what's a 'tone unit'?

Unit 4- Help needed | Jerry Talandis Jr. | January 30th, 2002

I just finished going through Unit 4 of the MET module, and frankly, I'm stumped. I just don't get what exactly a "tone unit" is. I have a vague idea, but I'm at a loss for how to identify them from samples of native speech. The instructions for Section B Task 1 states that when you divide up speech into chunks, "use pauses as a guide." (B4 p3)

What does this mean, in practice?

What exactly is a pause? How long is a pause? How can I be sure I'm correct? Is this an arbitrary division?

Any advice out there from those of you who've completed this module? What's the trick to this?

Jerry Talandis

Re: Unit 4- Help needed | Francesca | January 30th, 2002

Hi Jerry,

I started working with tone units / when reading Adrian Underhill's excellent book, / Sound Foundations. / If you can get your hands on a copy, / have a look at pages 76 to 82, / where he teaches the reader how to identify: / tonic syllables, / heads, / tails,/ onsets / and even preheads / in tone units. / A tone unit is a unit of speech / which has only one major pitch change. / As Steve says, / when one would naturally pause / when reading or speaking / is generally at the boundaries of a tone unit/.

Thus endeth my demonstration of tone units...

When I was reading Underhill's book, people must have thought I was an absolute nutter because the whole thing is based on guided discovery exercises so I ummed and arrhhed my way through. It was well worth it.

Good luck,

Francesca

Re: Tone Units | Jerry Talandis Jr. | February 1st, 2002

Dear Francesca, Dominic, Julia, & Rita,

Thanks a lot for all your advice about tone units. I think I get it intellectually now. This is something you need to practice doing in order to really get it.

My main concern was over knowing whether or not I could identify a pause correctly. For example, in Francesca's example, I could see some pauses, but not others. Obviously, pauses come at the beginning and ends of sentences and at commas. Other than that, however, I just can't be sure.

Dominic's comments helped me see that it's all a bit fuzzy anyway, and you can never be totally sure (in the cosmic sense of it, anyway). You have to roughly guess, use your intuition, etc (like a lot of things in life!). That I get. I'm used to using my intuition, of feeling my way in the dark - I live in Japan! So, just practice a lot, and get better at it - like with anything.

Thanks, everyone! I really appreciate the timely assistance!

Jerry Talandis

 

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