The Meaning and Function of the English Intonation Systems Ken-ichi Kadooka Ryukoku University Kyoto, Japan

1. Overview  Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL)  Led by Professor MAK Halliday  Halliday’s Introduction to Functional Grammar (fourth edition, 2014), Routledge  Halliday and Greaves (2008) Intonation in the Grammar of English, Equinox

Metafunctions  Ideational, Interpersonal, Textual  Ideational: subcomponents of Logical and Experiential  Interersonal  Textual

Ideational metafunction  Process: verb group  Participant: nominal group  Circumstance: adverbial / preposition group

Interpersonal metafunction  Mood + Residue  Mood: Subject + Finite  Residue: the rest of the clause

Textual metafunction  Given + New information  Theme + Rheme  Theme: what to say in the clause  Rheme: the rest of the clause

Intonation under the framework of SFL  Tone: five simple tones and two complex tones  Tonicity: a boundary between tone groups  Tonality: the assignment of the tonic and pretonic syllables  Key: the way how meaning is realized, speaker’s intention

2. Tonicity  Definition: the system by which an individual, discrete, unit of intonation is shown to have a prominent word which indicates the focus of information (Tench 1996: 8)  Sample: a. / tell me / when he/ comes / ‘inform me o the time of his (habitual) arrival’  B. /tell me when / he comes / ‘inform me at the time of his arrival’

Tonicity example  A.: /^ the question / which he dis/cussed / the question: “which did he discuss?”  B.: /^ the / question which he dis/cussed / the question that was discussed by him (Halliday 1994: 295)

Tonicity example  A.: My brother who lives in Nairobi – defining / restrictive clause  A’: My brother | who lives in Nairobi – non- defining clause  B.: She washed and brushed her hair – wash is a transitive verb  B’: She washed | and brushed her hair – wash is an intransitive verb

3. Tonality  Definition: the system by which a stretch of spoken text is segmented into a series of discrete units of intonation which correspond to the speaker’s perception of pieces (or ‘chunks’) of information (Tench 1996: 8)

Tonality example  A: He asked himself -- asked transitive, himself reflexive  B: He asked himself – asked intransitive, himself emphatic

4. Tones  Tone 1 – falling  Tone 2 – rising  Tone 3 – level  Tone 4 – fall-rise  Tone 5 – rise – fall  Tone 13 – fall followed by level  Tone 53 – rise-fall followed by level

Realization of Key  ‘I like it’: as a statement of someone watching a famous picture  Tone 5 (rise-fall): awestruck art critic, ‘I really like it’  Tone 4 (fall-rise): budget conscious buyer, ‘I do like it, but …’  Tone 3 (level): indecisive viewer, ‘I don’t object to it’

Realization of Key  Tone 2 (rising): defensive viewer, when just accused of not appreciating the painting, ‘what makes you think I don’t?’  Tone 1 (falling): viewer corresponding casually to question, neutral

Lexicogrammatical classes  Tone 5: strong  Tone 4: reserved  Tone 3: non-committal  Tone 2: challenging  Tone 1: neutral

Complex tones  //1 ah // 13 fair e/nough // 1 yeah  //53 I didn’t / think so//  //53 ^ they / do I /some uni/versities //

Conclusion  Phonemes: vowels and consonants  Accent: word stress  Intonation: key as the expression of the speaker’s attitude, intention, feeling

References –Halliday, M.A.K. ( 1967 ). Intonation and Grammar in British English. The Hague: Mouton. –Halliday, M.A.K. ( 1970 ). A Course in Spoken English: Intonation. London: Oxford University Press. –Halliday, M.A.K. ( 1973 ). Explorations in the Functions of Language. London: Edward Arnold. –Halliday, M.A.K. ( 1994 ). An Introduction to Functional Grammar. ( second edition ) London: Edward Arnold. –Halliday, M.A.K. and William S. Greaves. ( 2008 ) Intonation in the Grammar of English. London: Equinox. –Tench, Paul. ( 1996 ). The Intonation Systems of English. London: Cassell. –Wennerstrom, Ann. ( 2001 ). The Music of Everyday Speech. Oxford: Oxford University Press.