1. ENGLISH PHONOLOGY:
PRONUNCIATION
VIDEO LESSON 6
INTONATION
Mgs. Nina Nesterenko

2. WHAT IS INTONATION, AND WHY TEACH IT
The correct use of intonation is necessary to
convey your message and to ensure that your
speech is appropriate and natural-sounding.
The term INTONATION refers to
linguistic uses of pitch to convey
meaning at the sentence or discourse
level
• Non-native English speakers tend to transfer the
patterns of their mother tongue to English.
Intonation is linked to Intonation is linked to
Discourse. grammar

3. refers to the use of melody
Intonation and includes rise and fall of
the voice when speaking
the quality of a sound governed
by the rate of vibrations
PITCH producing it; the degree of
highness or lowness of a tone.

4. To be able to analyze intonation, an utterance can be
split into segments.
The one with the largest syllable is referred to as the
tone - unit.
A TONE UNIT refers to a sequence
of accented syllables, one or more
of which are prominent.

5. Tone Unit and Tonic Syllable
Sometimes tone-units may consist of only one
syllable :
Example : Hey !
Or it may consist of more syllables like in Hey, you !
Tone units have some signals
the pitch
a pause at drops at the
the end of end of each
each thought tone unit.
group.

6. FUNCTIONS OF INTONATION
1. Grammatical
2. Attitudinal
3. Discourse
4. Accentual

7. Grammar and Intonation
Intonation and grammar are directly related.
It can convey grammatical It works in the same way
meaning of a sentence. as punctuation marks in
writing.
Example:
Although we were late ,we did not miss the film.
It divides subject
and predicate in a
sentence.
Example: Helen / is a school teacher.

8. GRAMMATICAL FUNCTION OF INTONATION
It allows hearer to distinguish
between defining and non-defining
relative clauses
Example: My friend ,who is on vacation in
Egypt now , has just phoned me .
It serves to make distinction
between questions and
exclamations.
We may convert a statement into a question simply by
changing the pitch from falling into rising.
Example: Don’t you like it ?
Don’t you like it!

9. THE FALL is used:
1. In AFFIRMATIVE sentences
Ex. This is a book. Today is Monday.
2. In NEGATIVE sentences
Ex: I don t like milk. He can ´t play the piano.
3.In IMPERATIVE sentences.
Ex: Close the window . Bring me that book.
4. In SPECIAL ( wh- ) questions
Ex: What is your name? Where do you live?
5. In the second part of ALTERNATIVE questions
Ex: Is this a pen or a pencil?
6. In the first part of TAG questions
Ex: You are very happy , aren’t you?
7. In GREETINGS:
Ex: Good morning. How do you do? It is nice to meet you.
The rising intonation indicates that the idea is incomplete. To complete the
message, the speaker has to use falling intonation.

10. Attitudinal function
Attitude can be expressed through prosodic elements:
voice loudness the speed
quality of speech
Intonation helps us express emotions and
attitudes as we speak, and this loads spoken
language with a special meaning. It is often called
the attitudinal function of intonation

11. Intonation may express our attitude toward what is
said:
Ex: I got married last month . - Oh, did you?
Ex. You drop a cake and say: GREAT !
In EFL class teacher should be aware of explaining
the function of “attitude” for the appropriate choice of
correct intonation pattern, since the same sentence
may be uttered in different ways.

12. The relationship between intonation and discourse can be
analyzed from two points of view:
How the intonation focuses the listener’s
attention on aspects of the message
The regulation of
conversational behavior
The discourse function of intonation is used to describe the
relationship between linguistic elements and the context in
which it occurs.

13. Referring tone and Proclaiming tone
A proclaiming tone is an intonation pattern that
either rises and then falls, or just falls.
A proclaiming tone shows that the speaker is
giving new information.
A referring tone is an intonation pattern
which shows that the speaker is referring
to something everybody already knows.
Example: In the sentence “That
guy we met at the party is
my new teacher”, there is a referring tone on
“That guy we met at the party”
because it is not new information.

14. ACCENTUAL function of Intonation
ACCENTED SYLLABLE
Ex: John likes FISH (not chicken!).
This is the bus FROM Paris (not TO Paris).
She is wearing a RED dress today (not green, or blue).

15. THANK YOU!
IT IS ALL !
nnesterenko@utpl.edu.ec