GIVE ANSWERS - English

80% GOOD (5 votes)답변언어 질문
Questions and Intonation: Up or Down?

In English pronunciation, when asking a question the sentense intonation (pitch) can go UP or can go DOWN which changes the meaning.

How does it work? I know it's completely different in French: intonations always go UP when asking a question. smiley


PS: Explore free learning materials for English: Class: Miscellaneous collocationsBritish Indian Ocean Territory TimelineBermuda TimelineConfusion between Adjectives and Adverbs

GIVE ANSWERS

vincent profile picture vincentOctober 2017

I've heard also the following:

- if you expect a YES/NO answer, pitch goes UP

- If you expect a long answer, pitch goes DOWN

 

It's not as simple, as Clark explained smile.gif

ClarkR profile picture ClarkROctober 2017

Yes, much more than Latin languages English uses question words & word order to confirm that a question is being asked, so intonation doesn't carry the same value. The meaning might not change, exactly, but the emphasis & emotional tone certainly does.

Say I'm buying a ticket for a guided tour.

I could say "How long does the tour LAST?", pitch starts low & goes up at the end, to form a simple, polite question.

If the person tells me it's two or three hours & that seems like a long time, I might say "HOW long does the tour last?" Pitch starts high & stays high to express that I'm surprised or skeptical.

Now I've been on the tour for two hours already, & it looks like there's going to be at least another hour to go. "How LONG is this tour going to LAST?" I might say, with equal emphasis in both places & high pitch throughout because I'm annoyed.

Another two hours have gone by now & I've given up on life: "How long is this tour going to last." No emphasis anywhere, the whole pitch of the sentence begins & remains low. It's not even really a question to anyone anymore, except maybe God.

AussieInBg profile picture AussieInBgOctober 2020
It’s definitely not a simple YES/NO UP/DOWN question.

The answer that Clark had given is quite specific for some speakers of American English in some situations.

It gets much more complicated than that - which dialect of English are you speaking, even which region for that specific dialect, polite or impolite question forms, spoken formal and informal forms, short or long questions, whether you are anticipating a negative, neutral or positive response, the emphasis you wish to apply to a specific part of the question (he covers that a bit, but there are many more tricks to it). The list goes on....
Mithrawnurro profile picture MithrawnurroNovember 2017
I would say that generally, Yes/No questions have a rising pitch at the end of the sentence and that Open questions have a rising pitch in some parts but then end in a dropping pitch. If I were to ask, "what do you do?" "What" has a dropping pitch, "do" has a neutral/level pitch (though it's kinda low), "you" has a rising pitch, and "do" has a ^ type pitch.....it starts out rising, then it drops down at the end.