American Speech Music
Language conveys very specific information, such as how to get somewhere or what someone is doing. It can be also used beyond the exact meaning of the words to indicate how the speaker feels about what he is saying, or how he personally feels at that moment.
Generally speaking, if English is not your first language, this is where you start running into difficulty. Even if you pronounce each word clearly, if your intonation patterns are non-standard, your meaning will probably not be clear. Also, in terms of comprehension, you will lose a great deal of information if you are listening for the actual words used.
Each language deals with expressing these emotional ranges and contextual importances in different ways. Some languages, such as French and other Romance languages, stress the end of a sentence, and then use word order to indicate an important change. Other languages, such as Chinese, have a pitch change that indicates different vocabulary words, and then superimpose further pitch change to change meaning or emotion.
Because English has a fairly strictly fixed word order, it is not an option to rearrange the words when we want to make a point about something. Intonation in American English is the rise and fall of pitch in order to convey a range of meanings, emotions or situations, within the confines of standard grammar and fixed word order. The intonation aspects of grammar are explained in complex grammar.
New Information
This is the starting point of the standard American accent when we say that we need to stress the new information, it's logical to think, "Hmmm, this is the first time I'm saying this sentence, so it's all new information. I'd better stress every word." Well, not quite. In standard English, we consider that the nouns carry the weight of a sentence, when all else is equal. Although the verb carries important information, it does not receive the primary stress of a first-time noun.
Dogs eat bones.
Phrasing
In addition to the intonation of a statement, there is another aspect of speech that indicates meaning -- phrasing. Have you ever caught just a snippet of a conversation in your own language, and somehow known how to piece together what came before or after the part you heard? This has to do with your natural understanding of phrasing. In a sentence, phrasing tells you where the speaker is at the moment, where he is going, and if he is finished or not. Notice that the intonation stays on the nouns.
| Statement Stress the nouns and let the tone fall at the end of the sentence. Dogs eat bones. |
First half, second half The first half of a sentence usually sets up the second half. Dogs eat bones, but cats eat fish. |
| Intro Phrase When you want to preface your statement, use a rising tone. As we all know, dogs eat bones. |
Listing With more than one item in a list, all but the last one have a rising tone. Dogs eat bones, kibbles and meat. |
| Question A regular question goes up (compared with a statement), but drops back down at the end. Do dogs eat bones? |
Repeated Question A repeated, rhetorical or emotional question goes up, and then up again at the end. Do dogs eat bones?! |
Bob studies English, but he doesn't use it.
I said it is good.
He doesn't like it. Where are you going?
People should exercise more, but . . .
They would help us, if . . .
It looks like Chanel, but at that price, it's a knock-off.
He seems like a nice guy, but once you get to know him. . .
Meaning
A good exercise to demonstrate the variety of meaning through intonation changes is to take a single sentence, try stressing each word in turn, and see the totally different meanings that come out.
1. I didn't say he stole the money.
2. I didn't say he stole the money.
3. I didn't say he stole the money.
4. I didn't say he stole the money.
5. I didn't say he stole the money.
6. I didn't say he stole the money.
7. I didn't say he stole the money.
Once you are clear on the intonation changes in the seven sentences, you can add context words to clarify the meaning:
1. I didn't say he stole the money, someone else said it.
2. I didn't say he stole the money, that's not true at all.
3. I didn't say he stole the money, I only suggested the possibility.
4. I didn't say he stole the money, I think someone else took it.
5. I didn't say he stole the money, maybe he just borrowed it.
6. I didn't say he stole the money, but rather some other money.
7. I didn't say he stole the money, he may have taken some jewelry.
Pronunciation
In any language, there are areas of overlap, where one category has a great deal in common with a different category. In this case, intonation and pronunciation have two areas of overlap. First is the pronunciation of the letter T. When a T is at the beginning of a word (such as table, ten, take), it is a clear sharp sound. It is also clear in combination with certain other letters, (contract, contain, etc.) When T is in the middle of a word (or in an unstressed position), it turns into a softer D sound. (This is covered in more detail in pronunciation.)
Betty bought a bit of better butter.
Beddy bada bida bedder budder.
Mood & Personality
This is an extremely important aspect of intonation, as it goes beyond what you are trying to say--it dictates how your listener will relate to you as an individual--if you will be considered charming or rude, confident or nervous, informed or unfamiliar.
When we contrast two similar words, one ending with a voiced consonant (d, z, g, v, b) and the other with an unvoiced consonant (t, s, k, f, p), you will hear the difference in the preceding vowel, specifically in the length or duration of that vowel.
Simply put, words that end in a voiced consonant have a doubled vowel sound. For example, if you say bit, it is a quick, sharp sound--a single musical note. If you say bid, however, the word is stretched out, it has two musical notes, the first one higher than the second, bi-id.
| single | double | |
| tense | beat | bead |
| lax | bit | bid |
Compound Nouns
One of the first things you learn about intonation is that nouns carry the new information, and consequently, they carry the stress in a sentence.
Dogs eat bones.
But what if you have an adjective with the noun, or two nouns together -- which word do you stress?
In this case, you have to make a simple decision: Either stress the first word or the second word (rarely both). How do you know which one to stress? Well, if it is a description (with no contrast), skim over the adjective and stress the noun:
a nice guy
a big house
a good idea
If you have a two nouns that form acompound noun, stress the first word:
a hot dog
a notebook
a picture frame
This will explain why we say:
He lives in a white house.
He lives in the White House.
After you have mastered first-word or second-word stress, you can go on the more complex intonation:
It's a pot.
It's new.
It's a new pot.
It's brand new.
It's a brand new pot.
It's a tea pot.
It's a new tea pot.
It's a brand new tea pot.
It's a tea pot lid.
It's a new tea pot lid.
It's a brand new tea pot lid.
