INTONATION GROUP AS A UNIT OF MEANING

Chunking speech flow The spoken material is divided into chunks – prosodic units
such as intonation groups, utterances, speech paragraphs. Each intonation group has a
particular intonation pattern, called “tune” (O’Connor and Arnold, 1973, p. 7;Wells,
2006, p. 6) or pitch contour (Cruttenden, 1997, p. 48).
Chunking speech flow makes it possible for speakers to communicate their thoughts
and to emphasize important/new information. At the same time, chunking enables
listeners to better comprehend a speaker’s meaning. Usually, a chunk is several words
that go together; it is separated from another chunk by a pause. Pauses are not placed
randomly. In speech chunks, words are united by sense (Chalker, Weiner, 1994, p.
358; Krivokapić, 2007; Männel et al., 2013; Trouvain, Werner, 2021, 2022; Betz et
al., 2023). The terms “sense group” and “intonation patterns” are related to each
other, and sense groups are actually intonation groups.
Intonation group: definitions and functions
Consider several definitions of the intonation group, variously called tone group, tone
unit, tone-unit, sense group, intonation phrase, phonological phrase by different
authors.
Joseph Desmond O’Connor and Gordon Frederick Arnold (1973, p. 39) consider both
the prosodic and attitudinal aspect of the tone group. They define the latter as a
grouping of tunes which convey the same attitude on the part of the speaker (1973:
39).
There are no rigid patterns for chunking speech. An utterance may be presented not
as a single piece of information, but be divided into two or three pieces, depending on
speakers’ meanings and intentions to highlight its particular parts (Wells, 2006, pp. 6–
7);for instance:
They say the request is absolutely ridiculous║They say│the request is absolutely
ridiculous║They say│the request│is absolutely ridiculous║
In the intonation transcription no punctuation marks are used because “intonation
and stress are vocal equivalents of written punctuation” (Roach, 2012, p. 129); for
instance:
Many of us believe│that keeping wild animals and birds in zoos│is wrong.║If│for
some reason│an animal or a bird is incapable of surviving in the wild│it should be
kept in a sanctuary│where it should be cared for│protected│and allowed to live
freely║
The functions of the tone group (= the intonation group) are summarized by
Michael Alexander Kirkwood Halliday (2013, p. 15): the tone group is an important
factor in understanding meaning; it organizes the speech flow as sequential units of
information, thus managing the progression of discourse. The tone group helps the
listener to get the message: both how it is expressed through items of news and its
value as seen by the speaker.
Word group, tune, and tone group
O’Connor and Arnold (1973, pp. 2–12, 39–41) discuss the correlation between the
notions of the word group, the tune, and the tone group (= intonation group).
In speech, utterances are divided into smaller units, for which O’Connor and Arnold
use the neutral term word groups. Word groups are grammatically relevant and can
be represented by different syntactic structures:
● the subject and the predicate; for example:
The tall woman by his side│is Mrs Smith║ ● a clause; for instance: If he doesn’t
submit the report│he’ll be fired║ ● an opening phrase; such as: In short│she was not
nominated for the award║and others.
Due to pauses, word groups are presented and perceived as prosodically separate
units, which are nevertheless connected by meaning. Changing the location of speech
pauses cause changes in meaning; for example:
My cousin│who is staying with us│is a playwright║ (My cousin is currently staying
with us; he is a playwright); My cousin who is staying with us│is a playwright║
(I have several cousins; the one who is currently staying with us is a playwright).
Speakers divide utterances into smaller units being guided by meaning. In any
situation, “it is meaning which is the really important factor” (O’Connor and Arnold,
1973: 39). In some cases, a speaker can choose whether to divide an utterance into
word groups or not; for instance, the subject may or may not be separated from the
predicate: This cookbook│is very useful║ This cookbook is very useful║
An inherent feature of each word group is its tune. O’Connor and Arnold (1973, p.
7) define the tune as the complete pitch pattern of the word group. The shortest tunes
are those of single-syllable word groups. In the three examples below, No’s are the
second speaker’s reactions to three different stimuli of the first speaker. In all the
three cases No constitutes a complete word group (and a complete utterance) because
it is grammatically correct and expresses a particular meaning:
A. Was it a lie║ B. ↘No║ (the low falling tone means negation)
A. He called a me fool ║ B. ↘No║ (the high falling tone can suggest incredulity or
indignation)
A. I don’t trust him ║ B. ↗ No║ (the low rising tone communicates a question tinged
with surprise or disbelief).
So, tunes can express different meanings. Consider two more examples that
illustrate how tunes are responsible for the change of meaning: He’s your ↘brother│
↗isn’t he║ (the rising tone in the second word group ↗isn’t he indicates that the
utterance is a question) He’s your ↘brother│ ↘isn’t he║ (the falling tone in ↘isn’t
he changes the meaning of the whole utterance; now it is a statement and in a
particular context it can be interpreted like this: I’m surprised that he doesn’t want to
help you – after all, he’s your brother!)
Another important factor in meaning is stress. The importance of stress becomes
clear if we consider word groups that are longer than a one-syllable word (such as No
in the examples above); needless to say, they are the overwhelming majority. For
instance:
The dish was just marvellous! What for? He hasn’t arrived yet.
Each polysyllabic word group has its centre of importance. From a phonetic
perspective, the central element of the word group is not the whole word, but the
stressed syllable of the most important word which is marked by a change in pitch

