English Questions

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Deinonysus
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Re: English Questions

Postby Deinonysus » Mon Dec 20, 2021 6:15 pm

I have seen CNN's international edition use Britishisms from time to time, probably to appeal more to readers from Commonwealth nations. I have never seen the term "jab" used in American news aimed at a domestic audience.
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Re: English Questions

Postby allf100 » Tue Dec 21, 2021 11:32 am

Hello Amandine, DaveAgain,MorkTheFiddle,and Deinonysus,

It's very kind of you to help me with usages of 'jab' and 'shot'. Thank you so much! :D
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Re: English Questions

Postby allf100 » Tue Jan 04, 2022 9:26 am

Re: Intonation of English

Hello,

What I was taught in school by Chinese teachers of English is in a declarative sentence, the sentence is ended with rising intonation; while if a general question, the sentence is closed with falling intonation.

And I watched a video tutorial in which an American tutor demonstrates the intonation in a sentence as below:
The conference call is at ten.

She is stepping up'te' and then gliding 'n' down.

I've understood rule of the intonation I state above.


On a video-sharing website, a Chinese tutor who teaches American English uses a video clip from an American speech to demonstrate the intonation.

eg. I am proud he has a language to make me pause. I want all of my kids to understand what the bar should be for how they're treated and to have a language and a voice to use when the bar is not met versus just accepting.


The tutor says 'pause' should be ended with rising intonation as the original American speaker verbalizes. Here's URL.
https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1zr4y1S7k3?p=2

I'm confused why 'pause' is pronounced in rising innotation in such a statement. Shouldn't 'pau'- be stepping up, and then '-se' gliding down?

The tutor told me the rising intonation in 'pause' is to tell the audience that the speaker's words are not finished yet, don't interrupt me/speaker. Is this explanation accurate?
Thank you!
Edit: fixing typos
Last edited by allf100 on Tue Jan 04, 2022 11:08 am, edited 4 times in total.
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Re: English Questions

Postby rdearman » Tue Jan 04, 2022 9:45 am

Honestly, I wouldn't worry much about rising or failing intonation outside of questions. Other than a question, intonation doesn't really convey any meaning.
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Re: English Questions

Postby allf100 » Tue Jan 04, 2022 9:57 am

rdearman wrote:Honestly, I wouldn't worry much about rising or failing intonation outside of questions. Other than a question, intonation doesn't really convey any meaning.


Thank you very much for your input. I have been very frustrating and struggling with my intonation of English for ages. :(

My intonation of English is generally flat affected by my native language-Chinese, while native speakers' English sounds melodic, rising, falling, stressed, unstressed.

I've tried to imitate the speeches of native speakers of English, and I feel my intonation is improved a little bit, but it's all out of my intuition.
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Re: English Questions

Postby rdearman » Tue Jan 04, 2022 10:44 am

Most of the rising and falling of English is mainly due to emphasis. You should probably worry about which words are important in the sentence. In the example you gave, "The conference call is at ten." The native speaker is probably emphasizing the "ten" because that is the time, and they don't want you to be late. In the other sentence, the speaker wants to emphasise the word pause because that is the significant word they want to stress.

So just think about the word you wish to stress. While I did say tone doesn't really matter, stressing a word does. For example, the meaning of the sentence is changed depending on the stress given to the following sentence. (This example is used a lot)

  1. I didn’t say he stole the money. (I didn't say it, but someone did)
  2. I didn’t say he stole the money. (It is not true that I said he stole the money. You think I said it but I did not.)
  3. I didn’t say he stole the money. (I didn't say it, but I've implied it)
  4. I didn’t say he stole the money. (I said someone else stole the money, not him)
  5. I didn’t say he stole the money. (I'm saying he might have got the money some other way, borrowing it perhaps)
  6. I didn’t say he stole the money. (I'm suggesting that we're is talking about some other money, not the specific money being discussed, or something other than the money was stolen)
  7. I didn’t say he stole the money. (I'm saying he stole something other than money)

