2.2　考研真题与典型题详解

I. Fill in the blanks.

1．The sound /p/can be described with “_____, bilabial, stop”.（北二外2007研）

【答案】voiceless

【解析】/p/是双唇音，爆破音，清音。

2．The sound /b/can be described with “_____, bilabial, stop”.（北二外2004研）

【答案】voiced

【解析】/b/是双唇音，爆破音，浊音。

3．Consonant articulations are relatively easy to feel. And as a result are most conveniently described in terms of _____ and manner of articulation.（北二外2004研）

【答案】place

【解析】辅音根据发音方式和发音部位进行分类。

4．_____ are produced by constricting or obstructing the vocal tract at some place to divert, impede, or completely shut off the flow of air in the oral cavity.（中山大学2006研）

【答案】Consonants

【解析】发音时，声道的某些部位受到压缩或阻碍后，使得气流在口腔里转向、受阻或完全被阻塞而产生的音叫做辅音。

5．The present system of the _____ derives mainly from one developed in the 1920s by the British phonetician, Daniel Jones (1881-1967), and his colleagues at University of London.（中山大学2008研）

【答案】cardinal vowels

【解析】基本元音是指一系列约定俗成、固定不变的元音特质，目的是为语言中实际存在的元音描述提供一个参照框架。

6．Voicing refers to the _____ of the vocal folds.（北二外2016研）

【答案】vibration

【解析】本题考查辅音发音过程中的清浊特征的定义。若发音过程中，声带振动，则为浊辅音，反之则为清辅音。

7．The sound /k/ can be described with “voiceless, _____, stop”.（北二外2003研）

【答案】velar

【解析】/k/是清音，软腭音，爆破音。

8．_____ transcription should transcribe all the possible speech sounds, including the minute shades.（北二外2004研）

【答案】Narrow

【解析】当我们用复杂的符号精确地标记语音所有可能的细小变化时，我们称之为“严式转写”。

9．_____ refers to the change of a sound as a result of the influence of an adjacent sound.（中山大学2005研）

【答案】Assimilation

【解析】同化指一个音具有了邻近音的一部分或者全部特征的这一过程，包括鼻化、齿化、鄂化。

10．Stress refers to the degree of _____ used in producing a syllable.（中山大学2006研）

【答案】force

【解析】重音指在音节发音时所用的力度。

11．The syllable structure in Chinese is _____ or _____ or_____.（清华2000研）

【答案】CVC,CV, V

【解析】普通话的音节中节首位置最多有一个辅音，结尾只能是鼻音/n, N/，所以汉语的音节可以写为(C)V(C)。

12．The different members of a phoneme, sounds which are phonetically different but do not make one word different from another in meaning, are _____.（北二外2009研）

【答案】Allophones

【解析】同一个音位在不同语音环境中的实现方式被称为该音位的音位变体。因为变体是互补分布的，而且发音相似。

13．In English, the two words cut and gut differ only in their initial sounds and the two sounds are two different _____ and the two words are a _____ pair.（北二外2010研）

【答案】phonemes; minimal

【解析】/k/、/g/在cut 和gut是两个不同的音位，这两个词，除了出现在同一位置上的一个音外，其余的音都一样，因此这两个词就构成了一个最小的对立体。

14．Phonetic similarity means that the _______ of a phoneme must bear some phonetic resemblance.（中山大学2011年研）

【答案】allophones

【解析】语音相似性指的是承担一些语音的相似的音位变体。

15．In English there are a number of _____, which are produced by moving from one vowel position to another through intervening positions.

【答案】Diphthongs

【解析】如果在发音时通过舌头的一次运动，由第一个单元音滑向第二个单元音，这样产生的音的组合就叫做双元音。

16．According to_____, when there is a choice as to where to place a consonant, it is put into the onset rather than the coda.

【答案】The maximal onset principle

【解析】当一个辅音既可放在节首也可放在节尾时，根据最大节首原则应将其放在节首。

17．In phonological analysis the words fail-veil are distinguishable simply because of the two phonemes/f/-/v/. This is an example for illustrating_____.

