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Intonation and its Functions

In the process of communication an important role is played by such speech features as

- variations of pitch, loudness, length, tempo and timbre of the voice.

These prosodic features are commonly referred to as intonation. Intonation is an indispensable part of speech. Speech without intonational features is no more than a machine output. By changing intonation we can make the same words convey a huge variety of meanings, moods, or intentions. Thus the message we communicate depends not only on what we say, but also on how we say something. The unit of intonation is called an intonation unit. An intonation unit is a piece of utterance, a continuous stream of sounds, bounded by a fairly perceptible pause. Pausing in some sense is a way of packaging the information, the words composing the unit form certain lexic-grammatical realities. Typical examples would be subordinate clauses, prepositional or adverbial phrases, etc.

E.g.: You can `stay here | if you ,like.

Each intonation unit has some obligatory intonational, or prosodic, features. The junctures between units are also marked prosodically.

E.g.: ‘Go down ‘Regent Street, to ‘Picadilly ,Circus, | and then ‘go down the `Haymarket.

Some intonation groups bear special signals of incompleteness and subordination, while others are more or less independent and complete, e. g.:

1 As a ‘matter of ‚fact,| she’s ‘nearly `thirty.

2 There’s only `one window in the ,room,| and it’s ‘rather `dark.

An intonation group with the highest degree of semantic completeness is associated with an utterance. (an utterance is a stretch of speech separated from other utterances by clear pauses), for example:

I ‘haven’t `seen him since ‚ then| but I ‘know he has ‘something to `tell me.

Thefunctionsof intonation are as follows:

1 Delimiting function. Intonation delimits utterances and parts of utterances in the speech flow, for example: My ‘mother’s from the ‘North of ‚England, | and my ‘father’s from `Scotland.

2 Syntactical (grammatical) function. Intonation helps to identify grammatical structure in speech, performing a role similar to punctuation:

a) ‘Those who ‘sold ‚quickly |‘made a `profit.

b) ‘Those who ‚sold | ‘quickly ‘made a `profit.

Due to the different placement of the pause boundary one and the same grammatical sentence can be understood in two ways. The first utterance can be paraphrased as:

a) A profit was made by those who sold quickly. And the second one as: b) A profit was made by those who sold.

3 Accentualfunction. Intonation helps draw attention to what meaning is given and what is new in an utterance. The word carrying the most prominent tone signals the part of an utterance that the speaker is treating as new information:

A: We usually stay at my aunt’s for the whole summer. – B: Are you ‘going there ‚next summer?

4 Attitudinal (emotional) function. Intonation’s most obvious role is to express attitudinal meaning – sarcasm, surprise, reserve, impatience, delight, shock, anger, interest, and thousands of other semantic nuances. For example:

A: The Browns are leaving Australia for good. B: ‘Where are they `going? (neutral, serious, weighty). B: ‘Where are they ‚going? (interested, friendly).

5 Psychological– Intonation helps us organize speech into units that are easier to perceive and memorize. Most people would find a sequence of ten numbers (4, 7, 3, 8, 2, 6, 4, 8, 1, 5) difficult to recall; the task is made easier by using intonation to chunk the sequence into two units: 4, 7, 3, 8, 2 / 6, 4, 8, 1, 5.

6 Intonation indicates the communicative type of an utterance (a statement, a question, an imperative, an exclamation), for example: Tra’falgar Square. (a statement). Tra’falgar ΄Square? (a question). Tra’falgar `Square! (an exclamation).

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