It is generally acknowledged that voice pitch or speech melody and sentence stress or accent are the two main components of intonation. Though these elements are very closely connected variations in voice pitch are still most important in an intonation pattern. Thereby pitch variations will be considered first.
Pitch Level. Each intonation group has its own pitch-and- stress pattern. Variations in voice pitch or melody occur within the normal range of the speaking voice. i.e. within the interval between its lower and upper limits. For pedagogical expediency three pitch levels are generally distinguished: high, medium, low.
Pitch Range. Pitch range is the interval between two pitch levels or two differently pitched syllables or parts of a syllable. The pitch range of a whole intonation pattern is the interval between the highest-pitched and the lowest pitched syllables. Pitch ranges may be normal, wide and narrow.
Pitch-and-Stress Sections. Pitch-and-stress sections of an intonation pattern containing several stressed syllables are: pre- head, head. nucleus, tail. eg: I(pre-head) ↘didn’t ‘know you’ve ‘been to(head) ˎLon(nucleus) don(tail)