【答案】Minimal pairs

【解析】如果有两个词，它们除了出现在同一位置上的一个音外，其余的音都一样，那么这两个词就构成了一个最小的对立体，所以fail-veil是最小对立体。

II. Multiple Choice

1．Of the three cavities. _____ is the most variable and active in amplifying and modifying speech sounds.（北二外2004研）

A. nasal cavity

B. pharynx cavity

C. oral cavity

【答案】C

【解析】在三大发音器官中，气流在口腔中受挤或转向从而产生不同的声音。

2．Of the consonants /p/, /t/, /k/, /f/, /m/, /z/ and /g/, which has the features of voiceless and velar?（对外经贸2005研）

A. /k/

B. /p/

C. /g/

D. /t/

【答案】A

【解析】/k/是清音，软腭音，爆破音；/t/是齿龈音，爆破音，清音；/g/是浊音，软腭音，爆破音，/p/是双唇音，爆破音，轻音。

3．The consonant /s/ in the word “smile” can be described as:（对外经贸2006研）

A. voiceless; oral; alveolar; fricative

B. voiceless; nasal; bilabial; liquid

C. voiced; oral; alveolar; plosive

D. voiced; oral; bilabial; fricative

【答案】A

【解析】/s/是清音，摩擦音，齿龈音。

4．The vowel _____ is a low back vowel.（西安外国语学院2006研）

A. /i: /

B. /u/

C. /e/

D. / a: /

【答案】D

【解析】/a/是低元音，后元音，紧音。

5．Which of the following is true of an allophone?（对外经贸2005研）

A. A phone can be the allophone of all English vowel phonemes.

B. There are no restrictions on the distribution of an allophone.

C. There is no possibility of an allophone becoming a phoneme.

D. An allophone changes the meaning of the word.

【答案】C

【解析】音素是语音学研究的一个基本单位，是人类的发音器官所能发出的最小语音片段，音位是一组语音特征的抽象集合体，并不是所有的因素都是音位。音位变体必须互补分布，且不会改变词义。

6．Which of the following is not a minimal pair?（对外经贸2006研）

A. /li:f/ /fi:l/

B. /sip/ /zip/

C. /sai/ /sei/

D. /keit/ /feit/

【答案】A

【解析】根据最小对立体的定义，只有A不符合，因为A中的音不是在同一个位置上。

7．A sound which is capable of distinguishing one word or one shape of word from another in a given language is a_____.（北二外2003研）

A. allophone

B. phone

C. phoneme

【答案】C

【解析】音位是音系学研究的一个基本单位，是一组语音特征的抽象集合体，具有区别意义的作用。

8．Which of the following CANNOT be considered as minimal pair?（大连外国语学院2008研）

A. /ai/-/Ci/

B. /p/-/b/

C. /s/-/θ/

【答案】C

【解析】/s/是齿龈音，而/θ/是齿音，所以二者不能构成最小对立体。

9．Point out which item does not fall under the same category as the rest, and explain the reason in ONE sentence.（南京大学2007研）

A. resolution

B. resident

C. restart

D. resignation

【答案】C

【解析】/s/在restart中位于清辅音前，所以被轻音化。

10．_____ is one of the suprasegmental features.

A. Voicing

B. Stop

C. Deletion

D. Tone

【答案】D

【解析】超音段特征包括音节，重音，声调和语调。

11．Classification of English speech sounds in terms of manner of articulation involves the following EXCEPT

A. fricatives

B. lateral

C. affricates

D. bilabial

【答案】D

【解析】bilabial是根据发音部位划分的。

12．An aspirated p, an unaspirated p and an unreleased p are _____ of the p phoneme.

A. analogues

B. tagmemes

C. morphemes

D. allophones

【答案】D

【解析】送气的/p/和不送气的/p/是同一个音位/p/在不同语音环境中的实现方式, 所以被称为该音位的音位变体。

13．Which branch of phonetics concerns the production of speech sounds?

A. Acoustic phonetics

B. Articulatory phonetics

C. Auditory phonetics

D. Neither of them.

【答案】B

【解析】发音语言学研究语音的发生。

14 Which one is different from the others according to manners of articulation?

A. [f]

B. [v]

C. [z]

D. [w]

【答案】D

【解析】选项A、B、C都是摩擦音，/w/是近音。

15．Which one is different from the others according to places of articulation?

A. [n]

B. [m]

C. [b]

D. [p]

【答案】A

【解析】[m],[b], [p]都是双唇音，[n]是齿龈音。

16．What kind of sounds can we make when the vocal cords are vibrating?

A. Voiceless

B. Voiced

C. Glottal stop

D. Consonant

【答案】B

【解析】声带振动产生浊音。

17．The most recognizable differences between American English and British English are in _____ and vocabulary.

