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Functional characteristics of intonation.

Intonation is a powerful means of human intercommunication. One of the aims of communication is the exchange of information between people. The meaning of an English utterance, i.e. the information it conveys to a listener, derives not only from the grammatical structure, the lexical composition and the sound pattern. It also derives from variations of intonation, i.e. of its prosodic parameters.

There is no general agreement about either the number or the headings of the functions of intonation. No matter how many functions are named, all of them may be summed up under a more general heading, that is the function of communication, although each individual component of intonation performs this function in its own way.

The communicative function of intonation is realized in various ways.

The chain of words is not regarded as speech unless it is pronounced with a definite intonation pattern. At the same time, an isolated word cannot acquire communicative value without a special intonation, as for instance an answer to a question (Merry.); as a question (Merry?); as an exclamation (Merry!) or as some other communicative unit with a definite linguistic function.

Intonation serves to organize connected speech phonetically, thus making it intelligible. On the one hand, intonation performs delimiting function by breaking speech continuum into smaller units, i.e. phonetic passages, phrases and syntagms, on the other hand, it performs integrating function by uniting these smaller constituents into a complete text. Tying the parts of utterance together, intonation also establishes relations between them by showing what things belong more closely together than others, where the divisions come, what is subordinate to what. Having organized syntagms within a sentence or a whole sentence, intonation simultaneously distinguishes them from other syntagms or sentences embodied in different intonation-patterns.

Intonation serves to endow phrases or their significant segments with declarative, interrogative, imperative or exclamatory meanings, or with shades of these meanings. In other words, it determines the communicative types of sentences, which are differentiated in speech according to the aim of utterance from the point of view of communication.

Intonation serves to structure the content information of a textual unit into new and given. Given information is something which the speaker assumes the hearer possesses or is able to acquire from the context. New information is something which the speaker does not assume the hearer knows about already. It is obviously what is most important in a message, it receives the information focus in the nucleus, whereas given information does not.

Ex. We 'went to the cinema yesterday. (the new information is the place of the yesterday’s visit).

We 'went to the 'cinema yesterday. (the new information is the time of the visit to the cinema).

By putting the stress on one particular word, the speaker shows, first, that he is treating that word as the carrier of new information, and, second, that the information of the other, non-emphasized, words in the syntagm, is not new but can be retrieved from the verbal context (something that has already been mentioned), as well as from the situational context (something given by the situation outside language or some aspect of shared knowledge which the addressee is thought to be aware of). For example, if a few different persons are expected to come, the phrase “The doctor has come” is pronounced with the nucleus on the word “doctor” though no speech context preceded it.

The decision as to whether some information is retrievable or not has to be made by the speaker on the basis of what he thinks the addressee can take for granted from the situation. The speaker must, in framing the utterance, make many assumptions, and he does this rapidly and to a large degree unconsciously. He then arranges his syntagms and assigns nuclear stresses accordingly. But in any particular situation, the speaker’s assumptions run the risk of being wrong; what he takes to be retrievable information may not in fact be retrievable for the addressee. In this case there is a breakdown of communication, and the listener will probably seek clarification.

Ex. (A. and B. are passing the tennis courts)

A. There isn’t anyone playing.

B. Who said there was?

A. Nobody.

Degrees of information are relevant not only to the position of sentence stress but also to the choice of the nuclear tone. We tend to use a falling tone of wide range of pitch combined with a greater degree of loudness, that is emphatic stress, to give emphasis to the main information in a phrase. To give subsidiary or less important information, i.e. information which is more predictable from the context or situation, the rising or level nuclear tone is used.

Intonation serves to convey the speaker’s feelings, emotions and attitude to the situation he is placed in and he often uses it to influence the attitudes and behaviour of the listener. The speaker must be particularly careful about the attitudes and emotions he expresses since the listener is frequently more interested in the speaker’s attitude or feeling than in his words - that is whether he speaks nicely or nastily. The special question “Why?”, for instance, pronounced with the low-falling tone sounds rather detached, sometimes even hostile. When pronounced with the low-rising tone it is sympathetic, friendly, interested. It is not only the type of the nucleus that is important for expressing feelings and emotions, but also the pitch of the utterance preceding the nucleus: prehead and head. For example, being pronounced with the high pre-head, “Hello!” sounds more friendly than when pronounced with the low pre-head.

Emotive meanings are intended, over and above the meanings conveyed by the lexical items and the grammatical structure. The meaning of what we say depends more on intonation than on the words we use. Most phrases and parts of them may be pronounced with several different intonation patterns according to the situation, according to the speaker’s momentary feeling or attitude to the subject matter. For example, the sentence: “Thanks for helping me last night!” can be given more than one meaning. The difference between a sincere intention and a sarcastic one would be conveyed by the intonation.Any sentence in various contexts may receive any of a dozen other patterns, conveying various modal meanings. Even the simplest word, such as “yes” for instance, can render different attitudes if intoned differently, such as “That is so.”, “Of course it is so.”, “Is it really so?”, “That may be so.” The expression “All right” may mean consent and threat, depending upon the intonation used in it.

