INTONATION

The Structure of the Tone Unit, & Function

of Intonation
Presented by Group 7
Khalimin
(201312500235)
Trio Aji Basuki (201312500374)
Wiwi Sumarti
(201312500392)
Retno Utari (201312500396)
Fajriyah
(201312500446)
Siti Sipa Ulya
(201312500796)
Siti Nurcholifah (201312500967)
Vena Asania (201312570020 )

Tone unit and the structure of

tone unit:
Tone: Tone is the overall behaviour of pitch.
Pitch: Pitch is frequency of vibration of
vocal cords.
Tone unit: For the purpose of analyzing
intonation, a unit greater than syllable one
syllable. Usually tone unit is always
composed of more than one syllable.

Analysis of Utterances to Understand

Tone Unit
One syllable utterance
You
This is one tone unit.
Note: Underlined syllable carry tone.

Three Syllable Utterance

Is it you?
This is one tone unit.
Note: the underlined syllable have more prominence.

The structure of the tone-unit.

The structure of tone unit comprises of:

Tonic syllable
(TS)
Head
(H)
Pre-Head
(PH)
Tail
(T).

Tonic Syllable

Tonic syllable is an obligatory component of tone unit. The

centre of the unit, around which everything else is constructed,
is the tonic syllable, or nucleus.

For example:
John, is it you?
In this example, there are two tone units because there are, two
tonic syllables in it. First is John, one syllable utterance)
second is it you? (Three syllable utterance).
It contains a high degree of prominence which is a property of
stressed syllable, so, tonic syllable contains.
Tone + Stress:
Tonic stress: The stress that tonic syllable is having is called
tonic stress.

THE HEAD

The head is all that part of a tone unit that extends from the first stressed syllable up to the tonic
syllable.

For example:
Give me, those?
Head
TS

If there is no stressed syllable proceeding the tonic syllable, there

cannot be any head.

THE PRE-HEAD
The unstressed syllable before the head is called pre-head.
For example
In an
hour
Pre-head
TS
Pre-head can be found in two situations.
When there is no head.
For example:
In an
hour
PH
TS
When the head is after the unstressed syllable.
For example:
In a
little
less than an, hour
PH
H
TS

THE TAIL
Any syllable that follows the tonic syllable or any syllable
between tonic syllable and of tone unit is called the Tail.
For example:
Look
at it
TS
Tail
I might
buy it
H TS
Tail

Functions of Intonation

Attitudinal function
Accentual function
Grammatical function
Discourse function

Attitudinal function
Intonation enables us to express emotion and attitudes as we
speak, and this adds a special kind of meaning to spoken
language,
We can isolate three distrinct types of suprasegmental
variable (component of intonation) :
Sequential
Prosodic
paralinguistic

Sequential component

Components never occur simultaneously

They are: pre-head, head, tonic syllable, tail
Pauses
Tone-unit boundaries

Prosodic component
Characteristics of speech that are constantly
present while the speech is going on:
- Width of pitch range
- Key
- Loudness
- Speed
- Voice quality
- (rhythmicality)

Paralinguistic component
Facial expressions, gestures, body language
Vocal effects: laughs, sobs, ...
Effects relevant to the act of speaking but not
proper components of speech

Tones conveying meanings

The following tones are the ones most usually encountered.
Fall
Rise fall
Fall rise
Rise
Level

1. Fall
It is regarded as neutral tone and gives the
impression of finality.
Example:
A: Have you attended the class?
B: Yes
(It will be understood that the question is now
answered and that there is nothing more to be
said.)

2. Rise
This tone conveys an impression that something more is to follow.

For example:
A: (wishing to attract BS attention.)
Excuse me.
B: Yes
(BS reply is, perhaps, equivalent to what do you want?)
A: Do you know John Smith?
B: Yes
(Inviting A to continue with what she intends to say about
John Smith. The response with a fall would make it difficult
for A to continue).

3. Fall rise
This tone shows limited agreement, uncertainty,
and doubt.
For example:
A: I have heard that its a good college.
B: Yes
(B does not completely agree and A would
probably expect B to go on to explain why he
was reluctant to agree).

4. Rise Fall
This is used to convey rather strong feelings of approval,
disapproval or surprise. This tone is used rarely in English.

A: You wouldnt do on awful thing like

that, would you?
B: No
A: Isnt the view lovely!
B: Yes

5. Level
This tone is neutral and uninterested.
High level
Yes
No
Low level
Yes
No
It is used in English language in a restricted context. It
almost always conveys a feeling of routine,
uninteresting or boring.

For example:
A teacher calling names of the pupils from a register.

Accentual function
Intonation helps to produce the effect of
prominence on syllables that should be perceived
as stressed while tonic stress on a particular
syllable marks the word as the most important in
the tone-unit.

Grammatical function
The listener better recognizes grammar and what is
being said by using the information contained in
intonation: e.g. placement of boundaries between
phrases, clauses and sentences, difference between
questions and statements, use of grammatical
subordination, etc.

Discourse function
Intonation can signal to the listener what is to be
taken as new information within the act of
speaking, when the speaker is indicating a contrast
or link with the material from previous tone-units
and it can also make the listener feel what kind of
response is expected