THEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS RELATED TO QUESTION TAG INTONATION AND COMPUTER ASSISTED LANGUAGE LEARNING

In this first part, as suggested by the title, we shall focus upon theoretical considerations related to question tag intonation and the computer-assisted language learning. As a matter of course, understanding these two concepts is crucial in this research work since they constitute its key words. For this reason, this theoretical survey will be divided into two main parts that are: “question tag intonation” and “computer-assisted language learning”.

QUESTION TAG INTONATION

For a better understanding of what the concept “question tag intonation” stands for, we shall first of all, deal with ‘intonation’ and ‘question tag’ separately; after that, we will see the implications of the combination of the two.

What is meant by “intonation” in the English language? 

Generalities about “intonation”

Definitions of ‘intonation”: “Intonation” is one of the four main elements1 of the English language pronunciation. CROFT, in 1961, in the introductory part of his Practice Book on English Stress and Intonation for Students of English as a Second Language, shows clearly that ‘pronunciation’ and ‘music’ are similar in some ways. They both contain what is called “intonation”. In addition to that, according to The Cambridge International Dictionary of English, “intonation” is the degree of accuracy of the notes that are played as far as music is concerned. CROFT, however, outlines the definition of “intonation” in the English language pronunciation. He notes that: “Intonation’ or ‘speech melody’, as it is sometimes called, refers to the way the voice rises or falls 1 They are: “articulation”, “stress”, “rhythm” and “intonation” 4 during phonation. From the point of view of a music scale, we say that a person’s voice goes up and down while he is talking, in the sense that musical instruments play notes going up and down the scale. The ‘notes’ a person produces during speech are called pitches or tones. (These are also expressed sometimes by the terms pitch levels, tone levels, intonation levels).” In short, Intonation is the melody of the language or the change of the musical pitch of the voice. From now on, our survey will focus on the intonation of the English language not on that of music. Besides, HORNBY (1974), in his Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English defines “intonation” as the “rise and fall of the pitch of the voice in speaking”. As a matter of course, no one speaks on a monotone, the voice changes continually in highness or lowness, and intonation refers to this variation of pitch within a phrase or a sentence. Therefore, an analysis of the intonation of a speaker aims at describing and codifying the use of changes of voice-pitch. When the latter rises, we are faced with a “rising intonation”; as opposed to this, we have a “falling intonation” when the voice-pitch falls. Furthermore, in the International Phonetic Alphabet (I.P.A), these two types of intonation patterns are marked with a diagonal arrow rising left-to-right (↗) and falling left-to-right (↘), respectively. Still, intonation is unavoidable in English speech. Either people express what they mean in writing, and thus they are under no obligation to produce intonation; or they say it and have to use the right intonation. In fact, intonation conveys meanings which are not explicitly contained in the words used by the speaker themselves. The place, importance and functions of ‘Intonation’ in the English language:  Place and importance of “intonation”: Intonation patterns are on groups of words called “tone units”2 . These units break up spoken language and are said on a single breath. Consequently, together with sentences, tone units establish the main distinction between written and spoken language. In fact, in written language, the basic unit is the sentence; whereas in spoken language it is the tone unit. According to an author, (COOK, 1971) “An Englishman who hears a mistake in intonation does not react the same way as when he hears a 2 Also called “tone groups” or “intonation groups” or “sense groups” 5 grammatical mistake, he is prepared to make allowances for the foreigner’s faulty grammar but does not make the same allowances for the foreigner’s intonation. Instead, he will think not that the foreigner is making a mistake but that he possesses the wrong attitude.” Let us consider the following dialogue between two people: A and B. DIALOGUE: A: You love him, don’t you? (With a falling intonation in the end) B: Well …….. (With a falling intonation) A: You love him, don’t you? (With a rising intonation in the end) B: You see, my parents obliged me to marry him. In this dialogue, A is quite sure that B loves the man (“him”), and then uses the falling intonation in the end of her question, meaning that she is just asking for a confirmation. However, B uses the falling intonation, plus some hesitation in her reply. So, A is no more sure about B’s love for the man, hence her use of the rising intonation this time, meaning that she is asking a real question; hence, B’s confession in the end of the dialogue. This dialogue above best summarizes the principal role played by “Intonation” in the English language. It can be drawn that intonation constitutes a means of indicating the speaker’s mental attitudes, emotions and feeling as well as a means of conveying his/her meanings. As such, it is not always “what people say” but “how they say it” that counts. In other words, pitch is used pragmatically in the English language. Intonation may have several functions in the English language.  Functions of “intonation”: CRYSTAL (1987) states that by means of ‘Intonation’, a speaker can:  Express feeling, attitudes, and emotions notably: surprise, irony, anger, excitement, boredom, friendliness, gratefulness, reserve, urgency, casualness etc. He calls this the «attitudinal or emotional function”. It is worth mentioning that different voice qualities are used for different attitudes; and at 6 the same time, the speaker may resort to different facial expressions, gestures and body movements as well.  Emphasize information. It is referred to as the “information structure function”. In this case, intonation represents the speaker’s communicative intention to give special meaning to some words. It can signal to the listener what is to be considered as “new” information and what is already “given” or “known”. In addition to that, in conversation, intonation can convey to the listener what kind of answer is being expected from him.  Help the listener to identify the speaker’s discourse types or genres (news reading, conversation, prayer, poetry reading, etc.). CRYSTAL uses the term “textual function” in this case.  Help the listener to identify the occupations or social groups to which the speaker belongs (preacher, street vendor, army sergeant, and so on.). It corresponds to the “indexical function” (i.e. intonation marks the speaker’s personal identity).  Mark a number of syntactic or grammatical contrasts such as the identification of phrase, clause and sentence or question and statement. This constitutes the “grammatical function” of intonation.  Organise language into units or sequences (tone units) that prove to be easily perceived and memorised by the listener. This is what CRYSTAL identifies as the “psychological function” of intonation.