tune. Compare, for example: Peter was ↘lucky║ ↘Peter was lucky║
(the fall, the rise, the fall-rise, the rise-fall). This syllable is called the nucleus of the

The nucleus may be preceded and followed by stressed and unstressed syllables.
They form the pitch pattern of the tune. The only obligatory element of the pattern is
the nucleus; the other elements are optional.
Tunes have their own meanings and express various attitudes – the speaker has just
to change the direction of pitch movement (to let the voice fall, rise, or to maintain a
level pitch between high and low) and to make the pitch range wider or narrower. The

participant:A. Will you come║ B. ↘Yes║

following examples present dialogues, where Yes is the reaction of the second

If it is the low falling tone and the pitch range is narrow, Yes sounds cold or neutral.
When said with the high falling tone and wide pitch range, the answer can be

example: A. So he called me and║ B. ↗ Yes║

perceived as excited and happy. Yes can be pronounced with a rising tone; for

Here the low rising tone indicates that a person is interested or puzzled and wants
their interlocutor to continue. The high rising tone can suggest tentative or casual
attitude.
THE STRUCTURE OF THE INTONATION GROUP
Nucleus and nuclear tone
It has been stated above that a one-syllable word can constitute a word group and an
intonation group if such a word has a particular tune and expresses a certain attitude

following dialogue: A. How many sandwiches did you buy║ B. ↘Three║

on the part of the speaker. Consider, for example, the answer to the question in the

Three is a one-syllable word; it is stressed and carries a falling tone (the Low Fall
may sound serious; the High Fall, lively). It is more often, however, that intonation
groups comprise more than one syllable and more than one word, as in:
A. How old is your Auntie Marge║B. ↘Seventy║A. What is your cousin Ben║ B.
He’s a com↘puter engineer║
In He’s a com↘puter engineer, the word that is most important for the speaker is
com↘puter; its stressed syllable carries the tone – it is the syllable with a distinct
pitch movement. This syllable is the nucleus of the intonation group. It does not
matter whether the speaker uses a falling or a rising tone; what matters is that the

Compare two examples: Isn’t she ↘lovely ║ Isn’t she ↗lovely ║

nucleus is the syllable on which the tone movement begins (Wells, 2006, p. 7).

