Static and Kinetic Tones

In the study of intonation, pitch, loudness and length are the most important factors. They work together to make certain syllables stand out among others. On the word level, the cooperation of pitch, loudness and stress is referred to as stress, or tone. On the utterance level, the same concepts are referred to as intonation.

Classification

Tones are basic elements of English intonation. They are divided into two classes since they are produced in quite distinct ways:

1) by keeping the vocal cords at a constant tension thus producing a tone of unvarying pitch. Such tones are called static (level) tones;

2) by varying the tension of the vocal cords thus producing a tone of varying pitch. Such tones are called kinetic, or dynamic, or moving.

According to their height within the speaker’s range static tones are divided into high, mid and low with two relevant gradations within each type: very high, fairly high, mid high, mid low, fairly low, very low. Thus the number of tones corresponds to the number of significant pitch levels.

Kinetic tones are generally classified according to the following principles:

1) the direction of the pitch change;

2) the width of the pitch change, or its interval;

3) the relative position of the pitch change within the speakers’ voice range.

The leading role in the differentiation of kinetic tones in English belongs to the first principle. The number of kinetic tones corresponds to the number of directional types of pitch changes.

The most common Falling tones in English are:

_____________________________________________

_________________High Narrow _________________ High Wide

_________________Mid Narrow _________________ Mid Wide

_________________Low Narrow _________________ Low Wide

The Rising tones are:

_____________________________________________

_________________High Narrow_________________

_________________Mid Narrow__________________ Mid Wide

_________________Low Narrow__________________ Low Wide

The Falling-Rising tones are:

______________________________________________

_________________High Narrow__________________ High Wide

_________________Mid Narrow___________________ Mid wide

_________________Low Narrow___________________ Low Wide

The Rising-Falling is

______________________________________________

_________________High Narrow__________________ High Wide

______________________________________________

_________________Low Narrow___________________ Low Wide

Functions

Static and kinetic tones differ not only in form but also in function. Static tones give prominence to words. The degree of prominence is proportional to the pitch height of the static tone: the higher varieties are usually associated with greater prominence. Kinetic tones are more important for the utterance. Alongside with stressing the words they

1) indicate the communicative type of an utterance;

2) express the speaker’s attitude towards the subject-matter, the listener and the situation;

3) single out the center of new information in an utterance or the point of greater semantic importance as viewed by the speaker.

The total number of tones (both static and kinetic) in an utterance is determined by the number of important (prominent) words; most typically there are from 1 to 5 tones. The tone carried by the most important word (which is generally the last notional word) is called the nuclear tone, it is always a kinetic tone.

The term “tone” should be distinguished from the term “ tune ” which is used to refer to the pitch pattern of the whole intonation group. The notion of tune is wider than that of tone. A tune may comprise several tones. A tune of a minimal size coincides with a tone realized in a monosyllabic utterance, e. g.: ‵Yes.,Well.

The structure of the intonation groups

The stressed and unstressed syllables within a tune form several component parts according to their position and function in the tune: the prehead, the head, the nucleus, the tail.

Pre-head – Head – Nucleus – Tail

(Pr) – (H) – (N) – (T)

The pre-head:

Unstressed syllables before the head.

The head:

The section from the first fully stressed syllable (called the onset syllable) up to –– but not including the nucleus.

The nucleus:

The syllable which gets the strongest stress, associated with significant pitch movement (kinetic stress). This stress is called the nuclear, or tonic stress, and is almost always found in a notional word in utterance final position.

The tail:

Whatever syllables follow the nucleus, they continue with the pitch pattern of the nucleus.

The number of the component parts in a tune may vary. The only indispensable element of a tune is the nucleus. The other components may or may not be present in a tune. This depends on the length of the utterance, the phonetic structure of the words (monosyllabic or polysyllabic) and the number of prominent words in it. For example:

Table 1 - The structure of the intonation group