The Intonation Group

Differences with the Russian language

1. Good morning! Доброе утро!

Good night! Доброй ночи!

2. She’s as pretty as her mother. Она так же хороша как и ее мать.

3. He did not say a word. Он не сказал ни слова.

4. In English the final stress does not fall on the last element in the word combinations: ‘and so on’, ‘and so forth’, ‘in a day or two’ etc.

and so on И так далее.

He will come in a day or two. Он придет через день или два.

5. In English general questions the final stress falls on the adverbials or on direct object following the verb (in Russian on the verb).

Do you speak English? Вы говорите по-английски?

Will you go home? Ты пойдешь домой?

An intonation group may be a whole sentence or a part of it. In either case it may consist of a single word or a number of words. An intonation group has the following characteristics: 1. It has at least one accented (stressed) word carrying a marked change in pitch (a rise, a fall…). 2. It is pronounced at a certain rate and without any pause within it.

The pitch-and-stress pattern or the intonation pattern of the intonation group consists of the following elements:

1. the pre-head – unstressed or partially stressed syllables which precede the first full stressed syllable;

2. the head (scale, body) – the intonation pattern extending from the first stressed syllable up to (but not including) the nuclear syllable;

3. the nucleus – the syllable bearing the nuclear (terminal) tone;

4. the tail – unstressed or partially stressed syllables following the nucleus.

He told me he would think of it.

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pre-head head nucleus tail

There are different types of pre-heads, heads and tails.