Cambridge University Press
978-0-521-86524-1 - English Intonation - An introduction - by J. C. Wells
Table of Contents



Contents




Preface ix
 
1   Introduction 1
  1.1  What is intonation? 1
  1.2  Prosodic features 3
  1.3  Is English a tone language? 4
  1.4  The three Ts: tone, tonicity, tonality 6
  1.5  The functions of intonation 11
  1.6  Intonation in EFL: transfer and interference 12
2   Tone: going up and going down 15
  Fall, rise and fall–rise 15
  2.1  Falling and non-falling tones 15
  2.2  Falls 17
  2.3  Rises 21
  2.4  Fall–rises 23
  Statements 25
  2.5  The definitive fall 25
  2.6  The implicational fall–rise 27
  2.7  More about the implicational fall–rise 30
  2.8  Declarative questions 36
  2.9  Uptalk 37
  2.10  Yes, no and elliptical answers 38
  2.11  Independent rises 41
  Questions 42
  2.12  Wh questions 42
  2.13  Yes–no questions 45
  2.14  Tag questions 48
  2.15  Independent elliptical questions 52
  2.16  Checking 54
  Other sentence types 59
  2.17  Exclamations 59
  2.18  Commands 61
  2.19  Interjections and greetings 64
  Sequences of tones 69
  2.20  Leading and trailing tones 69
  2.21  Topic and comment 72
  2.22  Open and closed lists 75
  2.23  Adverbials 78
  2.24  Fall plus rise 81
  2.25  Tone concord 85
  Tone meanings 87
  2.26  Generalized meanings of different tones 87
  2.27  Checklist of tone meanings 91
3   Tonicity: where does the nucleus go? 93
  Basic principles 93
  3.1  On a stressed syllable 93
  3.2  On or near the last word 95
  3.3  Content words and function words 97
  3.4  Compounds 100
  3.5  Double-stressed compounds 105
  The old and the new 109
  3.6  Information status 109
  3.7  Synonyms 111
  3.8  Prospective and implied givenness 114
  Focus 116
  3.9  Broad and narrow focus 116
  3.10  Contrastive focus 119
  3.11  Pronouns and demonstratives 124
  3.12  Reflexive, reciprocal and indefinite pronouns 130
  3.13  Contrastive focus overrides other factors 132
  3.14  Contrastive focus on polarity or tense 134
  3.15  Dynamic focus 138
  Nucleus on a function word 140
  3.16  Narrow focus: yes–no answers and tags 140
  3.17  Prepositions 144
  3.18  Wh + to be 145
  3.19  Other function words that attract the nucleus 148
  Final, but not nuclear 150
  3.20  Empty words and pro-forms 150
  3.21  Vocatives 153
  3.22  Reporting clauses 155
  3.23  Adverbs of time and place 156
  3.24  Other unfocused adverbs and adverbials 158
  Phrasal verbs 162
  3.25  Verb plus adverbial particle 162
  3.26  Verb plus prepositional particle 163
  3.27  Adverb or preposition? 165
  3.28  Separated particles 167
  Nucleus on the last noun 170
  3.29  Final verbs and adjectives 170
  3.30  Events 174
  Accenting old material 177
  3.31  Reusing the other speaker’s words 177
  3.32  Reusing your own words 178
  What is known? 180
  3.33  Knowledge: shared, common and imputed 180
  3.34  Difficult cases of tonicity 184
4   Tonality: chunking, or division into IPs 187
  4.1  Signalling the structure 187
  4.2  Choosing the size of the chunks 191
  4.3  Chunking and grammar 193
  4.4  Vocatives and imprecations 195
  4.5  Adverbials 196
  4.6  Heavy noun phrases 198
  4.7  Topics 199
  4.8  Defining and non-defining 202
  4.9  Parallel structures 204
  4.10  Tag questions 205
5   Beyond the three Ts 207
  Prenuclear patterns 207
  5.1  The anatomy of the prenuclear part of the IP 207
  5.2  Simple heads 208
  5.3  Complex heads 212
  5.4  Preheads 214
  Finer distinctions of tone 216
  5.5  Varieties of fall 216
  5.6  Varieties of fall–rise 219
  5.7  Varieties of rise 222
  5.8  Prenuclear and nuclear tone meaning 225
  Non-nuclear accenting 228
  5.9  Lexical stress and downgrading 228
  5.10  Two or more lexical stresses 230
  5.11  The focus domain 233
  5.12  Major and minor focus 235
  5.13  Unimportant words at the beginning 236
  5.14  Onset on a function word 237
  Further considerations 240
  5.15  Stylization 240
  5.16  Key 243
6   Putting it all together 246
  6.1  Describing an intonation pattern: the oral examination 246
  6.2  Analysing spoken material 248
  6.3  Passages for analysis 250
          6.3.1  Towels 251
          6.3.2  Getting breakfast 252
          6.3.3  Books 254
          6.3.4  Cornwall 256
  Appendix: notation 259
  A1   The intonation symbols used in this book 259
  A2   Comparison with other notation systems 261
  A3   The ToBI system 261
 
Key to exercises 263
References 271
Index 274



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