A. usage

B. grammar

C. pronunciation

D. structure

【答案】C

【解析】英音和美音最大的区别就是发音和词汇，比如发音方面，美音有儿化音。

18．Which of the following is the correct description of [v]?

A. voiceless labiodental fricative

B. voiced labiodental fricative

C. voiceless labiodental stop

D. voiced labiodental stop

【答案】B

【解析】[v]是唇齿音，擦音，浊辅音。

III. True or False

1．In the sound writing system, the reference of the grapheme is the phoneme.（清华2001研）

【答案】T

【解析】字形是根据音位的表达写出来的。

2．A phoneme in one language or one dialect may be an allophone in another language or dialect.（清华2001研）

【答案】T

【解析】同一个音位在不同语音环境中的实现方式被称为该音位的音位变体。同一个音位在不同的语言中有不同的实现方式，所以在另一语言中是音位变体。

3．The speech sounds which are in complementary distribution are definitely allophones of the same phoneme.（北二外2010研）

【答案】F

【解析】音位变体要满足两个条件：互补分布和语音相似性。

4．Broad Transcription is intended to symbolize all the possible speech sounds, including the minute shades. （北二外2003研）

【答案】F

【解析】当我们用一套简单的符号记音，试图把一个词与其他的词区别开时，我们称之为宽式转写，宽式转写不包括一些细小变化。

5．The initial sound of “peak” is aspirated while the second sound of “speak” is unaspirated. They are in free variation.（北二外2005研）

【答案】F

【解析】“peak”和 “speak”中的发音不同的“p”是同一个音位的音位变体，而不是自由对立体。

6．Phonetic similarity means that the allophones of a phoneme must bear some morphological resemblance.（大连外国语学院2008研）

【答案】F

【解析】语音相似性指一个音位的音位变体必须具有语音相似点。

7．The last sound of “top” can be articulated as an unreleased or released plosive. These different realizations of the same phoneme are not in complementary distribution.（北二外2007研）

【答案】T

【解析】如果两个音素出现在一个相同的语音环境中，且不区别意义，这两个音素可被看作自由变体。

8．The speech sounds we hear and produce during linguistic communications are all phonemes.（对外经贸2006研）

【答案】F

【解析】我们所听见和说出的声音并不总是音位，有可能是音素，只有那些有区别意义的才是音位。

9．A syllable can be divided into two parts, the NUCLEUS and the CODA.（大连外国语学院2008研）

【答案】F

【解析】音节中必不可少的就是结核，即元音。节首和节尾可有可无。

10．All syllables contain three parts: onset, nucleus and coda.（北二外2003研）

【答案】F

【解析】所有音节必须有结核，但不是所有的音节都有节首和节尾。

11．In English, we can have the syllable structure of CCCVCCCC.（清华2001研）

【答案】T

【解析】英语的节首最多包括三个辅音，节尾最多包括四个辅音，而且必须有一个元音。

12．The last sound of “sit” can be articulated as an unreleased or released plosive. These different realizations of the same phoneme are not in complementary distribution.（北二外2009研）

【答案】T

【解析】这种情况下这两个音素就可被视为自由变体。

13．The assimilation rule assimilates one sound to another by copying a feature of a sequential phoneme，thus making the two phones similar.

【答案】F

【解析】应该是两个音或两个音位同化。

14．The airstream provided by the lungs has to undergo a number of modifications to acquire the quality of a speech sound

【答案】T

【解析】气流从肺部产生，而后穿过声道经过一些变化比如转向，受阻等发出不同的音。

15．Two sounds are in free variation when they occur in the same environment and do not contrast, namely, the substitution of one for the other does not produce a different word, but merely a different pronunciation.

【答案】T

【解析】自由变体是指两个音素出现在一个相同的语音环境中，并不区别意义，即用一个音素替换另一个音素不产生新词，只产生同一个词的不同读音。

16．[p] is voiced bilabial stop.

【答案】F

【解析】[p]是双唇爆破音，没有摩擦。

17．Sound [p] in the word “spit” is an unaspirated stop.

