Pitch ranges (rising, falling,…) and Tone units.

Sounds combine ----- speech - phoneme: /b/ /ɪ/ /f/ /ɔː/ /r/ - syllable: for - word: before - connected speech: I called before eight.

- UTTERANCE = the continuous piece of speech beginning and ending with a clear pause. Simple: Yes. Complex: lecture.

Be careful. Be careful!

She’s home. She’s home? She’s home!

Come and pick me up, will you? Come and pick me up, will you!

This is my husband. He is a nice man.

Level tone: declarative, routine (uninteresting, boring). Fall: neutral, final. Rise: questioning, more to follow, invitation to continue. Fall – rise: used frequently, indicates limited agreement, response with reservations. Rise – fall: expresses strong feelings of approval, disapproval or surprise.

An English utterance can be organized into phrases which are called tone units. Each tone unit may contain: Pre-head …in a

Head ˡlittle ˡless than an

Tail \hour

perhaps…

tonic syllable HEAD = all of that part of a tone unit that extends from the first stressed syllable up to the tonic syllable but DOES NOT INCLUDE IT PRE-HEAD = all of the unstressed syllables in a tone unit preceding the first stressed syllable TAIL = any syllable that follows the tonic syllable before the end of a tone unit.

Statements Neutral conclusive statements: falling tone A: It’s starting to rain. B: I must take my umbrella then. Non-conclusive statement: rising tone He turned around suddenly and there she was. Enumerations: rising tone I have bought apples, peaches and oranges.

Questions Wh-questions: falling tone Where are my gloves? Yes-No questions: usually rising tone Did you bring your camera? You are ready?

Question tags: rising and falling tone It’s almost dark, isn’t it? Rising = doubt He’s quite smart, isn’t he? Confirmation = falling

Alternative questions: 1st rising, 2nd falling Are we going now or waiting till later? Echo questions: high rising tone You did what? Really? When? How?

Commands: falling tone Come here! Stop talking! Exclamations: falling How awful! That’s disgusting!

Let’s listen and practice. Listen. Book page 192.