VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
LÊ THỊ MINH NGUYỆT
AN ANALYSIS OF THE USE OF BASIC FALLING AND RISING
TUNES IN SOME INTERVIEWS FROM THE ELLEN SHOW

PHÂN TÍCH CÁCH SỬ DỤNG NGỮ ĐIỆU XUỐNG VÀ LÊN TRONG
MỘT SỐ ĐOẠN PHỎNG VẤN TRÍCH TỪ THE ELLEN SHOW

M.A. MINOR THESIS Field: English Linguistics
Code: 60220201 HANOI – 2013
VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

falling and rising tunes on some interviews from the Ellen Show” is the fruit of
my own research and that it has not been published or summited to any other
universities or institutions.
Signature

Le Thi Minh Nguyet
ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The first name to be mentioned here is my supervisor‟s, Dr. Ha Cam Tam,
who has been providing me with precious earnest advice and valuable
instructions for my research implementation. Without her help, there definitely
would not be this thesis.
On conducting this research, I also received help and encouragement from

dominance of falling tunes in real-life conversations. More importantly, the
research results supports the correlation between certain sentence types and some
specific tunes while underlines the inconsistence in the use of falling and rising
tunes and other sentence types under different circumstances.

iv LIST OF SYMBOLS AND ABBREVIATIONS
IU: Intonation Unit
SC: Simplex Clause
CC: Complex Clause
PC: Part of Clause
| Intonation Unit Boundary
\ falling tune
/ rising tune
/\ rise-fall tune
\/ fall-rise tune
_ level
(123) | So you are thirteen years/ old|
(123) Intonation Unit Number

TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARATION i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii
ABSTRACT iii
LIST OF SYMBOLS AND ABBREVIATIONS iv
LIST OF TABLE v
TABLE OF CONTENTS vi

PART ONE: INTRODUCTION 1
1. RATIONALE 1
2. AIMS OF THE STUDY AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS 3
3. SCOPE OF THE STUDY 3
4. METHODS OF THE STUDY 3
5. SIGNIFICANE OF THE STUDY 3
5.1. To the area of intonation research 4
5.2. To language user-learners and teachers 4
6. ORGANISATION OF THE STUDY 4
PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT 6
CHAPTER ONE: LITERATURE REVIEW 6
1.1. THEOREOTICAL BACKGROUND 6
1.1.1. Pitch 6
1.1.2. Tune 7
1.1.3. Intonation 8
1.1.4. Basic tunes of intonation 8
1.1.5. Functions of Intonation 8
1.1.6. Intonation Unit 10
1.1.6.1. Definition 10
1.1.6.2. Syntactic structures of IU 11
1.1.7. Sentence types in SC and CC IUs 13
1.1.7.1. Declarative sentence 13


1
PART ONE: INTRODUCTION

To start with, in this very first part of the thesis, the readers would find
background information to the study. The historical context of the intonation
issue with relevant theories and the justifications for implementing this study
would be presented first, then come the aims and research questions of the study.
The third part concerns with the scope of the study, followed by the methods and
significance of this research. A brief description on the organization of this
minor study wraps up the Introduction part.
1. RATIONALE
Intonation has always been the mysterious and promising woods which
has inspired a great deal of exploration, arguments and mediation to achieve a
satisfactory agreement on its nature as well as values in languages. Intonation,
the so-called „melody of speech‟ (Roach,2001), is „what you had when the prose
was spoken‟ (Couper-Kuhlen,2007).
In the past fifty years, intonation has been steadily acknowledging its
indispensable roles and values in communication via the tool of languages.
During this process, the works centering on the issues of intonation has recorded
numerous changes from both theoretical and practical perspectives, some of
which are currently far from a final conclusion. While traditional viewpoints
simply equate intonation with „the use of the pitch of the voice to convey
linguistic information‟ (Gilbert, 1987), the more recent and contemporary
linguists argue about a far more complex nature of intonation, as Roach (2009:
43) claims: “in its broader and more popular sense it is used to cover much the
same field as „prosody‟, where variations in such things as voice quality, tempo
and loudness are included.”
With that vivid transformation and nonstop development as well as the
increasingly important roles in linguistics, intonation is currently an appealing

