Theoretical phonetics. Study guide for second year students. Борискина О.О - 74 стр.

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     The basic unit of intonation is an intonation pattern: pitch movements and
tempo. Intonation patterns are actualized in speech.
     The tonetic units that constitute the total intonation pattern (contour) are the
following:
     1) unstressed and half stressed syllables preceding the first stressed syllable
constitute the prehead of the intonation group;
     2) stressed and unstressed syllables up to the last stressed syllable
constitute the head, body or scale of the intonation group;
     3) the last stressed syllable, within which fall or rise in the intonation group
is accomplished, is called the nucleus; the syllable marked with the nuclear tone
may take a level stress;
     4) the syllables (or one syllable), that follow the nucleus, constitute the tail.
     The most important part of the intonation group is the nucleus, which
carries nuclear stress (nuclear tone).
     According to the changes in the voice pitch preheads can be: rising, mid
and low:
     Scales or heads can be: descending, ascending and level.
     According to the direction of pitch movement within and between
syllables, descending and ascending scales can be: stepping, sliding and
scandent.
     If one of the words in the descending scale is made specially prominent, a
vertical arrow ↑ is placed before the dash-mark which indicates the stressed
syllable on the staves, or before the word made specially prominent in the text
—accidental rise, e.g. 'John is ↑very \busy.
     This type of scale is called upbroken descending scale.
     The falling tones convey completion and finality, they are categoric in
character. The rising tones are incomplete and non-categoric. Of all the level
tones mid level tone is used most frequently. The level tones may express
hesitation and uncertainty.
       We have been concerned with the relationship between intonation,
grammatical patterns and lexical composition. Usually the speaker's intonation
is in balance with the words and structures he chooses. If he says something
nice, his intonation usually reflects the same characteristic. All types of
questions, for instance, express a certain amount of interest which is generally
expressed in their grammatical structure and a special interrogative intonation.
However, there are cases when intonation is in contradiction with the syntactic
structure and the lexical content of the utterance neutralizing and compensating
them, e.g.: a statement may sound questioning, interested. In this case intonation
neutralizes its grammatical structure. It compensates the grammatical means of
expressing this kind of meaning: Do you know what I'm here for? — No
(questioning).
     There are cases when intonation neutralizes or compensates the lexical
content of the utterance as it happens, for instance, in the command Phone him