The nucleus is the same because in both cases love- is a stressed syllable and it is the
place where the pitch movement begins. In both cases the word lovely is brought into
focus: the quality of loveliness is important for the speaker. Yet the use of different
tones – falling and rising – changes the meaning. A falling tone (either the Low Fall
or the High
Fall) indicates a statement: Isn’t she ↘lovely. Both the Low Rise and the High Rise
indicate that Isn’t she ↗lovely is a question.
The syllables that follow the nucleus are called the tail. The combination of the
nucleus and the tail (or the nucleus alone if there are no other syllables after it) is the
nuclear tone. According to Cruttenden (1997, p. 50), the nuclear tone begins on the
nucleus and covers the stretch of the intonation group up to its end. It is largely the
nuclear tone that conveys the meaning of the intonation group. In the examples above
↘ Sev enty ; H e’s a com ↘ pu ter engineer; Isn’t she ↗lovely, the nuclear tones are
↘Seventy; ↘-puter engineer; ↗lovely respectively.
In Crystal’s (2003 b, p. 248) classification, there are nine basic types of the nuclear
tone (“nine ways of saying Yes”):
low fall – the voice falls from a medium to a low pitch
full fall – the voice falls from a high to a low pitch
mid fall – the voice falls from a high to a medium pitch
low rise – the voice rises from a low to a medium pitch
full rise – the voice rises from a low to a high pitch
high rise – the voice rises from a medium to a high pitch
level – the voice maintains a level pitch between low and medium
fall-rise – the voice first falls from a high to a low pitch, then rises to a medium
pitch
rise-fall – the voice first rises from a medium to a higher pitch, then falls to a low
pitch.
A second change in pitch direction following the nucleus produces the fall-rise and
the rise-fall; these are complex tones. For instance: fall-rise He does it un willingly
(the fall occurs on the stressed syllable -will-; the rise, on the unstressed syllable -ly);
I ↘didn’t ask them to ↗come (the fall-rise is “split” between two words; the fall
occurs on the stressed syllable did-; the rise, on the stressed syllable
come);
rise-fall It’s a main distinction (the rise occurs on the stressed syllable -stinc-; the fall,
on the unstressed syllable -tion).
According to Cruttenden, the fall-rise is sometimes realized as the rise-fall-rise; but he
does not consider it a separate nuclear tone because it is not associated with a
distinctive meaning. Cruttenden calls the high fall, the low fall, the high rise, the low
rise, the fall-rise, and the rise-fall the “moving” tones. There is also the level tone, the
mid-level tone being the most common one.

Now let us return to O’Connor and Arnold’s (1973, pp. 5–7, 13–17) notions of the
tone group and the tune. Obviously, the word containing the nucleus of the tune is
accented, as shown in the examples below: (a) She has reˈmarkable arˈtistic ↘skills
(She is a remarkable artist);
Accented words can occur in the pre-nuclear part of the intonation group:
- in (a) the words reˈmarkable and arˈtistic can be accented;
- in (b) there can be one accented word in the pre-nuclear part of the word group:
reˈmarkable.
Pre-nuclear part
The syllables before the nucleus form the pre-nuclear part of the tune. The pre-nuclear
part comprises two elements, the pre-head and the head. Both of them are optional; it
means that the structural patterns of the intonation group are as follows:
(Pre-Head +) (Head +) Nuclear tone
According to Cruttenden (1997, p. 54), pre-nuclear pitch accents generally serve to
modify the meaning conveyed by the nuclear tone.
The head is the part of the tune which begins with the stressed syllable of the first
accented word and extends to the last syllable before the nucleus (O’Connor and
Arnold, 1973, p. 17; Roach, 2012, p. 138; Wells, 2006, p. 8). Compare three
examples: In She has re ˈ markable ar ˈ tistic ↘skills the head is ˈmarkable arˈtistic In

head in ↘She has reְmarkable artistic ֽskills

She has re ˈ markable ar↘tistic ֽskills the head is ˈmarkable arNote that there is no

The pre-head is all the syllables preceding the stressed syllable of the first accented
word (O’Connor and Arnold 1973, p. 22). The pre-head does not contain any accented
words (Wells, 2006, p. 8) because the stressed syllable of the first accented word is
regarded as either the beginning of the head or the nucleus.
There are two types of pre-head: the low pre-head and the high pre-head. In the low
pre-head (O’Connor and Arnold, 1973, pp. 22–24), all the syllables are said on a
level low pitch, as in: I could hardly believe it.
Sometimes, the pre-head before the high head may have stressed syllables, though the
words that contain stressed syllables in the pre-head are not accented.
In the high pre-head (O’Connor and Arnold, 1973, pp. 25–28), all the syllables are
rather pitch-pitched and are said on the same level. An important thing about the high
pre-head is that it gives considerable emphasis to the tone group (= intonation group).
The high pre-head is not as common as the low pre-head; and usually it is not long
(two or three syllables). For example: But he wouldn’t tell me.
There may be stressed, yet unaccented, syllables in the high pre-head; these syllables
are usually suppressed Wells (2006, p. 8) indicates that the boundaries of the pre-
head, the head, the nucleus, and the tail coincide with syllable boundaries but not
necessarily with word boundaries. Compare the following examples:
In Oc↘tober
(In Oc- is the pre-head; -to- is the nucleus; -ber is the tail)
ˈNobody was sur↘prised
(ˈNobody was sur- is the head; -prised is the nucleus)
Simple and compound tunes
O’Connor and Arnold (1973, pp. 28–30) make distinction between the simple tune
that has only one nuclear tone (as in: Isn’t she ↘lovely or Isn’t she ↗lovely) and the
compound tune – basically the High Fall followed by the Low Rise, which are
always on different words: He can’t come. I don’t agree.
Thus, it can be inferred that in the compound tune there are two nuclear tones. The
syllables between the High Fall and the Low Rise are said on a low pitch, as in:
Everyone knows he’s a bore.
The High Fall may be preceded by the High Head; for instance:
I’d rather abstain from voting.
Roach (2012, pp. 130, 141) also differentiates between the simple tone-unit (= tune)
that has only one tonic syllable (= the nucleus) and the compound tone-unit that