【答案】T

【解析】/p/在/s/之后是不送气的。

IV. Explain the following terms.

1．Assimilation（南开大学2010研；武汉大学2008研）

【答案】It is a process by which one sound takes on some or all the characteristics of a neighboring sound. It is often used synonymously with coarticulation. Nasalization, dentalization and, velarization are all instances of assimilation. There are two possibilities of assimilation: if a following sound is influencing a preceding sound, it is regressive assimilation; the converse process, in which a preceding sound is influencing a following sound, is known as progressive assimilation. For example, in “mink”, “n”, which is originally pronounced as /n/, will be velarized by the following “k”/k/, and therefore the word will be pronounced as / miNk/ .

2．Distinctive features of speech sounds（中山大学2008研；浙江大学2007研）

【答案】The distinctive feature is a property which distinguishes one phoneme from another. For example, “voicing” is a distinctive feature, since it plays an important role in distinguishing obstruents in English.

3．Syllable（四川大学2006研）

【答案】Syllable: It refers to a unit of spoken language that is bigger than a speech sound. It consists of one or more vowel sounds alone or of a syllabic consonant alone or of either with one or more consonant sounds preceding or following.

4．Cardinal vowel（四川大学2006研；大连外国语学院2008研）

【答案】Cardinal vowel: The cardinal vowels are a set vowel qualities arbitrarily defined, fixed and unchanging, intended to provide a frame of reference for the description of the actual vowels of existing languages.

5．Voiceless（西安交大2008研）

【答案】When the vocal folds are apart, the air can pass through easily and the sound produced is said to be voiceless. For example, consonants（p, s, t） are produced this way, so they are voiceless consonants. “Voiceless” is defined in contrast with “voiced”. Consonants（b, z, d）are voiced consonants.

6．Minimal pairs（武汉大学2005研；浙江大学2004研；四川大学2007研；上海交大2006研；北航2008研；北二外2006研）

【答案】The two words which are identical in every way except for one sound segment that occurs in the same place in the string. For example, the English words bear and pear constitute a minimal pair as they differ in meaning and in their initial phonemes /b/ and /p/.

7．Coarticulation（武汉大学2008研；四川大学2006研；南开大学2007研）

【答案】Coarticulation refers to the phenomenon of sounds continually show the influence of their neighbors. For example, as in lamb, when a is followed by m, the velum will begin to lower itself during the articulation of a so that it is ready for the following nasal. When such simultaneous or overlapping articulations are involved, we call the process coarticulation. If the sound becomes more like the following sound, it is known as anticipatory coarticulation. If the sound displays the influence of the preceding sound, it is preservative coarticulation.

8．Broad and narrow transcription（中山大学2006研）

【答案】Broad and narrow transcription: In broad transcription, one letter symbol is used for one sound. In narrow transcription, there are diacritics added to the one letter symbols to show the finer differences between sounds.

9．Complementary distribution（武汉大学2008研；南开大学2007研）

【答案】When two sounds never occur in the same environment, they are in complementary distribution. For example, the aspirated English stops never occur after (s), and the unaspirated ones never occur initially. Allophones of the same phoneme are usually in complementary distribution. The allophones of /p/, for instance, are also in complementary distribution. The unaspirated (p=) occurs after /s/, while the aspirated (ph) occurs in all other environments except after /s/.

10．acoustic phonetics（南开大学2011研）

【答案】Acoustic phonetic s: It is one of the three branches of phonetics, it is the study of the physical properties of speech sounds.

11．SPEAKING（中山大学2011年研）

【答案】SPEAKING is a mnemonic way of summarizing certain components of speech which make possible the description and analysis of communicative behavior: S= Situation, P= Participants, E= Ends, A= Act sequence, K= Key, I= Instrumentalities, N=Norms, and G= Genres.

V. Short answer questions

1．For the following words, state the conditions under which the different forms of the past tense appear. What determines whether /t/, /d/, or /id/ is used? What distinctive features define conditioning environment? （南开大学2004研）

【答案】

/t/ appears after these sounds: /F, p, k, s, tF/, /id/ is found after /t, d/, and /d/ occurs after /g, l, b, v, T, n, au, m, N, ei/. The general factor to determine whether /t/, /d/, or /id/ is used is the distinctive feature of voicing. Therefore, /t/ occurs after a voiceless sound, except /t/; /d/ occurs after a voiced sound, except /d/; and /id/ occurs after either the consonant /t/ or /d/.

2．How are the vowels described usually?(北二外 2009研)

【答案】

Usually, the description of the vowels needs to fulfill four basic requirements:

(1) The height of tongue raising (high, mid, low);

(2) The position of the highest part of the tongue (front, central, back);

(3) The length or tenseness of the vowel (tense vs. lax or long vs. short), and

(4) lip-rounding (rounded vs. unrounded).

