Transcription of Dutch intonation

Transcription of pauses

It is sometimes thought that pauses always indicate IP boundaries. This is not the case. Speakers frequently interrupt their production in the middle of the IP, pause to think - apparently about what to say next - and then continue as if there had been no break at all. You may also reread our discussion of phrasing in the introduction section of the course.

Examples of hesitation pauses, pauses that do not indicate phrase boundaries, are given in the following two utterances.

In such cases you may use the P symbol, aligned with the beginning of the pause. Pause fillers, like ehhh, are marked E.

	En dan	zien ze een		hele	kudde	wilde	zwijnen	eeh staan
	%L	H*L		H*L	!H*L	!H*L	!H*L	P-E-P	L%

	Hoe	ze van die	zwijnen	af		kunnen komen
	%L H*L		H*	!H*L	P	L%

Here is another example. Listen to the whole utterance first:

This utterance has a hesitation pause during which the speaker takes a breath: