pragmatics study

1. Pragmatic Intonation

2. Presented By:
komal tahira

3.  Contents
 Introduction
 Intonation Patterns
 Employing Intonation Variation to the TobI System
 Intonation in the Interpretation of Syntactic Phenomena
 Introduction to the Interpretation of Semantic phenomena
 Interpretation in the Discourse Phenomena
 Further Research Areas
 Conclusion

4. INTONATION
 What is it?
 Why do we need it?
 Intonation helps create the music of language.
 Intonation is just like music, consists of high notes, low notes and
notes in the middle
 Over voice will be flat and strange without intonation
 With intonation we understand speaker’s feelings, attitude, if they are
asking a question or if the speaker is done and its our turn to say or
respond
 In short, intonation is the soul of our communication to understand
others and to communicate back to them

5. WORD STRESS VS INTONATION
 Are they different?
 To stress a word means: a syllable is said LOUDER, LONGER, at a
HIGHER PITCH within a word
 Intonation means: how our voice goes up and down , over the course
of group of the word and a statement
 SO, INTONATION IS A LONG LINE OF MELODY

6. INTONATION PATTERNS
 There are two most basic patterns
 FALLING Intonation
 RISING Intonation
 FALLING INTONATION
 What is it?
 A pattern in which a voice fall over to a low pitch by the end
of the thought group(where to take pause) or statement
 What does it communicate?
 It communicates “CERTAINTY” and “FINALITY”. What we are
telling is fact and/or we believe we are right.
 It also communicates “COMPLETION”. We are done with
speaking , now the listener can respond ------- in action or in
words

7. EXAMPLES
 Moosa builds flutes
 He began building flutes after college
 He has of his very own
 As intonation is a line of melody hence we have three lines of
melodies (three statements) in above examples
 We will have falling intonation in all examples because we are dealing
with statements

8. Moosa builds flutes
 Detailed variation:
Moosa builds flutes
He began building flutes after college
He has of his very own

9. RISING INTONATION
 What it is?
 A pattern in which our voice raises to a high pitch by the end of a
thought group (pause) or statement
 What does it communicate?
 Uncertainty. We are not sure of the truth and/or we are asking the
listener to answer yes or no to a question (to verify)
 Lack of finality. We may not be done speaking, might be thinking
of something else to add
 IMPORTANT NOTE: with too much rising intonation in our
communication will show our uncertainty , secondly our listener
might not know when we done speaking

10. EXAMPLES
 Moose plays the flute, clarinet and saxophone.
 While enlisting item we rising our tone on each item and end up
with falling tone
Moose plays the flute, clarinet and saxophone
Stress in the middle: Its just like a bouncing ball across the room.
First hits the ground and goes up
Can you play the flute?

11. TRANSCRIPTION OF INTONATION
Employing TobI system for Presenting the
Intonation of Standard American English
 TobI __ An abbreviation of “tones and break in dices” (it’s a numerical
scale) for measuring intonation
 It is used to compare variation in tones with one an other
 There has been an attempt to change the way intonation goes
 TobI system is developed in America, analyzing and transcribing. What
they say is we can even take a complex moments of pitch and break
them down into two components, HIGH and LOW
 Example:
NO NO
HL LH

14. Intonation in the interpertation of
syntactic phenomena
prosodic
phrases, whether intermediate or
intonational, divide an utterance into
meaningful “chunks” of information (Bolinger
1989); the greater the perceived
phrasing juncture, the greater the
discontinuity between segments or
constituents

15. approaches have
focused upon discovering the circumstances under
which one sort of phrasing
of some syntactic phenomenon will be favored over
another by speakers and
perhaps differently interpreted by hearers.

16. it has
been found that the presence or absence of a
phrase boundary can distinguish
prepositions from particles and can indicate the
scope of modifiers in conjoined
phrases. Some examples are found in where
boundaries are again

17. 1.Anna frightened the woman | with the
gun.
[VP-attachment: Anna held the gun]
Anna frightened | the woman with the
gun.
[NP-attachment: the woman held the gun]
2. Mary knows many languages you know.
[Complementizer: Mary knows many
languages that you also know]
Mary knows many languages | you know.
[Parenthetical: as you are aware, Mary
knows many languages]

18. 3. The animal that usually fights the lion is
missing.
[the lion’s normal opponent is missing]
The animal that usually fights | the lion | is
missing.
[Appositive: the lion is missing]
4. My brother who is a writer needs a new job.
[Restrictive relative clause: I have at least one
other brother but I am not speaking to him]
My brother | who is a writer | needs a new job.
[Non-restrictive relative clause: I may or may not
have other brothers]

19. 5. John laughed | at the party.
[Preposition: John laughed while at the party]
John laughed at | the party.
[Particle: John ridiculed the party]
6. If you need me | when you get there call me.
[Attachment to main clause VP: if you need me,
call me when you arrive]
If you need me when you get there | call me.
[Attachment to antecedent clause VP: if you
need me when you arrive, call me ]

20. 7. This collar is dangerous to younger | dogs and
cats.
[Conjunction modification: the collar may be
dangerous to younger dogs
and younger cats]
This collar is dangerous to younger dogs | and
cats.
[Single conjunct modification: the collar may be
dangerous to younger dogs and all cats ]

21. Pitch accent location is also a well-known
factor in conveying the structure
of complex nominals (Liberman and Sproat
1992, Sproat 1994) and in distinguishing
among part-of-speech ambiguities, as is
evident from the example
8. GERMAN teachers
German TEACHERS

22. accent on the modifier or head signals the
different interpretations:
“teachers of German” vs. “teachers who
are German.”

23. Intonation in the interpretation of
semantic phenomena
In semantic intonation the focused
information being requested and is the
most prominent information in the
utterance.
Semantics intonation prominence of
pitch accents produce the different
interpretation of the sentence.

24. SEMANTICS
Is the study of meaning of expression.
Expressions include sentence and
phrases.
Stick to the literal interpretation of
expression rather than metaphorical
one.

25. SEMANTICS INTONATION
Semantic intonation is the interpretation
of focused constituent.
Intonation in semantics interpretation has
concentrated on pitch accent variation,
variation in phrasing can also change the
semantic interpretation of an utterance
this is considerable variation in
performance.

26. We can change the location of stress in the
interpretation of the utterance by altering its
perceived focus.
We can identified the intonation difference by
asking questions.
E . g
Q: Whom did Watson introduce to Harry.
A: Watson only introduce MARY to Harry.

27. Q: To whom did Watson introduce Mary?
A: Watson only introduce Mary to HARRY.
both of these questions have same
answers but different in semantic
intonations.
Pitch accent variation in semantics is also
found in the interpretation of negation in
a sentence.

28. e.g
Bill doesn’t drink because he’s unhappy.
Bill doesn’t drink / because he is unhappy.
In first one the negative has wide scope :
bill does indeed drink _ but the cause of his
drinking is not his unhappiness.
But in second it has narrow scope : bill’s
unhappiness has lead him not to drink.

29. These answers depict that the pitch of
accents produce the different meaning of
the sentence.
So in semantic intonation the focused
information is the information being
requested and is the most prominent
information in the utterance.

30. Intonation in the
Interpretation of
Discourse
Phenomena
MAMOONA
BATOOL
RIFAT NAZIR

31. What is it?
► Intonation is the variation of pitch
when speaking.
► One of the elements of linguistic
rhythm in discourse.
► Perhaps the most important
element of a good accent.

32. Definition
► Intonation helps create the music of a language. (like notes in music)
► It is a part of communication.
* the rise and fall of pitch in our voice plays a crucial role in how we express
meaning.
► Intonation is the change of level of voice

33. Key components of Intonation
 Intonation is based on several key components:
 Pitch,
 Sentence stress,
 Rhythm.

34. Pitch
Pitch is the degree of height of our
voice in speech.
Normal speaking pitch is at midlevel.
Intonation is formed by certain pitch
changes, characteristic of a given
language.

35. Sentence stress
 Sentence stress makes the utterance
understandable to the listener by making
the important words in the sentence
stressed, clear and higher in pitch and by
shortening and obscuring the unstressed
words.
 Sentence stress provides rhythm in
connected speech.

36. Levels of Voice in English
Extra high
High
Gilbert(1994) stated that the
purpose of intonation is “helping
the listener to follow”. It is a
travelling guide for the listener.
Medium
Low

37. Why do we need it?
Main Functions of Intonation
1. Grammatical function
* Intonation is used to signal the
syntactic or grammatical structure.
Ex. She cooked and cleaned the house.
( the food was cooked and house was cleaned. )
She cooked / and cleaned the house.
( She cooked first and then cleaned the house)

38. Qamar& Rubab (2007)
“ A learner who learns a new language
has not only to grasp the grammar of
that language but also the intonation
pattern to prove himself a good
communicator.”

39. 2. Accentual information
 Distributes accents among stressed syllables to emphasize what needs to be
understood as significant word.
Ex. Paul is very smart.
Paul is very smart. (Paul and not
another one)
3. Discourse Function
* The study of the intonation related to the context.

40. It means to convey what is new and what is old or
known. The main accent is in the last lexical
word.
Ex. My name is Bond.
My name is Bond.
James Bond. (new is accented )

41. 3. Attitudinal Function
* Intonation is used to convey attitude, emotions
or feelings. This adds a special kind of meaning
to Discourse.
Allow us to express emotions: finality,
confidence, interest, surprise, doubt, joy,
pain, irony, etc.

42. THE DISCOURSE FUNCTIONS OF
INTONATION
 Intonation can signal to the listener what is
to be taken as “new” information and what
is already “given”.
 It can indicate when the speaker is
indicating some sort of contrast or link with
material in another tone unit.
 In conversation it can convey to the listener
what kind of response is being expected
from him.

43. Change of standard patterns
Statement 1) He bought a new
HOUSE.
He bought a new
/HOUSE?
Standard statement
giving information
Surprised question
Special
question
2) What is your NAME?
What is your /NAME?
Standard intonation,
asking for
information
More interested,
surprised or asking to
repeat
General
question
3) Do you have a /CAR?
Do you have a CAR?
Standard intonation,
asking for
information
The answer “yes” is
expected
Request 4) Could you give me a
/PEN, please?
Polite request
Sounds like a command,

44. I did not say you left my book in class.
I did not say you left my book in class.
(the meaning contains the idea that someone else did it, not you.)
I did not say you left my book in class. (Strong anger and denial of
the fact.)

45. I did not say you stole my red hat.
(But I implied it that you did. Did you?)
I did not say you stole my red hat. (I
wasn't accusing you. I know it was someone else)

46. I did not say you stole my red hat . (I
meant that you stole someone else's red hat)
I did not say you stole my red hat. (I
said that you stole my blue hat.)
I did not say that you stole my red hat.
(I said that you stole my red bat. You misunderstood my pronunciation)

47. Phonemes.
Fry, et al, (2000),the changes in
meaning are due to what is called
supersegmental phonemes.
Phonemes are speech sounds and the
supersegmental stress/inflection
kind affect the meaning .

48. Segmentals are isolated sounds
( consonants, vowels, dipthongs)
Suprasegmentals features of
speech like stress, intonation and
rhythm

49. 5. Sociolinguistic function
Intonation gives the clue
a. where somebody comes from
b. his social level
c. sex, age, personality
d. Individual features (idiosyncrasy)

50. Importance of Intonation in Social
Interaction
TURN-TAKING: Giving the floor to another
person or taking your turn in a conversation
INFORMATION STRUCTURE :Major stress
items pick out the most important words in the
sentence .

51. Word Stress vs. Intonation
Are they different?
STRESS
- stress within a word
- a syllable is said Louder, Longer at
a higher pitch
INTONATION
- It goes beyond the word level.
- - it’s a change in pitch within a
group of words.
- A long line of melody

52. Kinds of Tones
 Fall – gives the impression of finality
 Rise- conveys an impression that something
more is to follow.
 Fall-Rise – shows limited agreement,
uncertainty and doubt.
 Rise-Fall – convey rather strong feelings of
approval, disapproval or surprise
 Level- tone is neutral and uninterested
(usually calls “flat”)

53. Intonation Pattern
Two Basic Patterns
1. Falling Intonation
2. Rising Intonation

54. What is falling intonation?
►A pattern in which your voice falls
to a low pitch by the end of a
thought group or statement.

55. What does it communicate?
Certainty
You are telling a fact and/or you
believe you are right.
Finality
Completion : You are done
speaking. Your listener can now
respond.

56. Falling intonation
■ Declarative sentences
■ W H – questions
■ Commands

57. Example:
Erik makes pots.// He began
began making pots after
college.// He has many pots
of his very own in his home.//

58. What is rising intonation?
conveys an impression that something
more is to follow
■ YES/ NO questions
■ Open- choice alternative questions

59. Rising Intonation
Example:
Is that Ahmed with them?
(Rising Intonation)
He just won first place!

60. Why teach intonation?
Awareness of intonation aids
conversation.
(Difference it makes to meaning)
Incorrect intonation can result in
misunderstandings, speakers losing
interest or even taking offence!
As important as word choice

61. What are the main means of improving
intonation while teaching pronunciation?
 The best way to achieve quick results is constant practicing.
 Start listening to speech of native speakers as frequently as possible.
 The most important is not only to listen to pronunciation, but to repeat
phrases and try to imitate the speakers.

62. THAT’S ALL and
Thank you for
listening!!
MAMOONA BATOOL
RIFAT NAZIR