PhrasingIn addition to the intonation of a statement, there is another aspect of speech that indicates meaning -- phrasing. Have you ever caught just a snippet* of a conversation in your own language, and somehow known how to piece together what came before or after the part you heard? This has to do with your natural understanding of phrasing. In a sentence, phrasing tells you where the speaker is at the moment, where he is going, and if he is finished or not. Notice that the intonation stays on the nouns.
Statement
Stress the nouns and let the tone fall at the end of the sentence.
Dogs
eat bones.
First half, second half
The first half of a sentence usually sets up the second
half.
Dogs
eat bones, but cats eat fish.
Intro Phrase
When you want to preface your statement, use a rising tone.
As we
all know, dogs eat bones.
Listing
With more than one item in a list, all but the last one have a
rising tone.
Dogs
eat bones, kibbles and meat.
Question
A regular question goes up (compared with a statement), but
drops back down at the end.
Do
dogs eat bones?
Repeated Question
A repeated, rhetorical or emotional question goes
up, and then up again at the end.
Do
dogs eat bones?!
You'll notice, of course, that the
dogs-eat-bones
sentence uses simple nouns and simple verbs. An extremely important part
of intonation is
compound nouns and
complex verb
tenses.
*snippet- a small piece of something
Check Your Understanding
True or False. Check your answers below.1. In a normal sentence, the tone falls at the end.
True
False
2. If a sentence has two parts that are similar, usually the rhythm is the same.
True
False
3. If a sentence has an introduction, the tone of the introduction goes down.
True
False
4. When you list more that one item, the last word has a rising tone.
True
False
5. On a regular question, the tone of the sentence goes up and then down a little.
True
False
6. When you repeat a question, the tone on the end goes up.
True
False
