocutor to expand on some other info. This is but one example. You may find more theory on the Internet.

If you click here, you will find a downloadable file containing some explanations of meanings that can be attached to questions and other types of utterances on the basis of the intonation choices (mainly tones) in them. Remember that the system we're using is called Discourse Intonation and that other systems may use alternative names and offer alternative explanations for the choices. The file just referred to will be available for ten days as of publication of this posting. Hurry up and get it! Then, get back to this page and make your comments or ask any questions.  

 ...

I'm sorry to tell you that Scribd (the page hosting the file) asks you to have a Facebook account or a Scribd account. It's easy to have either. Another option can be to do some copying and then pasting onto a Word doc. But this will require further editing (for instance, reducing font type and size). So I'd advise you to try opening an account in one of the ways suggested and use it later on for other purposes.  

 ...

So following Nico's suggestion, here's the link that will take you to the file right away, without any subscription or sign-in requirements. If an error message pops up or a notice says that the file is damaged or anything, just click on the address bar once to get it highlighted and then press enter. It will now be shown correctly. To download, proceed as usual.

Some modifications in connected speech

Consider the transcription of the following text about the school and some of its roles in society. If you want to check out the real text, read it from your course handbook. 

First of all, it may be important to consider that a whole lot of words in English have alternative pronunciations, especially if these alternatives involve weakening (= the use of weak forms of pronunciation in unstressed syllables). Consequently, we may say (and, therefore, transcribe) words in different ways. For instance, we may say environment in one of, at least, three ways, namely, /ɪnˈvaɪərən mənt/, /ɪnˈvaɪrn̩mənt/, or /ɪnˈvaɪrəmmənt /, the last one including assimilation of /n/ to /m/. In the text transcribed above, I have shown some of these possibilities. You'll find that a number of alternatives appear in italicized symbols. As I've just said, this means that there are more options than the one given. 

What other examples have you found in this transcription? I'd like to hear you all on this!

More on intonation!

A couple of things should be stated which were left unsaid on our post of November 16. In this course, we conventionally mark a level tone above the tonic syllable. However, due to typographical constraints (font styles), in this blog, I’m placing the tone before the syllable. Also (and this is something you should have mastered by now), we shouldn’t forget to start producing the tone on the tonic and finish it only when we’ve reached the last syllable in the tone unit. For instance, the fall on leadership qualities above, should start on lead- and end with –ties. Finally, it should be noted that, though I have marked the tone unit boundaries with double slashes (as is done in some books), we won’t ask you to do this in transcription (e.g. in final exams).

To continue working a little more on intonation choices and the corresponding marking, let’s analyze some of the examples in the text above, published in Saslow and Ascher (2006). The solutions offered here, as usual, will only be possible choices. Other alternatives may be equally acceptable.

…I’m Agnes Lukins = I have noticed over these years that students can pronounce two-item people’s names correctly, that is, normally each item with a prominent syllable. However, when it comes to marking that on paper, students often leave one of the items unmarked. If students tried to pronounce this, they could see their mistake pretty clearly. Common modifications to this pattern, however, do occur when names are repeated. For example, if the speaker had said “I’m Lukins. Agnes Lukins”, the last name wouldn’t have been made prominent the second time because it would have been shared info. Regarding the fall, it can obviously be interpreted as new information.   

…and my last two jobs have been in management = We can make sense of the falling-rising on “jobs” by thinking that Agnes is talking with an interviewer about the possibility of getting a new job. She has already introduced in the ongoing conversation the fact that she had previous jobs where she dealt with people. Therefore, the idea of “previous jobs” is no longer new. Another way around this may be following Wells’s (2006) explanation. He says that the fall-rise can sometimes be used as a dependent fall-rise, which “indicates that there is more material still to come, and is thus an indication of non-finality” (p. 69). As to the falling tone, again, it’s clearly giving new info.

...maybe in Mexico? = A non-falling (in this case, rising) tone may be understood as just a possibility the speaker suggests, nothing definitive. Even though this is not the final tone unit the current speaker produces, it gives the impression that she is prompting her interlocutor to give an opinion or make a decision. In other words, Agnes may be sounding as if she were yielding the floor (=giving the right to speak) to the interviewer in an unconventional way. In this latter respect, and assuming that Agnes is a non-powerful speaker in this conversation, we can consider it risky of her to have used a typically “dominant” tone, and thus adopt the position of a floor-giver, in the context of an interview. But these things are not altogether wrong. On the contrary, they are acceptable and quite frequent these days. If you are not fully convinced and want to feel totally at ease, I conclude by saying that a falling rising would be perfectly OK.    

I do want to hear more explanations! Can you contribute?  

References

Saslow, J. & Ascher, A. (2006). Top notch 3. Teacher’s edition and lesson planner. New York: Pearson Longman.

Wells, J. (2006). English Intonation: An introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Up or down or both at the same time!

In the text above*, intonation has been marked for you. This is what we normally do in class and what we ask you to do in tests. There is a little difference in the marking of falling-rising. Exceptionally in this blog, I'm going to mark it with two arrows (one falling and the other rising). But remember you are supposed to make only one broken arrow. 

In order to practice for the final exam and to make sense of the marking, we can explain why we've chosen certain tonics and tones. Below you will see explanations for some of the choices. Can you explain the other choices? I'm looking forward to your comments. 

• ...anything this evening? = The rising tone indicates a desire on the part of the speaker to make sure something he assumes may be the case. It may also indicate some kind of dominance, as Oliver is going to invite Holly to come along. Also, a tonic was not selected for "this" or "evening" because they represent the typical case in which a final adverbial of time and place doesn't take any prominent syllables.
• I'll call for you at 7.30 = The most important words of this tone unit contain prominent syllables. The last prominent syllable is the tonic. The falling tone indicates that the speaker is adding information assumed to be new to the hearer.
• I'm afraid not = A falling-rising is used. This may indicate that the speaker wants to 'cushion the blow', that is, to soften the impact of negation and converge into some common world with the hearer. Eventually, other tones may be used.

