Chapter 1/ American intonation Statement Versus Question intonation cD 1 Track 1 You may have learned at some point that questions have a rising intonation. They do, but usually a question will step upward until the very end, where it takes one quick little down ward step a question rises a little higher than a statement with the same intonation pattern Here is my car “ Where is my car? Here Where my Emotional or Rhetorical question Intonation If you know that your car is parked outside, however, and someone doesn't see it and asks you where it is, you might think that it has been stolen and your emotion will show in your intonation as you repeat the question. As your feelings rise in an emotional situation,your intonation rises up along with them Where is my car?” “why? Is it gone? al an? Where Why Is Exercise 1-4: Sentence Intonation Test CD 1 Track 11 Pause the cd and underline or highlight the words that you think should be stressed. Check Answer Key, beginning on page 193 1. Sam sees bill 11. He sees him 2. She wants one 12. Mary wants a car. 3. Betty likes English 13. She likes it 4. They play with them 14. They eat some 5. Children play with toys 15. Len and Joe eat some pizza 6. Bob and I call you and Bill 16. We call you 7. You and Bill read the news 17. You read it 8. It tells one 18. The news tells a story 9. Bernard works in a restaurant. 19. Mark lived in france 10. He works in one 20. He lived there
American Accent Training Exercise 1-5: Four Main Reasons for Intonation CD 1 Track 12 Depending on the situation, a word may be stressed for any of the following reasons New information Opinion Contrast Can't 1. New Information It sounds like rain Rain is the new information. It's the most important word in that sentence and you could replace everything else with duh-duh-duh. Duh-duh-duh rain will still let you get your point across. v Repeat: Duh-duh-duh rain /It sounds like rain Duh duh duh V Make rain very musical and put it on two notes: ray-ayn Duh-duh-duh ray-ayn/It sounds like ray-ayn 2.。pini。n It sounds like rain, but I don't think it is In this case, intonation makes the meaning the opposite of what the words say: It looks like a diamond, but I think it's a zircon. It smells like Chanel, but at that price, it's a knock-off. It feels like. It tastes like... These examples all give the impression that you mean the opposite of what your senses tell you. V Practice the intonation difference between new information and opinion It sounds like rain. (It's rain. It sounds like rain .(but it's not 3. Contrast He likes rain, but he hates snow, Like and hate are contrasted and are the stronger words in the sentence 4. Cant It can't rain when there 're no cloud Contractions(Shouldn't, wouldn't) and negatives(no, not, never)are important words since they totally negate the meaning of a sentence, but they are not usually stressed Can't is the exception
Chapter 1/ American Intonation Exercise 1-6: Pitch and Meaning change CD 1 Track 13 ractice saying the four sentences after me. Pay close attention to the changes in pitch that Pr you must make to convey the diferent meanings intended. The words to be stressed are indicated in bold face 1. It sounds like rain 2. It sounds like rain 3. He likes rain but he hates snow 4. It can't rain on my parade! He can't do it. (See also Ex 1-43 for negatives. Exercise 1-7: Individual Practice CD 1 Track 14 Practice saying the sentences after the suggestion and the beep tone i You will be given only a short time in which to reply so that you won, t have the leisure to overthink. Start speaking as soon as you hear the tone because I'll be saying the sentence only a few sec- onds later 1. Convey the information that it really does sound as if rain is falling. 4 Convey the opinion that although it has the sound of rain, it may be something else. y 3. Convey the different feelings that someone has about rain and snow. t 4. Convey the fact that rain is an impossibility right now. t s Pause the cd V Practice the four sentences on your own ten times x Once you're familiar with moving the stress around and feeling how the meaning changes, turn the Cd on to continue with the next exercise. Exercise 1-8: Meaning of"pretty' CD 1 Track 15 Native speakers make a clear distinction between pretty easily (easily)and pretty easily(a little dificult). Repeat the answers after me paying close attention to your stress Question: How did you like the movie? Answer: 1. It was pretty good. (She liked it.) 2. It was pretty good. (She didn't like it much
American Accent Training Exercise 1-9: Inflection CD 1 Track 16 Notice how the meaning changes, while the actual words stay the same 1. i didnt say he stole the money. Someone else said it. 2. I didnt say he stole the money. That's not true at all 3. I didnt say he stole the money. I only suggested the possibility 4. I didnt say he stole the money. I think someone else took it. 5. I didnt say he stole the money. Maybe he just borrowed it. 6. i didn't say he stole the money, but rather some other money 7..I didn't say he stole the money. He may have taken some jewelry I didnt say he stole the money. Someone else said it. It's true that somebody said it, but I wasn' t that person. Didn't I didnt say he stole the money. Thats not true at all. Someone has accused me and I'm protesting my innocence i didn't say he stole the money. I only suggested the possibility Maybe I hinted it. Maybe I wrote it. In some way, I indicated that he stole the money, but I didnt say it. He I didn't say he stole the money. I think someone else took it I think someone stole the money, only not the person you suspect did it Stole I didnt say he stole the money. Maybe he just borrowed it. I agree that he took it, but i think his motive was different The I didn't say he stole the money, but rather some other money. We agree that he stole some money, but I dont think it's this money. Money I didn't say he stole the money. He may have taken some jewelry We agree that hes a thief, but we think he stole different things Notice that in the first half of these sentences nothing changes but the intonation V Repeat after me
Chapter 1/ American Intonation Exercise 1-10: Individual Practice CD 1 Track 17 Now, let's see what you can do with the same sentence, just by changing the stress around to different words. /'ll tell you which meaning to express. When you hear the tone g, say the sentence as quickly as you can, then I'll say the sentence for you. To test your ear, /'m going to repeat the sentences in random order. Try to determine which word /'m stressing The answers are given in parentheses, but don' t look unless you really have to. Here we go 1 Indicate that he borrowed the money and didn' t steal it. (5)+ 2. Indicate that you are denying having said that he stole it. (2)4- 3. Indicate that you think he stole something besides money. (7)4 4. Indicate that you were not the person to say it.(1)4 5. Indicate that you don,t think that he was the person who stole it. (4)4 6 Indicate that you didnt say it outright, but did suggest it in some way. (3)+ Indicate that he many have stolen a different amount of money. (6)4 Overdo it Practice these sentences on your own, really exaggerating the word that you think should be stressed. In the beginning, you're going to feel that this is ridiculous. (Nobody stresses this hard! Nobody talks like this! people are going to laugh at me!) Yet as much as you stress, you're probably only going to be stressing about half as much as you shoul u may x Pause the Cd and practice the sentences in random order ten times Another reason you must overexaggerate is because when you get tired, emotional, or re- laxed, you will stop paying attention. When this happens, like a rubber band, you're going to snap back to the way you originally were sounding(10 percent). So, if you just stretch yourself to the exact position where you ideally want to be, you'll go back almost com- pletely to the old way when you relax. For practice, then, stretch yourself far beyond the normal range of intonation(150 percent), so when you relax, you relax back to a standard American sound (100 percent) We All Do It Possibly about this time you're thinking, Well, maybe you do this in english but in my language, I just really don' t think that we do this. I'd like you to try a little exercise. Exercise 1-11: Translation CD 1 Track 18 Take the sentence i didn't say he stole the money and translate it into your native lan guage. Write it down below, using whatever letters or characters you use in your language Now that you have written your sentence down, try shifting the stress around in your own language by going through the stress patterns 1-7 in Exercise 1-9. Dont try to put on