3．Why do we say language is primarily vocal?(厦门大学2009研）

【答案】Language is system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication. Language is primarily vocal, because sound or speech is the primary medium for all human languages, developed or “new”. Writing systems came much later than the spoken forms. The fact that small children learn and can only learn to speak (and listen) before they write (and read) also indicates that language is primarily vocal, rather than written. The term “human” in the definition is meant to specify that language is human specific.

4．What are the criteria used in phonetic description of vowels?(厦门大学2010研）

【答案】

As the vowels can not be described in the same way as the consonants, a system of cardinal vowels has been suggested to get out of this problem. The cardinal vowels are a set of vowel qualities arbitrarily defined, fixed and unchanging, intended to provide a frame of reference for the description of the actual vowels of existing languages. The cardinal vowels are abstract concept. The cardinal vowel diagram is a set of hypothetical positions for vowels used as reference points.

The description of English vowels needs to fulfill four basic requirements: (1) the height of tongue raising(high, middle or low); (2) the position of the highest part of the tongue (front, central , back); (3) the length or tenseness of the vowel(tense vs. lax or long vs. short); (4) lip-rounding(rounded vs. unrounded). For example,

[i:]: high, front, tense, unrounded vowel.

[u]: high, back, lax, rounded vowel.

5．In English, the phoneme /p/ is pronounced differently in pat, spat, and tap, can you form a rule that can generalize this linguistic phenomenon?(南开大学2010研）

【答案】

In English, there is a rule that /p/ is unaspirated after /s/ but aspirated in other places. So /p/ in pat, tap is aspirated but unaspirated in spat since it is after /s/. To bring out the phonetic difference, an aspirated sound is transcribed with a raised “h” after the symbol of the sound. So a phonetic transcription for peak is [phi:k] and that for speak is [spi:k]. So [p, ph] are two different phones and are variants of the phoneme /p/. Such variants of a phoneme are called allophones of the same phoneme. The allophones are said to be in complementary distribution because they never occur in the same context: [p] occurs after [s] while [ph] occurs in other places. We can present this rule as:

/p/: [p] / [s] ____

[ph] elsewhere

(note: ____ is the position in which /p/ appears.)

In addition, sometimes a phoneme may also have free variants. The final consonant of tap may not be released by some speakers so there is no audible sound at the end of this word. Such phenomenon is called free variation.

6．What are the differences between voiced sounds and voiceless sounds in terms of articulation?(南开大学2004研)

【答案】When the vocal cords are spread apart, the air from the lungs passes between them unimpeded. Sounds produced in this way are described as voiceless, consonants [p, s, t] are produced in this way; but when the vocal cords are drawn together, the air from the lungs repeatedly pushes them apart as it passes through, creating a vibration effect. Sounds produced in this way are described as voiced [b, z, d] are voiced consonants.

7．What are vowels glide about? What differentiates pure or monophthong vowel from vowel glides?

【答案】When pure or monophthongs are pronounced, the quality remains constant throughout the articulatioin. In contrast, those where there is an audible change of quality are called vowel glides. Vowel glides are produced by moving from one vowel position to another through intervening positions. If a single movement of the tongue is involved, the glides are called diphthongs. A double movement produces triphthongs.

8．What is assimilation? Is it similar to coarticulation? What dose it include?

【答案】Assimilation is a process by which one sound takes on some or all the characteristics of a neighbouring sound. It is often used synonymously with coarticulation. Nasalization, dentalization and velarization are all instances of assimilation. There are two possibilities of assimilation: if a following sound is influencing a preceding sound, it is regressive assimilation; the converse process, in which a preceding sound is influencing a following sound, is known as progressive assimilation.

9．What are suprasegmental features? How do the major suprasegmental features of English function in conveying meaning?

【答案】A suprasegmental feature refers to the phonemic features that occur above the level of sound segment. The major suprasegmental features in English include word stress, sentence stress, tone, and intonation. The location of stress in English distinguishes meaning.For example, a shift of stress may change the part of speech of a word from a noun to a verb although its spelling remains unchanged. Tones are pitch variations, which are caused by the differing rates of vibration of the vocal cords. Pitch variations can distinguish meaning just like phonemes. When pitch, stress and sound length are tied to the sentence rather than the word in isolation, they are collectively known as intonation. Intonation plays an important role in the conveyance of meaning in almost every language, especially in a language like English.