Moreover, most the previous studies on intonation are based on read-
aloud conversations or speech, sometimes isolated utterances from official
corpus (Ladd, 1985 as an example). Therefore, a closer look into naturally-
occurring discourse can hopefully be contributable to the field of intonation and
to the writer particularly. The extracts of two-or- three speaker interviews from
the show, an American television talk show hosted by comedian/actress Ellen
DeGeneres with the best-known celebrities all over the world provide the
research with a varied accents and extremely colorful cultural background. The
show has won 32 Daytime Emmy Awards as of 2011. The 10th season of the
show, from which the selected excerpts are taken, began on September 10, 2012.
In a nutshell, the significance of intonation tunes in successfully
communication together with the desire of the author as a EFL teacher to obtain
an empirically-driven and efficiency framework to teach intonation to her
students are the justifications behind the choice of the current paper topic.
3
2. AIMS OF THE STUDY AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS
The primary purpose and aim of the current study is to provide a closer
look into the use of falling and rising tunes in the context of a real-life talk show,
which would be the closest form of naturally occurring conversation. The author
would like to discover the frequency of falling and rising tunes in the free-style
chat show to partially establish a conclusion about the dominance of these two
tones in English conversations. Moreover, another issue to be cleared out is the
long-in-dispute problems of correlation between the tunes employed and
different sentence types, including Declarative, Wh-Interrogative, Yes/No
Interrogative and Imperative. The degree of correlation, which would pave the
way to the formation of a generalization for the correlation, then is another aim
of the study.

naturally-occurring discourse analysis on intonation
- To provide an new evidence on the frequency of falling and rising tunes
as two basic tunes of the language of English
5.2. To language user-learners and teachers
Teachers and learners always desire for a guideline to perceive and
appropriately use intonation as a tool for conveying communicative messages.
Therefore, the expected findings of the study, the frequency of falling and rising
tunes and the correlation between the tune choice and syntactic features of the
intonation units are hopefully supposed to
- promote the awareness of language teachers and learners as users of
English about the need to understand and use these tones in communication.
- offer a helping hand in deciding the tone choice as speakers and
understanding the message as listeners.
6. ORGANISATION OF THE STUDY
The thesis is composed with 3 main parts:
Part one: Introduction states the reasons for conducting research, the aims
of the study along with the research questions as well as the method of doing
research, the scope of the study and the organization of this current report.
Part two: Development includes two chapters.
In chapter one: Literature Review, some theories related to intonation and
the framework for this study will be discussed. Then, the previous research
related to intonation would be reviewed in order to show the research gap and the
need to conduct this work.
The second chapter- The study is the main core of this research paper.
There are two sections: Methodology and Data Analysis & Discussion.
Section 1- Methodology once again highlights the research questions. The
data collection description and procedure are discussed in detailed here, followed
with the analytical framework for the current study.
Section 2: Data Analysis & Discussion presents the research results which
include the frequency of falling and rising tunes in the corpus of the interview

6
PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT

Part Two: Development, the heart of this research, would firstly lead the
readers through the history of intonation research with chapter one- providing a
Literature Review of the concerned issue. In this Chapter, a background for the
research journey with the relevant works and explanation about the main
concepts in the study is established, from which a gap to fit the current research
and a framework for the findings would be pointed out. The following chapter,
The Study, consists of Methodology part and Data Analysis and Discussion.
Methodology Section describes the data and clearly states the analytical
framework taken into effect in the research while Data Analysis and Discussion
Section presents the process of analyzing data collection to reach some initial
findings along with discussion sessions concerning the results achieved above. CHAPTER ONE: LITERATURE REVIEW


be identified from a musical instrument or a vowel produced by human voice.
Thus, English language consists of a number of voiceless sounds which “cannot
give rise to a sensation of pitch in this way.”
Another important feature to bear in mind relating to „pitch‟ is that pitch
range is an individual possession, which means that a high pitch of a person with
low-pitched voice may be a low pitch of another with a high-pitched voice. To
get the appropriate interpretation of pitch changes in one‟s voice, it‟s advisable
to look at the pitch movement within the whole pitch range of a certain
individual.
1.1.2. Tune
Hayes (2009, 294) mentions a central idea in intonation analysis which
involve text and tune. “The text is simply the words we are saying, conveyed
through vowels, consonants, stress and phrasing. The tune is the pitch pattern
with which the words are said. For the analysis of tune, we introduce here the
concept of a tone, or more precisely, a tonal auto-segment. A tone is like a
phonological segment, except that its content specifies only pitch features.”
Roach (2009) restricts the meaning of the term “tone” in phonetics and
phonology as follows: “it refers to an identifiable movement or level of pitch that
is used in a linguistically contrastive way. In some languages (known as tone
languages) the linguistic function of tone is to change the meaning of a word. In
other languages, tone forms the central part of intonation, and the difference
between, for example, a rising and falling tone on a particular word may cause a
different interpretation of the sentence in which it occurs.”
It is necessary to highlight that in this study, tune refers to the pitch
pattern covering an utterances while tone point to the pitch clinging to a certain
syllable in the utterance. 8
1.1.3. Intonation

