Prominence And Intonation In Discourse

10 Questions | By Myoshida | Last updated: Feb 19, 2013 | Total Attempts: 687

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Quiz on Chapter 6 of Teaching Pronunciation: A Course Book and Reference Guide.

Questions and Answers

1.

What is intonation?
- A.
  
  The melody or pitch pattern of a sentence.
- B.
  
  The beat or rhythm of a sentence.
- C.
  
  One of the segmental features of a language.
- D.
  
  The loudest syllable in a word that is emphasized more than the others.
2.

The lines on the right represent intonation patterns. Which pattern is the most typical representation of each of these sentences? Does this store sell books?
- A.
  
  Pattern A
- B.
  
  Pattern B
- C.
  
  Pattern C
- D.
  
  Pattern D
3.

The store sells books, magazines, and newspapers.
- A.
  
  Pattern A
- B.
  
  Pattern B
- C.
  
  Pattern C
- D.
  
  Pattern C
4.

What did you buy at the bookstore?
- A.
  
  Pattern A
- B.
  
  Pattern B
- C.
  
  Pattern C
- D.
  
  Pattern D
5.

I bought a cookbook.
- A.
  
  Pattern A
- B.
  
  Pattern B
- C.
  
  Pattern C
- D.
  
  Pattern D
6.

You bought a cookbook?
- A.
  
  Pattern "a"
- B.
  
  Pattern "b"
- C.
  
  Pattern "c"
- D.
  
  Pattern "d"
7.

Was it an expensive cookbook or a cheap one?
- A.
  
  Pattern A
- B.
  
  Pattern B
- C.
  
  Pattern C
- D.
  
  Pattern D
8.

Which of these statements is true?
- A.
  
  Languages like Korean and Japanese don’t have intonation. They just sound flat.
- B.
  
  All languages have intonation, but they don’t all have the same kind of intonation.
9.

In English, which word in a sentence usually receives prominence (focus/sentence stress)? (You may choose more than one answer.)
- A.
  
  A word that is in contrast with another word.
- B.
  
  A word that tells new information, not old information.
- C.
  
  A word that the speaker wants to emphasize.
- D.
  
  The last content word in the sentence.
- E.
  
  It could be any of these.
10.

Which of these statements are true of thought groups? (You may choose more than one answer.)
- A.
  
  A sentence must have more than one thought group.
- B.
  
  A thought group has its own intonation contour.
- C.
  
  A thought group is often also a grammatical unit, like a phrase or a clause.
- D.
  
  All speakers of a language break their speech up into thought groups in the same way.
- E.
  
  We pause before and after a thought group, but not in the middle of one.