Turkish: A Comprehensive Grammar

5
INTONATION AND SENTENCE STRESS
Intonation refers to the rising and falling of the voice in terms of pitch. The continuous
flow of speech may be seen as divided into consecutive sections known as intonational
phrases. An intonational phrase, which may be as short as a single word, but usually
consists of several, is the unit of speech within which a single primary stress and a single
intonation contour occur. There may be pauses between intonational phrases. If a
sentence contains more than one intonational phrase the stress which is the most
prominent is called sentence stress.
In this chapter we describe the main intonation contours of Turkish and the position of
primary and secondary stress in unmarked sentences. The syllable which is acoustically
the most prominent one in an intonational phrase is said to have primary stress, indicated
by capital letters below. A syllable which is less acoustically prominent than the one
which has primary stress but which still stands out among the others is said to have
secondary stress, indicated below by small capital letters. Where an example consists of
more than one intonational phrase, the boundary between them is shown by a vertical
stroke. The effect of shifting the position of stress, and the interaction of this with the
order of constituents in a sentence, are discussed in Chapter 23. The effect of clitics on
sentence stress is discussed in 11.2.
5.1 THE INTONATION CONTOURS OF TURKISH
There are three types of intonation contour in Turkish:
(i) Slight rise followed by fall:
This is the standard contour for statements (including negative statements) regarded by
the speaker as complete, and also for the last intonational phrase in more complex
statements.
(1) O HER zaman yemek-ler-in-i loKANta-da yer.
s/he every time meal-PL-3SG.POSS-ACC restaurant-LOC eats
‘S/he always eats in a restaurant.’
(ii) High rise followed by fall:
This is the standard contour for yes/no questions (expressed with mI (19.1)).