(i) To indicate grammatical structure to the listener
As a matter of fact, IU boundaries tend to occur between grammatical
units of higher order than words. In sentences with a more complex structure,
IUs boundaries are normally found at the boundaries between phrases and
clauses. Thus, IU division serves as an indication for grammatical structure of an 9
utterance. Furthermore, in situations of meaning ambiguity due to the complex
structure of the sentences, intonation can be of great help for the listener to
correctly infer the message of the speakers. For example:
(a) The Conservatives who \/like the proposal are \pleased.
(b) The Con\/servatives who \/like the proposal are \pleased.
The intonation distinguish between the (a)restrictive and (b) non-
restrictive relative clauses. (a) implies that only some Conservatives like the
proposal whereas (b) implies that all Conservatives like it.
(ii) To define if the utterance is a statement or a question.
This sub-function relates to the choice of tone on the tonic syllable. In
English, like several other languages, speakers can simply change a statement
into a question by changing the tone from falling to rising.For instance:

(a) The \price is going up.
(a) is a statement with the use of falling tone on the tonic syllable „price‟.
but it‟s acceptable to ask a question:
Why do you want to buy it now? (b) The price is going /up.
The intonation of question-tags is also quoted as an illustration for
changes in the meanings doe to the differences in tones. Let‟s have a look at an
pair of example:
(c) They are coming on \Tuesday| \aren’t they|
(d) They are coming on \Tuesday| /aren’t they|

presented three major functions: attitudinal function, grammatical function, and
discourse function.
1.1.6. Intonation Unit
1.1.6.1. Definition
Traditionally, intonation studies have been making use of the notion of a
phonological unit that is defined by a coherent pitch movement and / or
accentual pattern, which is known as tone unit (Crystal 1969; Brazil 1997, Roach
1998), tone group (Halliday 1967), intonation-group (Cruttenden 1997),
intonation phrase (Wells 2006), intonation unit (Du Bois 1991), rhythm unit
(Pike 1945), and breath group (Liebeman 1967). All of the terms mentioned
point to one basic notion of a linguistic unit defined by supra-segmental aspects
of speech. Such a unit is described with a “fairly clearly-defined internal
structure”, with a compulsory Tonic Syllable, which “carries a tone and has a
high degree of prominence”. A tonic syllable not only carries a tone (which is
something related to intonation) but also a type of stress that will be called tonic
stress.” Some research also uses nucleus and nuclear stress for tonic syllable and
tonic stress. The tone-unit structure is completed with the optional components,
including Head, Pre-Head and Tail. The head, which is “all that part of tone-unit
that extends from the first stressed syllable (but not including) the tonic syllable.
If there is not stressed syllable before the tonic syllable, there cannot be a Head.”
(Roach, 1998, p.281). The Pre-head is composed of all the unstressed syllables in 11
a tone-unit preceding the first stressed syllable. Any syllables between the Tonic
syllable and the end of the tone-unit are called the Tail.
Other definitions of intonation unit also look at the pitch movement which
makes up its core feature. Reed, 2009 quotesCruttenden (1997) as providing a
“good example” of the definition of the “intonation-group”.
“His internal criteria for defining a stretch of speech as an intonation-

