STRESS AND INTONATION

STRESS

Stress is a relative emphasis that may be given to certain syllables in a word.

Why do we need to stress words?

We need to stress words to increase loudness; to strengthen and fully articulate the vowels; and to change the pitch of a given word.

There are two (2) types of 'stress':

1. Stressed syllables

- syllables that are emphasized

- stretching the vowels

- saying it louder

- using higher pitch

2. Unstressed syllables

- syllables that are not emphasized

- and are not spoken as loudly as the stressed syllables

ACCENT

Accent is a distinctive mode of pronunciation of a language especially  one associated with a particular nation, locality, or social class.

Your accent is the way you pronounce English when you speak it -- and of course, everybody, therefore, has an accent. And it affects the way we stress a certain word.

There are 2 types of accent:

1. Dynamic Accent- case of loudness

2. Pitch Accent- case of pitch

quantitative accent: case of length 

qualitative accent: case of differences in articulation

Two Very Simple Rules about Stress:

1. One word has only one stress.

2.  We can only stress vowels, not consonants.

INTONATION

Intonation is defined as the variation of pitch. 

Intonation helps to recognize the language that you hear in the same way as the melody of a song helps to recognize the song that you hear.

Intonation is different from pitch in such a way that in English language, we use intonation in conveying our message. While pitch is used in tonal languages like the Chinese language.

For example, the word 'ma'. When pronounced with a rising pattern, it means "hemp". When pronounced with a high level pattern, the meaning is "mother" as in some dialects of English, and lastly, when pronounced with a low dipping pattern, the meaning is "horse".

Key components of Intonation

Intonation is based on several key components:

1. Pitch

Pitch is the degree of height of our voice in speech. Intonation is formed buy certain pitch changes, characteristic of a given language.

2. Sentence Stress 

Sentence stress makes the utterance understandable to the listener by making the important words in the sentence stressed, clear and higher in pitch and by shortening and obscuring the unstressed words.

3. Rhythm

Rhythm is provided by the sentence stress in connected speech.

Four (4) functions of Intonation

1. Attitudinal functions

Intonation allows us to express emotions: finality, confidence, interest, surprise, doubt, joy, pain, irony, etc.

2.Accentual functions

When it is said that intonation has accentual function, it implies that the placement of stress is somewhat determined by intonation.

3. 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.

For example such thing as:

A. The placement of boundaries between phrases, clauses and sentences.

B. The difference between questions and statements.

4. Discourse functions

Intonation can signal to the listener what is to be taken as "new" information and what is already "given".

It can indicate when the speaker is indicating some sort of contrast or link with material in another tone unit.

In conversation, it can convey to the listener what kind of response is being expected from him.

There are 3 kinds of intonational patterns:

1. Rising Intonation

- used in yes-no questions

- used in situations when someone is expressing doubt or surprise

2. Falling Intonation

-used in imperative/command sentences

3. Rising-fall intonation

- used in declarative sentences

- used in first part of a tag question

- used in 'wh' questions

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