10．What is free variation?

【答案】Free variation is a linguistic term used both in phonology and sociolinguistics. In phonology, if two sounds occurring in the same environment do not contrast. For example, the substitution of one for the other does not generate a new word but merely a different pronunciation of the same word, the two sounds are said to be in “free variation”.For instance, both either and direction are pronounced differently in British English and American English without changing their meaning, which are often caused by the regional differences.

VI. Essay questions

1．Is English a language that uses a phonetic alphabet system? Explain briefly why or why not with examples.（北外2004研）

【答案】

The Phonetic Alphabet is a system of letters and symbols that are used to represent the individual sounds of a language. English is a language that uses a phonetic alphabet system because it is a phonographic language by nature.

There are mainly three types of language concerning its writing system: ideographic language which uses symbols (ideograms) to represent whole words or concepts (ideas), with Chinese as an example; syllabic language which word or concepts are represented by syllable, with Japanese syllabic system as an example; phonographic language which uses special alphabetic or other typographical characters to express the sounds of an actual spoken utterance in writing, with many European languages as examples. English uses alphabetic script to represent certain single type sound. For example, the sound which is written sh in English can be expressed by symbols of (∫) ship; and the sound that is written in c can be expressed by the symbol of (k) cup.

2．What are the differences between voiced sounds and voiceless sounds in terms of articulation?（南开大学2004研）

【答案】When the vocal cords are spread apart, the air from the lungs passes between them unimpeded. Sounds produced in this way are described as voiceless, consonants (p, s, t) are produced in this way; but when the vocal cords are drawn together, the air from the lungs repeatedly pushes them apart as it passes through, creating a vibration effect. Sounds produced in this way are described as voiced (b, z, d) are voiced consonants.

3．What are phonemes, phones and allophones? Explain their relationship with examples from English or Chinese. （北外2005研）

【答案】

A phoneme is a minimally distinctive set of sounds in a language that can signal a difference in meaning. It is an abstract phonological unit represented or realized by a certain phone in a certain phonetic context.

A phone is an individual phonetic unit or segment that occurs in speech. The speech sounds we hear and produce during linguistic communication are all phones. Each of the set of phones which correspond to a single phoneme of a language is called an allophone.

Phonemes are placed between slant lines (//) and phones are placed between square brackets ([ ]). Allophones of the same phoneme generally occur in different contexts and never distinguish one word from another.

For example, when we pronounce the two words peak and speak, we are aware that the sound [p] is pronounced differently, in the word peak, the sound [p] is pronounced with a strong puff of air stream; but the same stop sound is pronounced slightly differently in the word speak, the puff of air is withheld a little. The [p] sound in peak is called an aspirated [ph] and the [p] sound in speak is an unaspirated [p=].

There is a slight difference in the way they are pronounced, but such a difference dose not give rise to difference in meaning. So /p/is a phoneme in the English sound system, and it can be realized differently as aspirated or unaspirated in different contexts. The phoneme /p/ in English can be realized as aspirated [ph] and unaspirated [p=], which are allophones of the phoneme /p/.

4．What are suprasegmental features?(西安外国语学院2006研)

【答案】

Suprasegmental features refer to the phonological features above the sound segment level. They are the phonological properties of such units as the syllable, the word, and the sentence. The major suprasegmental features in English are syllable, stress, tone and intonation.

The syllable refers to the phonological unit that is composed of one or more phonemes. Every syllable has a nucleus, which is usually a vowel. The nucleus may be preceded by one or more consonants called the onset and followed by one or more consonants called the coda.

Stress refers to the degree of force used in producing a syllable. For words of more than one syllable, one is more stressed than the other. The more stressed syllable is the primary stress while the less stressed syllable is known as the secondary stress.

Tones are pitch variations, which are caused by the differing rates of vibration of the vocal cords. Different rates of vibration produce what is known as different frequencies, and in auditory terms as different pitches. Pitch variations may be distinctive like phoneme, that is, when they may contribute to distinguish between different words.

When pitch, stress and sound length are tied to the sentence rather than the word in isolation, they are collectively known as intonation. When we speak, we change the pitch of our voice to express ideas. The same sentence uttered with different intonation may express different attitude of the speaker. In English, there are four intonation patterns: the falling tone, the rising tone, the fall-rise tone, and the rise-fall tone.