12
(b) Complex Clauses (CC) There are a tentative classification of four
subtypes:
CC1: Paratactic construction: This construction combines two or more
simple clauses paratactically. The two (or more) events depicted in this
construction are relatively independent of each other, as evidenced by different
subjects, aspectual markings , polarities associated with different clauses, and/or
an intervening conjunction. For example:
(3) Oh, I quickly ran to the bedroom and he enter the room right after that.
CC2: Serial construction: This construction is similar to paratactic
construction but what is expressed in this construction is conceived as one event.
Structurally speaking, the two serialized verbs are not independently marked
with aspectual and other verbal information. Causative, passive and purpose
constructions are considered as serial constructions. For instance:
(4) She put on her coat, took the bag, and walked out of the room.
CC3: Hypotactic construction: CC3 consists of a dependent (adverbial)
clause and the main clause. Examples of CC3 are quite abundant.
(5) Although they had prepared quite carefully before the storm, the
damage was still too big.
(6) When you left, you brought all the good things with you.
CC4: Complement and relative constructions: Complement
construction is a construction with a verb which take the complement. For
instance:
(7) He said (that) you had already moved out of the building.
A relative clause may appear as part of a simplex or complex clause.
(8) The girl who lives next door is a doctor.
(c) Part of a clause (PC)
An IU is recognized as part of a clause when it combines with the nex IU
to create a complete clause. If the second IU in this case can be considered
independent, then it is coded as SC or CC. The following one is an example:

1.1.7.2. Yes/no-interrogative
A sentence type marked by inverted word order (usually subject-auxiliary
inversion - unless the verbal is a simple form of to be or - less frequently - to
have). For example:
Is your mother at home? Have you done your homework?
1.1.7.3. Wh-interrogative
An interrogative sentence which contains a wh-word (what, where, when,
which, who, whom, whose, why, how). The wh-word is usually placed at the 14
beginning of the sentence, and is followed by the finite verb. Unless the wh-
word has the syntactic function of subject, the word order of a wh -interrogative
is as follows: wh-word+ finite auxiliary + subject + verbal. For example:
Why did you want to study English?
If the wh-word functions as subject, the word order of the wh-
interrogative is simply: wh-word (=subject) + verbal. For example:
Who wants a second-hand grammar book?
1.1.7.4. Imperative
A sentence type typically used to make commands. For example:
Sit down. Give an analysis of this poem.
An imperative sentence typically contains no grammatical subject, but the
implied subject is 'you'. Sometimes a subject may be included, particularly in
negative imperatives such as: Don't you dare touch that switch. Sentences such
as Let's get out of here! Let's go! where the implied subject includes the speaker
as well as the hearer(s), are also referred to as imperative.
1.2. PREVIOUS RESEARCH
1.2.1. Research on the frequency of the basic tunes
There is not much research done on the topic of relative frequency of
basic tunes in English language. A small piece of information on this topic that

conversation
Textbook
Wh-question intonation patterns
Rising-Falling
Falling-Rising
Rising-Falling
Or questions intonation patterns
Rising-Falling
Rising-Falling
Yes/No questions intonation patterns
Falling-Rising
Terminal falling pitch
Falling-Rising
Statement as questions intonation
patterns
Terminal rising pitch
Terminal rising pitch

McCarthy (1991:106) is quoted by Medgag (2012) as admitting the
popularity of the utilization of grammatical intonation, especially among teachers
who widely believe that there are „correct‟ intonations for sentence structures,
such as declarative sentences, questions, tag questions, etc. Thus, yes/No
questions typically go with rising tones, and the wh-interrogatives with falling
tones. However, McCarthy do admit that there‟s more evidence to suggest that
there is “no one-to-one relationship between sentence type and tone.”
In short, despite the richness of studies on the issue of intonation patterns
and grammatical types of utterances, there‟s still a need for more empirical
evidence to approach an agreement on the questions of the correlation between
the two variables. This study roots from that need as well as the personal demand
of the writer as an English teacher to deepen the understanding of intonation as

hosted by comedian/actress Ellen DeGeneres, debuting on September 8, 2003,
and has been increasingly popular with American. The show has reached
considerable success with 33 Daytime Emmy awards as of 2011 because of the
richness and creativity in the episodes. The audience can enjoy a combination of
comedy, celebrity, musical guests and human-interest stories. There‟s a
surprisingly wide range of celebrities having making their turn as guests on the
Ellen show, from very famous singer Taylor Swift or Justin Bieber to popular
actors and actress such as Robert Pattison and Kristen Stewart and even the
President of The United States, Barack Obama and his First Lady. The appeal of
the program not only roots in the appearance of well-known artist and politicians
on the show but also some of very special elements. For instance, non-celebrities
are also featured in ‟15 minutes of fame‟ part of the program. Guests of this role