this is intonation in phonetics

1. FALL-RISE AND RISE-FALL TONES
FOLLOWED BY A TAIL
Fall-rise and rise-fall tones are quite difficult to recognize when they are
extended over tails. Their characteristic pitch movements are often broken
up or distorted by the structure of the syllablesthey occur on.
• For example, the pitch movement on ‘some’ :
• If we add a syllable, the “fall” part of the fall-rise is usually carried by the
first tonic syllable, and the “rise” part by the second. If there are no
voiceless medial consonants, the pitch movement will be like this :
• If the continuity of the voicing is broken, the pitch pattern will be like this
:

2. HIGH AND LOW HEADS
 In high head, the stressed syllable which begins the head is high in pitch; usually it
is higher than the beginning pitch of the tone on the tonic syllable. For example:
 Meanwhile in low head, the stressed syllable which begins the head is low in pitch.
For example:
 Unstressed syllables usually continue the pitch of the stressed syllable before them.

3.  When there is more than one stressed syllable in the
head
the ‘rain was ‘coming ‘down ‘fairly hard
 When the head is low
,that’s ,not the ,story you ,told in /court
 When there is a low head followed by a falling tone
,I could have ,bought it for less than a pound

4. IDENTIFYING TONIC SYLLABLE
 The tonic syllable can be identified as the only syllable in the tone unit that
carries a movement in pitch.
 In some cases where there is no pitch movement is detectable on the tonic
syllable, it Is necessary to say that the tonic syllable is the most prominent
syllable.
 Some tone units, though only small number, known as compound tone units.
So, the tone units contain not only one but two tonic syllables almost always
with the first syllable having a fall on it and the other a rise.
 (i) might be said in conversation on hearing someone’s name.
 (ii)the word ‘seen is given the greatest prominence and it ti likely to sound as
though the speaker has something further to say.

5. IDENTIFYING TONE-UNIT
BOUNDARIES
Grammar: utterances can contain one or more
sentences, so that the boundary can be identified on
grammatical grounds.
Suprasegmental phonology: utterances may be divided
into tone-units that can be identified on phonetics or
phonological grounds.

6. Identifying where the boundaries are placed is not easy.
There are two principles :
1. It is possible to detect a sudden change in pitch level at the
end of one tone-unit and the beginning of the following tone-
unit (speakers tend to go back to a particular pitch level to
begin the new tone-unit)
2. Rhythmical: within the tone-unit, speech has a regular rhythm
which is broken or interrupted at the tone-unit boundary.

7. In natural speech, there are sentences which are grammatically
anomalous or incomplete.
Sometimes we find cases where the stressed syllables are not
all high or all low, for example:
,After ,one of the ‘worst ‘days of my ˅life
It can also happen that a speaker is interrupted and leaves a
tone-unit incomplete. For example: lacking a tonic syllable.
ANOMALOUS TONE-UNITS

8. AUTO-SEGMENTAL TREATMENT OF
INTONATION
 In auto-segmental analysis, all intonational phenomena can be reduced to just two
basic phonological elements: H (high tone) and L (low tone).
 A movement of pitch from high to low (a fall) is treated as the sequence HL.
 Individual stressed (accented) syllables must all be marked as H or L, or with a
combination marking a pitch movement, and with an asterisk * following the
syllable.
 A major tone-unit boundary (equivalent to what we have been marking with ||) is
given the symbol %, but it must also be given a H or a L tone.
 There is another boundary (corresponding to the minor tone-unit boundary |) which
is marked with -.