Tone (linguistics)
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| - | '''Elocution''' is the study of formal speaking in [[pronunciation]], [[grammar]], style, and [[tone (linguistics)|tone]]. | ||
| - | ==History== | + | '''Tone''' is the use of [[pitch (music)|pitch]] in [[language]] to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning—that is, to distinguish or [[inflection|inflect]] words. All verbal languages use pitch to express emotional and other paralinguistic information, and to convey emphasis, contrast, and other such features in what is called [[intonation (linguistics)|intonation]], but not all languages use tones to distinguish words or their inflections, analogously to consonants and vowels. Such tonal [[phoneme]]s are sometimes called '''tonemes'''. Tonal languages are extremely common in Africa and East Asia, but rare elsewhere in Asia and in Europe. |
| - | In Western classical [[rhetoric]], elocution was one of the five core disciplines of [[pronunciation]], which was the art of delivering speeches. Orators were trained not only on proper [[diction]], but on the proper use of gestures, stance, and dress. (Another area of rhetoric, [[elocutio]], was unrelated to ''elocution'' and, instead, concerned the style of writing proper to discourse.) | + | |
| - | Elocution emerged as a formal discipline during the eighteenth century. One of its important figures was [[Thomas Sheridan]], actor and father of [[Richard Brinsley Sheridan]]. Thomas Sheridan's lectures on elocution, collected in ''Lectures on Elocution'' (1762) and his ''Lectures on Reading'' (1775), provided directions for marking and reading aloud passages from literature. Another actor, John Walker, published his two-volume ''Elements of Elocution'' in 1781, which provided detailed instruction on voice control, gestures, pronunciation, and emphasis. | + | In the most widely-spoken tonal language, [[Mandarin Chinese]], tones are distinguished by their shape (contour) and pitch range (or register). Many words are differentiated solely by tone, and each syllable in a multisyllabic word often carries its own tone. Moreover, tone plays little role in modern Chinese grammar, though the tones descend from features in [[Old Chinese]] that did have [[morphology (linguistics)|morphological]] significance (e.g. changing a verb to a noun or vice-versa). In many tonal African languages, such as most [[Bantu languages]], however, tones are distinguished by their relative level, words are longer, there are fewer [[minimal pair|minimal tone pairs]], and a single tone may be carried by the entire word, rather than a different tone on each syllable. Often grammatical information, such as past versus present, "I" versus "you", or positive versus negative, is conveyed solely by tone. |
| - | With the publication of these works and similar ones, elocution gained wider public interest. While training on proper speaking had been an important part of private education for many centuries, the rise in the nineteenth century of a middle class in Western countries (and the corresponding rise of public education) led to great interest in the teaching of elocution, and it became a staple of the school curriculum. American students of elocution drew selections from what were popularly deemed, "Speakers". By the end of the century, several Speaker texts circulated throughout the United States, including McGuffrey's ''New Juvenile Speaker'', the ''Manual of Elocution and Reading'', the ''Star Speaker'', and the popular ''Delsarte Speaker''. Some of these texts even included pictorial depictions of body movements and gestures to augment written descriptions. | + | Many languages use tone in a more limited way. [[Somali phonology|Somali]], for example, may only have one high tone per word. In [[Japanese pitch accent|Japanese]], fewer than half of the words have [[downstep|drop in pitch]]; words contrast according to which syllable this drop follows. Such minimal systems are sometimes called [[pitch accent]], since they are reminiscent of [[stress accent]] languages which typically allow one principal stressed syllable per word. However, there is debate over the definition of pitch accent, and whether a coherent definition is even possible. |
| - | + | ||
| - | ==Sample curriculum== | + | |
| - | + | ||
| - | An example of this can be seen in the Table of Contents of [[McGuffey Readers|McGuffey's ''New Sixth Eclectic Reader'']] of 1857 : | + | |
| - | + | ||
| - | :Principles of Elocution | + | |
| - | ::I. Articulation | + | |
| - | ::II. Inflections | + | |
| - | ::III. Accent and Emphasis | + | |
| - | ::IV. Instructions for Reading Verse | + | |
| - | ::V. The Voice | + | |
| - | ::VI. Gesture | + | |
| - | + | ||
| - | :''New Sixth Reader''. Exercises in Articulation | + | |
| - | ::Exercise I. -- The Grotto of Antiparos | + | |
| - | ::Exercise II. -- The Thunder Storm | + | |
| - | ::Exercise III. -- Description of a Storm | + | |
| - | ::IV. Hymn to the Night-Wind | + | |
| - | ::V. -- The Cataract of Lodore | + | |
| - | :On Inflection | + | |
| - | ::VI. -- Industry Necessary for the Orator | + | |
| - | ::VII. -- The Old House Clock [''etc.''] | + | |
| ==See also== | ==See also== | ||
| - | * [[Philology]] | ||
| - | * [[Diction]] | ||
| - | ===Other forms=== | ||
| - | * [[Homiletics]], Christian rhetoric | ||
| - | * [[Pronuntiatio]], classical elocution | ||
| - | * [[Tajwid]], Muslim elocution | ||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| + | * [[Pitch accent]] | ||
| + | * [[Tone terracing]] | ||
| + | * [[Downdrift]] | ||
| + | * [[Downstep (phonetics)|Downstep]] | ||
| + | * [[Floating tone]] | ||
| + | * [[Tone contour]] | ||
| + | * [[Tone sandhi]] | ||
| + | * [[Meeussen's rule]] | ||
| + | * [[Tone name]] | ||
| + | * [[Tone pattern]] | ||
| + | * [[Musical language]] | ||
| + | * [[Four tones (Chinese)]] | ||
| + | * [[Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den]] | ||
| {{GFDL}} | {{GFDL}} | ||
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Tone is the use of pitch in language to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning—that is, to distinguish or inflect words. All verbal languages use pitch to express emotional and other paralinguistic information, and to convey emphasis, contrast, and other such features in what is called intonation, but not all languages use tones to distinguish words or their inflections, analogously to consonants and vowels. Such tonal phonemes are sometimes called tonemes. Tonal languages are extremely common in Africa and East Asia, but rare elsewhere in Asia and in Europe.
In the most widely-spoken tonal language, Mandarin Chinese, tones are distinguished by their shape (contour) and pitch range (or register). Many words are differentiated solely by tone, and each syllable in a multisyllabic word often carries its own tone. Moreover, tone plays little role in modern Chinese grammar, though the tones descend from features in Old Chinese that did have morphological significance (e.g. changing a verb to a noun or vice-versa). In many tonal African languages, such as most Bantu languages, however, tones are distinguished by their relative level, words are longer, there are fewer minimal tone pairs, and a single tone may be carried by the entire word, rather than a different tone on each syllable. Often grammatical information, such as past versus present, "I" versus "you", or positive versus negative, is conveyed solely by tone.
Many languages use tone in a more limited way. Somali, for example, may only have one high tone per word. In Japanese, fewer than half of the words have drop in pitch; words contrast according to which syllable this drop follows. Such minimal systems are sometimes called pitch accent, since they are reminiscent of stress accent languages which typically allow one principal stressed syllable per word. However, there is debate over the definition of pitch accent, and whether a coherent definition is even possible.
See also
- Pitch accent
- Tone terracing
- Downdrift
- Downstep
- Floating tone
- Tone contour
- Tone sandhi
- Meeussen's rule
- Tone name
- Tone pattern
- Musical language
- Four tones (Chinese)
- Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den
