Intonation in English
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INTONATION
GENERAL RULES:
Falling intonation indicates definiteness and completeness.
Rising tone indicates uncertainty, incompleteness and politeness.
Falling- rising tone indicates contrast, implication, disagreement, contradiction, warning,
etc.
A. Falling intonation
Falling intonation describes how the voice falls on the final stressed syllable of
a phrase or a group of words.It is commonly found in statements, commands,
wh-questions (information questions), confirmatory question tags and exclamations.
Examples:
Statements:
Nice to meet ↘you.
Poverty is the lack of ↘ money.
Commands:
Write your name ↘here.
Show me what you’ve ↘written.
Wh-questions:
What country do you come ↘from?
Where do you ↘work?
Confirmatory question tags:
I failed the test because I didn't revise,
did ↘ I?
Exclamations:
How nice of ↘ you!
That's just what I ↘need!
B. Rising intonation
Rising intonation describes how the voice rises at the end of a sentence. It is
normally used with yes/no questions, and question tags that are real
questions.
Examples:
Yes/no questions:
Do you like your new ➚teacher?
Have you finished ➚already?
Question tags that are real questions:
We've met already, ➚haven't we?
You like fish, ➚don't you?
C. Fall-rise intonation:
Fall-rise intonation describes how the voice falls and then rises. We use
rise-fall intonation for choices, lists, unfinished thoughts and c onditional
sentences….
Example:
Choices:
Are you having ➚soup or ➘salad?
Is John leaving on ➚Thursday or ➘Friday?
Lists:
We've got ➚apples, pears, bananas and ➘oranges
The sweater comes in ➚blue, white pink and ➘black
Unfinished thoughts:
Do you like my new handbag? Well the ➚leather is ➘nice... ( but I don't like it.)
What was the meal like? Hmm, the ➚fish was ➘good... (but the rest wasn't
great).
Conditional sentences:
If he ➚calls, ask him to leave a ➘message.
Unless he ➚insists, I'm not going to ➘go.
D. PRACTICE
Look at the following short passages. Use the symbol ↗ with a rising
intonation and ↘ with a falling intonation. Then read them aloud with your
partners.
1. In higher education, some argue that it is especially important for students to be
assigned projects and material suitable for self-learning, so that they may exercise
and develop intellectual independence and explore subject matter they personally
find interesting. One study suggests that self-study, in addition to being more
affordable and convenient, is surpassing classroom learning as far as effectiveness.
Self-study and traditional classroom learning complement one another. When used
together, they help students learn and retain information better.
2. Levels of illiteracy and innumeracy remain startlingly high in the developing world,
and will continue to be so until the West provides or sponsors new education
initiatives, preferably also getting directly involved. A better education is a
prerequisite should the impoverished masses of Africa ever wish to hold any genuine
hope of gaining their emancipation from the metaphorical shackles of poverty.
Education initiatives for young people as well as life-long learning programmes will
also help to breach the gulf that separates the working classes from their ruling elite,
a privileged few who enjoy the trappings of Western wealth and the lifestyle that goes
with it, while those in their midst are completely preoccupied with the daily struggle
for survival.
3. Human have always risen to any challenge, and unlike most species on this planet
we have an insatiable desire to see what is around the next corner… and the next…
and the next. Primitive man may well have migrated at first for reasons of survival, as
did other species, but at some point this must have developed into a thirst for
adventure and a hunger to discover more about his surroundings.
4. This itch of curiosity has led to great feats of exploration. Our achievements are
enormous – think of Everest, the North and South Pole, the Amazon, the Sahara and
even the Moon. Next on the list could be Mars, and that’s corner we’re already
peeping round. How many other corners are waiting for us, how many more places
will humans manage to explore? Are the possibilities endless or will our physical
limitations prevent us one day from going any further?
