SUPRASEGMENTAL
PHONEMES
BAHROZ H. MAWLOOD
2017
Types of Phoneme
Segmental
Phoneme
Suprasegmental
Segmental Phoneme
Is a phoneme which can be segmented .
Example :
Beak “bi:k” can be segmented into /b/, /i:/, /k/.
So, it has three segmental phonemes
Suprasegmental Phoneme
Is a phoneme which can’t be segmented or separated
because it may change the meaning. It equips the
segmental phonemes.
Vowels and consonants can be thought of as the
segments of which speech is composed. Together they
form the syllables, which go to make up utterances.
Related to the syllables, there are other features known
as suprasegmentals.
In other words, suprasegmental features are the aspects
of speech that involve more than single consonants or
vowels.
Suprasegmental Features
These features include:
Intonation
Stress
Juncture
Tempo
Pitch
Nasalization
Voice
Clusters
Tone
Intonation
is the sound pattern of phrases and sentences produced by pitch
variation in the voice.
is variation of spoken pitch that is not used to distinguish words;
instead it is used for a range of functions such as
indicating the attitudes and emotions of the speaker,
signaling the difference between statements and questions,
between different types of questions,
focusing attention on important elements of the spoken message
Types of intonation
• Rising Intonation means the pitch of the voice
increases over time [↗];
• Falling Intonation means that the pitch decreases
with time [↘];
• Dipping Intonation falls and then rises [↘↗];
• Peaking Intonation rises and then falls [↗↘].
Rising Intonation
This intonation or tone conveys an
impression that something more
is following.
Example: |I came to her house |
(but she was not at home)
Falling Intonation
The falling tone gives an impression of
finality. No more sentence to be
said.
Example :
- |That is all my speech |
Dipping Intonation
This tone shows limited agreement,
response , uncertainty, or doubt
Example : |I am not sure |
Peaking Intonation
This tone is used to convey strong
feelings of approval, disapproval or
surprise.
Example : |What the hell? |
Intonation Patterns
Fall
Rise
Fall-Rise
Rise-Fall
Level
Transcription of intonation
/rise
\fall
/\rise-fall
\/fall-rise
rise-fall-rise
Fall: neutral statement,
conclusion
E.g. Have you seen Ann?
Yes.
(Falling intonation indicates ‘I
have answered your question and
do not intend to add anything else’)
Rise: questioning, doubt,
desire to continue
conversation
E.g. Have you seen Ann lately?
Yes…
(Rising intonation indicates ‘I want
to continue the conversation, I am
curious’)
Rise-Fall: emphatic
statement, irritation,
command
Do I really have to clean my
room?
Yes!
Fall-Rise: surprise
E.g. Ann and Peter were
on good terms at the
party.
Oh yes?
Level: boredom, lack of
interest
Can you remember Peter Jackson?
The other day in the office I invited
him for dinner, he’ll be coming
tomorrow.
Yes.
Functions of Intonation
ATTITUDINAL FUNCTION : Expresses our feeling, attitudes,
emotions .
ACCENTUAL FUNCTIONS : Intonation has accentual function, it
implies that the placement of stress is somewhat determined by
intonation.
GRAMMATICAL FUNCTIONS : The listener is better able to
recognize the grammar and syntax structure of what is being
said by using the information contained in the intonation.
THE DISCOURSE FUNCTIONS OF INTONATION : Intonation can
indicate when the speaker is indicating some sort of contrast or
link with material in another tone unit and kind of response is
being expected from him.
attitudinal function (for expressing emotions and attitudes)
example: a fall from a high pitch on the 'mor' syllable of "good morning" suggests more
excitement than a fall from a low pitch
grammatical function (to identify grammatical structure)
example: it is claimed that in English a falling pitch movement is associated with
statements, but a rising pitch turns a statement into a yes–no question, as in He's going
↗home?. This use of intonation is more typical of American English than of British.
focusing (to show what information in the utterance is new and what is already known)
example: in English I saw a ↘man in the garden answers "Whom did you see?" or
"What happened?", while I ↘saw a man in the garden answers "Did you hear a man in
the garden?"discourse function (to show how clauses and sentences go together in
spoken discourse)
example: subordinate clauses often have lower pitch, faster tempo and narrower pitch
range than their main clause, as in the case of the material in parentheses in "The Red
Planet (as it's known) is fourth from the sun“
Intonation can Help Communication
1. Intonation enables us to express emotions and attitudes as we
speak:
the attitudinal function of intonation.
