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.