audio examples of question intonation?

[webmagnets]

Is there any online resource that has audio examples of question intonation?

I would like to hear several examples of how to distinguish when something is a question and the only indication is the intonation. Also, I would like to hear the same sentence said with normal intonation.

[renzhe]

I would like to hear several examples of how to distinguish when something is a question and the only indication is the intonation.

Questions will generally have a question particle somewhere.

Sentence-level intonation does exist, but is quite limited in Mandarin due to it being a tonal language.

[shivasprogeny]

Typically the overall pitch of the sentence is raised, but the tone contours are all still there.

However, in Chinese, you usually don't need to listen to the pitch because the words immeidiately tell you if the person is asking a question. I'm sure you know about the two ways to form yes/no questions. And if it's not a yes/no question, there will be a question word in the sentence like like 什么, 谁, 怎么, or 什么时候 in the sentence.

[webmagnets]

True, but it seems like those very same question markers can be used in sentences that aren't questions. Right?

[HashiriKata]

examples of how to distinguish when something is a question and the only indication is the intonation.

I know what you mean and I'll see if I can find some recorded examples for you. It'll probably require some time to go through recorded materials (but if you're lucky, some native speakers may be willing to give you some live or recorded demonstration).

[renzhe]

True, but it seems like those very same question markers can be used in sentences that aren't questions. Right?

But it's not the intonation that really makes a difference there, it's the sentence structure.

I know what you mean and I'll see if I can find some recorded examples for you.

I'm interested too, as I think that this phenomenon is much less common in Chinese than with many other languages.

In general, sentence-level intonation is black magic to me. There are no well-defined rules that I'm aware of.

[HashiriKata]

I'm interested too, as I think that this phenomenon is much less common in Chinese than with many other languages.

It's quite common actually. Here are some recorded examples I've found (But I'd still advice to get some live demonstration):

A.

-作业也做完了？

-作业也做完了。

B:

-林达，你的礼物也买好了？

-买好了。

C:

-你没有姐姐和弟弟？

-是。我没有姐姐和弟弟。

D:

-你也没有弟弟？

-没有。

Question by intonation.mp3

[webmagnets]

It is subtle, but I do hear a difference.

I will have to listen analytically to these over and over before I would be able to explain what I hear.

Does anyone think they can explain the differences heard?

[anonymoose]

Here are some recorded examples I've found

Where on earth did you dig up those samples from? I don't remember seeing anything like this in any textbooks, and yet you just happened to have them at hand? Amazing.

Anyway, in the first one, notice how the 了 at the end of the sentence is at a considerably higher pitch in the question than the answer.

[shivasprogeny]

A.

-作业也做完了？

-作业也做完了。

B:

-林达，你的礼物也买好了？

-买好了。

C:

-你没有姐姐和弟弟？

-是。我没有姐姐和弟弟。

D:

-你也没有弟弟？

-没有。

To the native speakers, how common would you say it is to drop 吗 from questions, such as those above?

[Altair]

For more information on this phenomenon, try the following link to the Foreign Services Institute Resource Module on Chinese Pronunciation. The relevant sections are on pages 44-48.

Note that "question intonation" in English only applies to "Yes or No" questions and not to sentences with question words. In Mandarin, "question intonation" apparently applies to all questions.

[webmagnets]

There is question intonation in English in almost all questions, not just yes or no questions.

[Altair]

Hi Webmagnets,

FYI, I added pages to my last post.

As for English, contrary to what you might think, we use falling intonation for both statements and questions that include question words. We use rising intonation only in yes-or-no questions. This does not mean that the intonation of a question-word question and its answer may not differ. It only means that they will both use some type of "statement" intonation that requires a fall in pitch at the end, at least in American English.

[webmagnets]

I agree. There is different intonation for questions if it is not a yes or no question, but it is still question intonation in some form.

[Altair]

Check out Wikipedia for more info on intonation and how it can defer between languages and dialects.

In linguistics, intonation is variation of pitch while speaking which is not used to distinguish words. (Compare tone.) Intonation and stress are two main elements of linguistic prosody.

All languages use pitch semantically, that is, as intonation, for instance for emphasis, to convey surprise or irony, or to pose a question. Tonal languages such as Chinese and Hausa use pitch to distinguish words in addition to intonation.

Rising intonation means the pitch of the voice increases over time; falling intonation means that the pitch decreases with time. A dipping intonation falls and then rises, whereas a peaking intonation rises and then falls.

The classic example of intonation is the question-statement distinction. For example, northeastern American English, like very many languages (Hirst & DiCristo, eds. 1998), has a rising intonation for echo or declarative questions (He found it on the street?), and a falling intonation for wh- questions (Where did he find it?) and statements (He found it on the street.). Yes or no questions (Did he find it on the street?) often have a rising end, but not always. The Chickasaw language has the opposite pattern, rising for statements and falling with questions.

Dialects of British and Irish English vary substantially,[1] with rises on many statements in urban Belfast, and falls on most questions in urban Leeds.

In the International Phonetic Alphabet, "global" rising and falling intonation are marked with a diagonal arrow rising left-to-right [↗] and falling left-to-right [↘], respectively. These may be written as part of a syllable, or separated with a space when they have a broader scope:

He found it on the street?

[ hiː ˈfaʊnd ɪt | ɒn ðə ↗ˈˈstɹiːt ‖ ]

Here the rising pitch on street indicates that the question hinges on that word, on where he found it, not whether he found it.

Yes, he found it on the street.

[↘ˈjɛs ‖ hi ˈfaʊnd ɪt | ɒn ðə ↘ˈstɹiːt ‖ ]

How did you ever escape?

[↗ˈˈhaʊ dɪdjuː | ˈɛvɚ | ɨ↘ˈˈskeɪp ‖ ]

Here, as is common with wh- questions, there is a rising intonation on the question word, and a falling intonation at the end of the question.