Grammar and Intonation

Many attempts have been made to show connections between intonation patterns and particular types of grammatical structure, and the following list shows some of these. The reader will find it easy to say these examples in other ways; it should be remembered that these are generalisations rather than rules. They can, however, help in giving guidance in making appropriate choices with regard to intonation: 

• Information questions with who, what, where, etc: Falling intonation (if being asked for the first time).
Examples:
What’s your name? What’s the time? Where do you live? 

• Questions expecting a ‘yes/ no’ answer: Rising
Examples:
Is it the blue one? Have you got a pen?

• Statements: Falling
Examples:
He lives in the house on the corner. It’s over there.

• Imperatives: Falling
Examples:
Sit down. Put it on the table.

• Question tags expecting confirmation: Falling
Examples:
You’re French, aren’t you? He’s very tall, isn’t he?

• Question tags showing less certainty: Rising
Examples:
You’re French, aren’t you? Your train leaves at six, doesn’t it?

• Lists of items: Rising, rising and finally falling
Examples:
You need a pen, a pencil and some paper. The stall sells ribbon, beads, elastic and buttons.

The main difficulty in trying to make a link between intonation and attitude is that the same intonation pattern can be used to express wildly differing attitudes. When we are speaking in a matter-of-fact way we usually use a succession of falling tones (for example:

// ↘ its over THERE! // ↘ on the TAble // ↘ next to the NEWSpaper //

We could describe the intonation of the second speaker as someone who is expressing a sense of relief in the same way. There are other differences here, such as the starting and finishing pitch of the speaker’s voice and the length of the vowel sounds, but the basic intonation pattern is the same.

An interesting feature of intonation is that many such expressions are delivered as tone units, having one main tone movement. For example, on being introduced to someone for the first time, in a relatively formal setting, the following would be an appropriate utterance:

// ↘ HOW do you DO //

This is a complete expression, and the falling intonation is itself a part of the message.

The expression ‘Don’t get me wrong.’ , which might be used when giving a personal opinion, can often have the following pattern:

// \↗DONT get me WRONG// 

The expression will clearly be followed by other information, but is characteristically delivered with a predictable pattern, as shown.

Other expressions may not constitute a complete tone unit (remember that this is an utterance or part of an utterance with one main tone movement) but may be used to introduce one. For example, ‘I’m not sure whether to …’ is often used to introduce a couple of possible choices for a particular action. The phrase is not a tone unit in itself, but can have a relatively level intonation, before the main choices, carrying the tone movements, are introduced:

// \↗ i’m NOT sure whether to go to SPAIN// ↘ or PORtugal// 

A similar introductory expression is ‘What do you make of .. ?’ which can be used to elicit a viewpoint from the listener. It is often used with a relatively level intonation pattern, prior to the main information in the utterance:

// ↘WHAT do you make of that new TEAcher//