Intonation
By intonation is meant the “melody” of speech, the changing pitch of the voice, that is to say, the rise and fall of the voice. It is to a certain extent controlled by stress, for important changes of pitch occur only on stressed syllables. Practically any phrase or sentence can be spoken in a number of ways, each carrying a different shade of meaning.
e.g. Can you break an apple in two
Can you break an apple in two
Can you break an apple in two
Can you break an apple in two
Have you met my wife before
Have you met my wife before
Have you met my wife before
Have you met my wife before
Have you met my wife before
Can you buy me a second copy
Can you buy me a second copy
Can you buy me a second copy
Can you buy me a second copy
Can you buy me a second copy
Broadly speaking, we can classify all the English intonation patterns under two types. Both types normally begin with the first stressed syllable fairly high, and fall step-wise from stress to stress until the last meaningful stress is reached.
Tune I then falls, remaining low for any further unstressed syllables;
Tune II rises from a low tone, continuing the rise for any further unstressed syllables. (as illustrated below)
An example of each of these main tunes will make this clear. In the graphic transcription between parallel lines representing the approximate upper and lower limits of the voice, the musical movement of the voice is shown by dashes (---) and dots (...), which stand for stressed and unstressed syllables respectively.
Broken tune
With longer sentences, it is not easy to let the voice descend throughout; it would get uncomfortably low if there were many stresses.
To avoid this difficulty, and in general the monotony of a continuous descent, it is normal to raise the voice a little at any convenient stressed syllable and continue the descent from a new high tone. Syllables thus raised in pitch are given rather more importance thereby, and effect which produces a more lively impression than the same sentence spoken as a continuous descent.
e.g. We managed to carry the books as far as the end of the street. (as illustrated below. Among the two correspondent intonation analyses of this sentence, the first one is of the normal Tune I, while the second describes how the broken tune works.)
Repeated tune
The same principle is carried a stage further in sentences of co-ordinate clauses, or through the addition of non-defining relatives or other loose adjectival or adverbial phrases. Longer sentences of this type most naturally break themselves into smaller groups of Tune I.
e.g. She gave him a letter︱and told him to post it,︱but not to be too long about it. (as illustrated below)
标注语调的方法(图示如下)：
1．用 ’ 识别重读词
2．用下画线标出含有长元音和双元音的音节
3．用 / 划分意群
4．将意群内可以连读的单词用 ︶ 标出
5．确定调型（tune I, tune II, tune I + tune II, 或者tune II + tune I）
