TONICITY: WHERE DOES THE NUCLEUS GO?

TONICITY

BROAD &

NARROW FOCUS

THE OLD &

THE NEW

BASIC PRINCIPLES

TONICITY: EXCEPTIONS

FINAL BUT NOT NUCLEAR

NUCLEUS ON LAST NOUN

PHRASAL VERBS

NUCLEUS ON A FUNCTION WORD

CONTRASTIVE FOCUS

TONICITY-BASIC PRINCIPLES

ON A STRESSED SYLLABLE

ON OR NEAR THE LAST WORD

CONTENT WORDS AND FUNCTION WORDS

•TONICITY-BASIC PRINCIPLES

ON A STRESSED SYLLABLE

Within each intonation phrase , we select a word as particularly important for the meaning.

Here we place the nucleus (nuclear accent) That syllable bears the nuclear tone:

Fall Rise Fall-rise Rise-fall

•TONICITY-BASIC PRINCIPLES

PHONETICALLY When we accent a syllable we give:

A prominent change in pitch or movement in pitch or the start of pitch movement.

An accented syllable is always rhythmically stressed, it has a rhythmic beat.

PRAGMATICALLY When we accent a word, we accent its stressed

syllable .

This indicates the importance or relevance of the word for what we are saying.

•TONICITY-BASIC PRINCIPLES

• The most important decision the speaker makes in selecting an intonation pattern is to decide:

Where the nucleus goesThe nucleus is the last word to be accented

This choice is known as the TONICITY

of the intonation phrase.

•TONICITY-BASIC PRINCIPLES

HOW TO DECIDE WHERE THE NUCLUES GO:The nucleus must go on a stressed syllable. By stressed syllable we mean the syllable that has

LEXICAL stress.To make the word the nucleus of an IP we put the tone

on its lexically stressed syllable.NEVER – we accent the first syllableANNOYED- we accent the last syllableTOMORROW- we accent the second syllableFINE we accent its only syllable

•TONICITY-BASIC PRINCIPLES

EXAMPLES:

Have you been to Canada?

How did he look? When’s the test? How are you feeling?

"Never

An"noyed To"morrow "Fine

•ON OR NEAR THE LAST WORD

The nucleus is usually placed on or near the last word.By definition, the nuclear accent is the last accent

in the IP.

The general tendency is for the nucleus to be towards the end of the IP

Example: I "want to buy a "lemon.

• CONTENT WORDS AND FUNCTION WORDS

Words can be divided into two broad categories: CONTENT

Nouns Adjectives Most verbs Most adverbs

FUNCTION Pronouns Prepositions Articles Auxiliary verbs Modal verbs

• CONTENT WORDS AND FUNCTION WORDS

Generally speaking: We accent content words but not function words. The nucleus is typically placed on the last

content word in an IP In particular, the nucleus does not usually go on

a function word. Function words bear the nucleus only if special

circumstances apply.

CONTENT WORDS AND FUNCTION WORDS

SELECTION STRATEGY Start from the end of the IP and work back. Work back towards the beginning, ignoring

any function word, unless special circumstances apply.

The nucleus should go on the first content word you encounter as you move backwards.

Example: I think you ought to "tell me about it.