Understanding and Teaching the Pronunciation of English.pdf

In Chapter 10, we learned that each thought group has a
prominent word—often the last content word in the thought
group, or sometimes another word that is being emphasized.
The highest point in the intonation of a thought group
generally coincides with the prominent word. Many thought
groups also have a smaller “bump” in intonation near the
beginning, often on the subject of the sentence or another
important word. Let’s look at some grammatical patterns and
the intonation that often goes with them.

Statements

Statements usually end in falling intonation. The intonation
rises on the prominent word and then stays low after that.
The statement ends at the lowest point in the pitch range.

The weather is warm today.

Let’s get some ice cream.

Ice cream is cold and delicious.

Commands and requests

Commands and requests also often end in falling intonation.

Write your name at the top of your paper.

However, the intonation of commands and requests can vary,

depending on the situation, the speaker’s attitude, and the

relationship between the speaker and the listener. For

example, a parent telling a child to put away his toys might

say it in di"erent ways. Can you feel a di"erence?

Put away your toys

Put away your toys.

Put away your toys.

A boss might give instructions to an employee like this:

You need to !nish this report.

But if an employee used the same intonation when talking to

the boss, there could be trouble.

If a request is in the form of a question, it usually has rising

intonation, like a yes/no question.

Can you help me with this?

Questions

Questions do not all have the same intonation. For example,

questions that can be answered with yes or no (yes/no

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