Theoretical phonetics. Study guide for second year students. Борискина О.О - 72 стр.

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nucleus separately, but to each of ten 'tone-unit types' as they combine with each
of four sentence types: statement, question, command and exclamation.
      D. Crystal presents an approach based on the view "that any explanation of
intonational meaning cannot be arrived at by seeing the issues solely in either
grammatical or attitudinal terms". He ignores the significance of pre-head and
head choices and deals only with terminal tones.
      It is still impossible to classify, in any practical analysis of intonation, all
the fine shades of feeling and attitude which can be conveyed by slight changes
in pitch, by lengthening or shortening tones, by increasing or decreasing the
loudness of the voice, by changing its quality, and in various other ways. On the
other hand it is quite possible
• to make a broad classification of intonation patterns which are so different in
their nature that they materially change the meaning of the utterance;
• to make different pitches and degrees of loudness in each of them. Such an
analysis resembles the phonetic analysis of sounds of a language whereby
phoneticians establish the number of significant sounds it uses.
      The distinctive function of intonation is realized in the opposition of the
same word sequences which differ in certain parameters of the intonation
pattern. Intonation patterns make their distinctive contribution at intonation
group, phrase and text levels. Thus in the phrases:
      If MARY, comes let me know at once (a few people are expected to come
but it is Mary who interests the speaker)
      If Mary comes let me know at once (no one else but Mary is expected to
come)
      the intonation patterns of the first intonation groups are opposed.
      Any section of the intonation pattern, any of its three constituents can
perform the distinctive function thus being phonological units. These units
form a complex system of intonemes, tonemes, accentemes, chronemes, etc.
These phonological units like phonemes consist of a number of variants. The
terminal tonemes, for instance, consist of a number of allotones, which are
mutually non-distinctive. The principal allotone is realized in the nucleus alone.
The subsidiary allotones are realized not only in the nucleus, but also in the pre-
head and in the tail, if there are any.
      The most powerful phonological unit is the terminal tone. The opposition
of terminal tones distinguishes different types of sentence. The same sequence
of words may be interpreted as a different syntactical type, i.e. a statement or a
question, a question or an exclamation being pronounced with different terminal
tones, e.g.:
      Tom saw it (statement) - Tom saw it? (general question)
      Didn't you enjoy it? (general question) - Didn't you enjoy it? (exclamation)
      Will you be quiet? (request) - Will you be quiet? (command).
      The number of terminal tones indicates the number of intonation groups.
Sometimes the number of intonation groups may be important for meaning. For
example, the sentence My sister, who lives in the South, has just arrived may
mean two different things. In oral speech it is marked by using two or three