It is still impossible to classify, in any practical analysis of intonation, all the fine shades of feeling and attitude which can be conveyed by slight changes in pitch, by lengthening or shortening tones, by increasing or decreasing the loudness of the voice, by changing its quality, and in various other ways. On the other hand it is quite possible to make a broad classification of intonation patterns which are so different in their nature that they materially change the meaning of utterance to which they are applied, and to make different pitches and degrees of loudness in each of them.

Intonation serves to differentiate the meaning of syntagms and sentences of the same grammatical structure and the same lexical composition, which is the distinctive or phonological function of intonation. Distinctive function of intonation is realized in the opposition of the same word sequences which differ in certain parameters of their intonation pattern. Thus, in the following example the intonation patterns of the first syntagms are opposed.

If 'Mary comes ï'let me 'know at once. (No one else but Mary is expected to come)

If Mary comes ï 'let me 'know at once. (A few people are expected to come, but it is Mary who interests the speaker)

The most powerful phonological unit is the tone. The opposition of types (or directions) of tone and/or their distribution together with syntagmatic division of the utterance, distinguishes communicative types of sentences, syntactic units, the attitudes and emotions expressed by the speaker and even the actual meaning of the same sequence of words.

Ex. Isn’t she pretty? (a question) Isn’t she pretty? (an exclamation)

Ex. 'This is my 'niece, 'Lucy. (Apposition)

'This is my niece, Lucy. (Direct address)

If the phrase “I don't want you to read anything” has the low-falling terminal tone on the word “anything”, it means that for this or other reason the person should avoid reading. If the same word sequence is pronounced with the falling-rising tone on the same word, the phrase means that the person must have a careful choice in reading.

Have you seen him?

'Not once. (= never, not a single time).

'Not once (= many a time).

The sentence “My sister who lives in the South has just arrived” may mean two different things. In writing the difference may be marked by punctuation. In oral speech it is marked by syntagmatic division. The division into three intonation groups means that one of my sisters, who lives in the South has just arrived. The division into three intonation groups means that my only sister who lives in the South has just arrived.

One of the travellers, ï says Mr. Michael Collins, ï was calm, ï almost indifferent, throughout. ïï (One of the travellers states that Mr. Collins was quite self-possessed throughout the accident)

One of the travellers says, ï Mr. Michael Collins was calm, ï almost indifferent, throughout. ïï (Mr. Collins States that one of the travellers was quite self-possessed throughout the accident)

Why! ïI should like to see her! ïï (The speaker is eager to see smb.)

Why I should like to see her?! ïï (The speaker doesn’t want to see smb.)

Have you got brothers ïor sisters? (an alternative question) Have you got 'brothers or sisters? (a general question)

Intonation serves to perform neutralizing or compensative function. Usually the speaker’s intonation is in balance with the words and structures he chooses. If he says something nice, his intonation usually reflects the same characteristic. However, there are cases when intonation is in contradiction with the syntactic structure or the lexical content of the utterance neutralizing and compensating them, as it happens, for instance, in the phrase “Will you be quiet!” whose imperative structure is neutralized by a rising tone, or in the phrase “Phone him at, once, please!”, where the politeness, conveyed by the word “please”, is neutralized by imperative intonation.

Lack of balance between intonation and word content, or intonation and the grammatical structure of the utterance may serve special speech effects. A highly forceful or exciting statement said with a very matter-of-fact intonation may, by its lack of balance, produce a type of irony; if one says something very complimentary, but with an intonation of contempt, the result is an insult.

Intonation serves to characterize a particular style or variety of oral speech which may be called the stylistic function.

Mistakes in the use of intonation are very similar to those in the use of phonemes and their allophones and may be of two kinds: tonemic and non-tonemic, or allotonic. A tonemic mistake consists in the use of a tone which isused in the language in question, but in different circumstances. This may lead to misunderstandings and possible embarrassment. For example, “Thank you”maybe said in English with a falling tone, which makes it sound genuinely grateful, and with a rising tone, which makes it sound rather casual. A non-tonemic, or allotonic, mistake consists in the use of a tone which is non-existent in the language in question. An example is the use of the Russian rising tone instead of the English rise which produces a foreign accent and may make understanding difficult. In the case of tonemic mistakes the distinctive function of intonation is violated, whereas non-tonemic, or allotonic, mistakes violate the recognitive function of intonation, but mistakes of both types give rise to difficulties in communication.

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