2. Intonation helps to produce the effect of prominence on
stressed syllables:
the accentual function of intonation.
3. Intonation helps to recognize the grammar and syntactic
structure of the utterance:
the grammatical function of intonation.
4. Intonation conveys the given-new information, or provides
information for turn-taking:
the discourse function of intonation.
Tone
Tone is the overall behavior of pitch.
Pitch is frequency of vibration of vocal cords.
Tone unit:
[A tone unit] is a stretch of speech uttered under a single coherent
into national contour. It tends to be marked by cues such as a
pause and a shift upward in overall pitch level at its beginning,
and a lengthening of its final syllable. DuBois et al (1992)
Usually tone unit is always composed of more than one syllable.
STRUCTURE OF THE TONE UNIT
The structure of the tone unit is as follows. The tonic
syllable is obligatory but all other parts are optional.
(PH) (H) TS (T) (pre-head) (head) tonic syllable
(tail)tonic syllable: ‘carries’ the tone. Is obligatory
head: all stressed syllable up to (but not including) tonic
syllable
pre-head: any unstressed syllables before the head
tail: any unstressed syllables that follow the tonic
Examples of Tone Unit
In the first example, the tone unit is a single syllable ‘those’.
This is the tonic syllable and in this case has been given a falling
intonation denoted by \
1.| \those |
2.| 'give me \those |
3.| in a 'little 'less than an \hour |
4.| and then 'I said my \father was here |
In the second example, the tonic syllable is preceded by a head
‘give me’. ‘Give’ is stressed so is the start of the head. In the
third example, the tonic is ‘hour’, the head is ‘little less than
an’ and the pre-head is ‘in a’. Note the pre-head does not
contain any stressed syllables. In example 4, the tonic ‘father’ is
followed by a tail ‘was here’.
The division of a sentence into tone groups
can affect the meaning in some cases.
Do you take sugar?
/ I don't / no /
Meaning: I don't, no.
/ I don't no/
Meaning: I don't know.
The prince said the princess had been unfaithful.
/ The prince said / the princess had been unfaithful./
Meaning: The prince said (that) the princess had been
unfaithful.
/ The prince / said the princess / had been unfaithful./
Meaning: "The prince," said the princess, "had been
unfaithful."
TONE CHANGE
Every tone unit has a single into national contour. In other
words, the listener will perceive a major change in tone (pitch
of voice) somewhere within the tone unit. This change of tone
occurs on the tonic syllable and thus we say that the ‘tonic
carries the tone’. However, if there is a tail, then the change in
the tone may continue over the tail.
A speaker can change the tonic syllable to emphasize different
words in the unit. In the following examples the change in tone
occurs on different syllables within the tone unit and thus the
listener perceives a different emphasis on each one.
| and then I \said my father was here | | and then I said my
\father was here | | and then I said my father was \here |
Tonal Languages
In tonal languages -- such as Mandarin, Cantonese, Thai,
Vietnamese, the way the voice goes up and down during the
production of a vowel is in the word. In such languages, an
"upward a" and a "downward a" (different because of the
tones) are just as distinct as p and b (different because of
voicing). If you change the tone, the meaning also changes,
even if all the other sounds are exactly the same.
In contrast, the English word "change" can be said with a
downward or upward pitch and this would not affect the
meaning of the word or point to a different word. English
belongs to a different category of languages. Instead, it assigns
stress to one syllable of every word. Changing the stress can
point to a different word (pérfect, perfèct), although usually,
this also leads to changes in the vowels.
Tone vs. Intonation
Tone is shown or heard in how something is being said. It is more like an
attitude rather than being a voice pattern. It is somebody’s general sound may
he sound happy, upset, excited or angry among other moods. Emotion has a
great deal of influence on tone. By using different tones, the words in a
sentence can have other meanings aside from the real original meaning of
those words.
Intonation, when a person asks a question, the intonation is usually high at the
end of the question to mark the asking of that question.
In giving statements one might say a positive statement using a higher
intonation like in how you congratulate someone for a job well done.
For negative sentences that bear messages that are not so good to the
receiver, the intonation used by the speaker is usually low or falling.
This can best be exemplified when somebody gives you his or her condolences
for a relative of yours who recently died.
Thank You
MOST OF YOU HAVE DONE A
VERY GREAT JOB.
References
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needs/Exploring-language/Intonation/Tone-Groups
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pitch-accent-language
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intonation/
English Phonetics and Phonology Fernando Trujillo