for example: I’ve ↘seen ↗him

contain two tonic syllables. The compound tone-unit is almost always a fall + a rise;

Cruttenden (1997, p. 50) calls the rise-fall, the fall-rise, and the rise-fall-rise complex
tones.
TEN TONE GROUPS BY O’CONNOR AND ARNOLD: PATTERNS AND
ATTITUDES
According to O’Connor and Arnold (1973, pp. 39, 98–274), the tone group is a
grouping of tunes that
(a) have one pitch feature (the nuclear tone) or more than one pitch features (the
pre-head, the head, the nuclear tone) in common;
(b) convey the same attitude on the part of the speaker.
O’Connor and Arnold’s taxonomy comprises ten tone groups. Each tone group is
described, including diagrams of the intonation patterns and attitudes conveyed; each
one is extensively exemplified. In this study guide, I provide but a sketch summary of
O’Connor and Arnold’s
system and reproduce some of the numerous attitudes discussed in their work:
1. The Low Drop
(Low Pre-Head +) (High Head +) Low Fall (+ Tail)
Some attitudes
detached, cool, flat, reserved, unsympathetic, categoric, hostile, serious
2. The High Drop
(Low Pre-Head +) (High Head +) High Fall (+ Tail)
Some attitudes light, lively, interested, mildly surprised; sometimes sceptical
3. The Take-Off
(Low Pre-Head +) (Low Head +) Low Rise (+ Tail)
Some attitudes
encouraging further conversation, reserving judgment, wondering, mildly puzzled;
expressing criticism or disapproval
4. The Low Bounce
(Low Pre-Head +) High Head + Low Rise (+ Tail)
High Pre-Head + Low Rise (+ Tail)
Some attitudes
soothing, reassuring; sympathetically/genuinely interested, encouraging; puzzled;
disapproving
5. The Switchback
Fall-Rise + Tail
(Low Pre-Head +) Fall-Rise (+ Tail)
(Low Pre-Head +) Falling Head + Fall-Rise (+ Tail)
Some attitudes
grudgingly admitting, concerned, reserved; greatly astonished, interested, surprised;
scornful, reproachful, hurt
6. The Long Jump
(Low Pre-Head +) Rising Head + High Fall (+ Tail)
Some attitudes
protesting, (unpleasantly) surprised, with a note of critical surprise
7. The High Bounce
(Low Pre-Head +) (High Head +) High Rise (+ Tail)
Some attitudes
questioning, calling for repetition of the information already given, tentative, echoing
the listener’s question before giving an answer, casual
8. The Jackknife
(Low Pre-Head +) (High Head +) Rise-Fall (+ Tail)
Some attitudes
impressed, complacent, self-satisfied, challenging, censorious, disclaiming
responsibility antagonistic
9. The High Dive
(Low Pre-Head +) High Fall + (Low Accents +) Low Rise (+ Tail)
Some attitudes
appealing to the listener to continue; expressing gladness, regret, surprise, despair;
pleading, persuading; encouraging, protesting
10. The Terrace
(Low Pre-Head +) (High head +) Mid-Level (+ Tail)
Some attitudes
(in non-final word groups) expressing non-finality; (in final word groups) calling out
to someone