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I> DEFINITION
term used to refer to variations in pitch of a speakers voice [Finch, 2000: 86] Pitch is a mental phenomenon. Its physical basis is the sound frequency of speech. Speech disturbs the air around us. The rate of that disturbance is called sound frequency. We interprete the changes in frequency which occur naturally in speaking as changes in pitch, as a consequence, perceive our voice to be continually riding and falling. [Finch, 2000: 86]
In English, tones do not differentiate words; do not operate above individual segments/words but above strings of words. These word strings over which a tone pattern operates are called tone unit (sense unit, breath group, contour) (Conventionally) structure of a tone-unit (brackets indicating optional components): (pre-head) (head) tonic/nuclear syllable (tail) The centre of the tone-unit, around which everything is constructed=the tonic syllable, or nucleus: Theres `no `needs to be` so upset about it. The tonic syllable (= TS) carries not only a type of stress that is called tonic stress but also the tone of the tone-unit the tonic syllable is more prominent that any other syllables in the tone-unit. The tonic syllable is the only obligatory component in the tone-unit.
The head (= H) is all that part of a tone-unit that extends form the first stressed syllable up to (but not including) the tonic syllable. The pre-head (= PH) is composed of all the unstressed syllables in a tone-unit preceding the first stressed syllable. The tail includes any syllables, either stressed or unstressed, between the tonic syllable and the end of the tone-unit. Toneunits are sometimes separated by a silent pause and sometimes not; pause-type boundaries can be marked by double vertical lines like this( ) and non-pause boundaries with a single line ( l ). PH H TS PH TS PH H and thennearer to thefront on theleft l theres abit of TS T H TS T ,forest coming down to the wa terside PH H TS and then a bit of bay [Roach, 2002: 166] The above passage contains five tone units.
How to distinguish a tonic syllable from a nontonic (stressed) syllable Within a tone unit (tone group), there is always some part that is especially prominent. This is the part that the speaker wants to show to be the most important in the message. The part that is prominent is called tonic. The tonic always starts on a salient syllable (that is, at the beginning of a foot) and this syllable is known as the tonic syllable. (the tonic syllable is marked by underlying.) Therefore, a tonic (stressed) syllable is different from a stressed syllable in the following significant points: The tonic syllable is both stressed and prominentlonger and louder than the other stressed syllables. `Give me `those Both give and those are stressed but those is more prominent.
The tonic syllable carries the main burden of the pitch movement in the tone unit, and it does this in one of the two ways:
-It covers the widest pitch range. For example, if the tone unit is on a falling tone, the tonic syllable will have a greater falling movement than any of the other syllables. That is, the tonic syllable will fall more steeply, and over a wider range:
For whom the `bell `tolls Toll has a greater falling than bell It occurs immediately following a pitch jump, where instead of a continuous rising or falling movement there is a jump up or down between syllables `Peter spent his `weekend at the `sports club There is a jump up of the pitch right after the. The` tide `falls Theres a steep fall of the pitch right after tide.
(A profit was quickly made by those who sold) - 2Those who sold 3quickly2 2made a 3profit1
Intonation helps to produce the effect of prominence on syllables that need to be perceived as stressed, and in particular syllable marks out the word to which it belongs as the most important in the tone-unit in the utterance. E.g.: - I walked to the party. Is different from - I walked to the party. Is different from - I walked to the party.
- Patterns of pitch, with their accompanying terminals, are called intonation contours. - In symbolizing contours you should indicate the pitch levels at three places: + the beginning of the grammatical unit + the beginning of the syllable bearing the primary stress (tonic syllable). Primary stress is somewhere between every two terminals. It usually accompanies pitch level 3. + the end of unit before the terminal