Some words which are typically stressed in English are:

  • nouns (people, places, things)
  • verbs (actions, states)
  • adjectives (words that modify nouns)
  • adverbs (words that modify verbs, adjectives, other adverbs, or entire sentences)
  • negative words (not, never, neither, etc.)
  • modals (should, could, might, etc., but not will or can)
  • yes, no, and auxiliary verbs in short answers (e.g., Yes, she does.)
  • quantifiers (some, many, no, all, one, two, three, etc.)
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Re: English Questions

Postby allf100 » Tue Jan 04, 2022 11:42 am

Thank you so much again, rdearman!

For example, Sometimes, I would say 'THANK you!' ; sometimes my stress would fall on 'Thank you VERY much!' - I didn't have any conscious idea why I stressed certain words. I was worried if my stressed word(s) would sound odd.

Now I understood even the same piece of news read by different anchors might stress and unstress differently according to individual styles.

Have a good one! :)
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Re: English Questions

Postby tungemål » Tue Jan 04, 2022 12:35 pm

allf100 wrote:Re: Intonation of English

Hello,

What I was taught in school by Chinese teachers of English is in a declarative sentence, the sentence is ended with rising intonation; while if a general question, the sentence is closed with falling intonation.

It's the opposite, but maybe you made a mistake writing this? Declarative - falling, question - rising.

...
The tutor says 'pause' should be ended with rising intonation as the original American speaker verbalizes. Here's URL.
https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1zr4y1S7k3?p=2

I'm confused why 'pause' is pronounced in rising innotation in such a statement. Shouldn't 'pau'- be stepping up, and then '-se' gliding down?

The tutor told me the rising intonation in 'pause' is to tell the audience that the speaker's words are not finished yet, don't interrupt me/speaker. Is this explanation accurate?

Yes, normally "pause" (the stressed word) should start high and glide down.

I think your tutor's explanation is correct - rising intonation signals continuation. However, there is a phenomenon called "upspeak" (read Wikipedia here). That is when every sentence ends with rising intonation. You can hear this among a certain demographic in the US. (unfortunately it's spreading to my country and my language among younger people here). I wouldn't recommend to imitate that. High-falling for the stressed word is common.

Rdearman is correct that you should focus on emphasis (stress). Start high and glide down on the stressed word is quite universal in European languages. (One exception is intonation in Eastern Norwegian dialects). There are small differences in intonation between American English and British English, but I couldn't formulate exactly what they are.

On British intonation:
I've studied British intonation and they have a very pronounced "high-to-low" intonation on the stressed word, so that even when the stressed word is only one syllable at the end of the sentence, that syllable has a high pitch and then a low pitch. Sometimes they even glide up again to signal contination, which results in three pitches on that one syllable: high-low-gliding up. (Sounds very British).
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Re: English Questions

Postby Deinonysus » Tue Jan 04, 2022 5:50 pm

tungemål wrote:
allf100 wrote:Re: Intonation of English

Hello,

What I was taught in school by Chinese teachers of English is in a declarative sentence, the sentence is ended with rising intonation; while if a general question, the sentence is closed with falling intonation.

It's the opposite, but maybe you made a mistake writing this? Declarative - falling, question - rising.

I would clarify this by saying that "yes or no" questions have rising intonation, but open-ended questions have falling intonation:

What do you want? ↘
Do you want an apple? ↗

How was your day? ↘
Was your day good? ↗
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Re: English Questions

Postby allf100 » Wed Jan 05, 2022 1:54 pm

Hello tungemål and Deinonysus,

I'm very grateful to the advice of yours, and rdearman too.

tungemål wrote:
allf100 wrote:Re: Intonation of English
It's the opposite, but maybe you made a mistake writing this? Declarative - falling, question - rising.


Yes, my mistake. :oops: Sorry.

Have a good day!
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