* This text was adapted from 

McGowen, B. & Richardson, V. (2000). Clockwise. Pre-intermediate. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

To mark or not to mark, that is the question

Students normally find it difficult to choose which syllables should be made prominent in a conversation. There may be several reasons for the difficulty. One motive could be the relationship between new and shared information in the unfolding of conversation. That is, one word may be made prominent by virtue of being informationally relevant in one instance of the conversation and may be made non-prominent the following time it is mentioned precisely because it has become known to the speakers. This is not necessarily the case in Spanish, as it has been proved that old information can be re-accented when re-presented in this language. Another reason may be the fact that the force of contrast-making can make speakers break the default stress pattern of a given word in favor of what needs to be contrasted. This, again, does not normally occur in Spanish.

Let's consider a few examples from the next conversation and gloss them.

Amy: My sister’s soon gonna be nineteen.

Mike: Sorry, did you say eighteen?

Amy: No. She’s gonna be nineteen. Next month. Early next month.

Mike: Oh. And have you thought of a present?

Amy: Well….I guess she would be delighted with a blackboard.

Mike: A blackbird?

Amy: No, a blackboard. She’s studying to become a teacher and she loves practising standing up, as though she were in a classroom.

Mike: So that would be an ideal gift. What about a bookshelf? Is she tidy? That way she can always have all her books in the shelf.

Amy: No. She’s absolutely untidy.

1) Next month. Early next month. The second time the speaker mentions "next month", this adverbial is no longer prominent as it has become shared in the context of this conversation.

2) No, a blackboard. The obvious prominent syllable in this compound is "board" because it is in stark contrast to "bird" and thus clarifies a misunderstanding.

You are invited to check out a proposed marking of prominent syllables for this conversation on this blog's page Intonation in English. This is an exercise which can prepare us for marking both prominence and tone (= intonation) for classwork, homework and tests.

Dictionaries Galore! Pronunciation info

There is little, if any, doubt that dictionaries constitute invaluable reference material and can be a rich source of input for us, learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL). There are a number of different dictionaries we can use, depending on our purposes. If we are looking up a word such as work up in It is necessary to work up a schedule for 2011, a general dictionary would serve our purpose. However, as you may know, if we are reading a text dealing with the construction of pipe cutters, and we need to pin down the meaning of saddle cuts, such a dictionary will probably not be of any use. We'll have to refer to a specialized dictionary.

Also, it is critical to decode the signs and information packed in a dictionary, such as pronunciation reference, for example, BrE / AmE for varieties of English or grammatical data, like [C] or [U] for countable and uncountable nouns. Pronouncing – as well as general-purpose – dictionaries usually contain a set of pages specifying and explaining the terms and symbols used. Phonemic symbols are a must to handle when it comes to using pronunciation dictionaries, but that may not be enough. Word stress patterns are part of the identity of words. One-, and possibly, two-syllable words may pose no problems. But from three syllables on, words may have patterns EFL learners may not be able to predict. For this reason, one important thing to do when looking up a word’s pronunciation is to locate where stress(es) go(es). Some dictionaries use a mark above the syllable ( ˈ ) to show primary stress and a mark below ( ˌ ) to indicate secondary stress. An equally important but a bit harder thing to do would be to identify the accentuation (= also called prominence) pattern of so-called idioms and set phrases. Apart from knowing what a particular expression means, it is normally as relevant to find where the last prominent syllable (= tonic) should be placed. By way of example, the phrase

Phil didn’t want to get his hands dirty with it.

may be pronounced with perfect-sounding consonants and vowels, yet with the meaning  wrongly expressed if care were not taken with accentuation. We might feel tempted to put the tonic on dirty. That might be OK if the meaning intended were literal. This phrase, however, often has the idiomatic meaning of “doing physical work”. Therefore, the tonic is normally on hands. Unfortunately, there aren’t many dictionaries informing us of these patterns. One source I know could be consulted to this end is the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. The book and CD-ROM versions do bring tonicity information about these phrases but the online one apparently doesn’t. Just check it out!

Talking about some events

Around two months ago, I attended a workshop conducted by a native American English speaker. At a point in her presentation, on seeing a piece of clothing on the floor, she addressed one of the attendees and said to her "Your jacket fell". You might think that this detail might be as inconsequential as not to be written about in a blog post. However, as some of you may remember, I'm mad keen on phonetics and am all the time paying attention to this aspect of (the English and Spanish) languages. An this is what I did. I paid particular attention to where the tonic was in that chunk of speech (=tone unit) she pronounced.

These types of utterances have been described as event sentences, in which the verb is normally intransitive. The tonic syllable is typically placed on the noun and not on the verb, even though the verb is a content word. As J. C. Wells states in English Intonation: An introduction on p. 175, "One possible explanation [for this pattern] is that the verb (or adjective) in an event sentence is predictable from the context, so does not need to be in focus". So the right pattern (and the one the presenter used) is

//Your ˈjacket fell//

In class, we've given some other examples, such as

//The ˈphone's ringing//
//The ˈbaby's crying//
//The ˈwindow's open//
//I have a ˈwedding coming up//
//The ˈzip's broken//

Have you heard any other such utterances to share with us?


Below are the examples you have mentioned in your comments

//The ˈsystem's crashed//
//The aˈlarm went off//
//The ˈpaper came off//
//The ˈair comes out//
//The ˈdinner's ready//