Stress / Intonation Signal
What does the voice highlight or signal?
Significato
Meaning expressed by pitch, stress, rhythm, pauses, melody, sentence accent, or intonation contour.
Come riconoscerlo
Listen for which word is emphasized and whether the sentence sounds like a statement, question, surprise, or contrast.
Esempi
rising tone|word stress|sentence stress|pause
really? | I said JOHN | yes, but...
You bought this?
Visual guide
words: You bought this voice layer above: stress -> highlights a word rise -> question/surprise pause -> boundary Meaning rides above words.
Same words, new signal: YOU bought this? = not me? You BOUGHT this? = not borrowed? You bought THIS? = this item? Contour: fall: You bought this. rise: You bought this?
Panoramica per lingua
Nella tua lingua
Intonation distinguishes questions, emphasis, emotion, and contrast.
Hai comprato questo?
You bought this?
Nella lingua che studi
Vietnamese lexical tones are meaning-distinguishing; intonation and particles also shape sentence mood.
Má, mà, mã, mả, mạ khác nhau.
ma words with different tones differ
Learners may ignore tone contours or let sentence intonation distort lexical tone.
Same block, different coding
Both languages use this block strongly, but they signal it differently. Focus on form changes, not only meaning.