Functions of Intonation

INTONATION

Intonation is an indispensable component of communication because it is instrumental in conveying meaning. No sentence can exist without a particular intonation. No meaning can be expressed without it.

It is generally acknowledged that intonation is a language universal.

In Russian linguistics intonation is viewed as a complex structure, a whole, formed by significant variations in pitch, loudness and tempo. Some linguists include voice quality (timbre). British and American phoneticians often have a narrower view of intonation. They restrict it to pitch (tone) changes only.

There is another term widely used in phonetics – prosody.

Each component of intonation has its own acoustic correlate, which can be objectively measured: fundamental frequency of the vibrations of the vocal cords – pitch, intensity – loudness. Tempo includes the rate of speech and pausation, the acoustic correlate here is the time (duration), or length of utterance.

Each component of intonation is linguistically relevant and can be described as a system. Pitch is described as a system of tones(fall, rise, fall-rise and so on), pitch levels (keys), which can be high, medium and low, and pitch ranges(wide, medium and narrow).

Three pitch levels (keys, registers) are generally distinguished: high, medium and low.

The pitch range is the interval between two pitch levels. Pitch ranges may be normal, wide and narrow.

Loudness is described as normal, increased (forte) or low (piano).

Tempo includes rate of speech and pausation.

The rate of speech can be normal, slow and fast.

Any stretch of speech can be split into smaller segments by means of pauses. A pause is a complete stop of phonation. Pauses are classified according to their length, their position in the utterance (final – non-final) and their function.

Functionally, there may be distinguished syntactic, emphatic and hesitation pauses.

Syntactic pauses separate phonopassages, phrases, intonation groups.

Emphatic pauses serve to make some parts of the utterance especially prominent.

Hesitation pauses are mainly used in spontaneous speech to gain some time to think over what to say next. They may be silent (unfilled) or filled.

All the three components of intonation, pitch, loudness and tempo form the intonation pattern, the basic unit of intonation.

The components of intonation pattern are: the nucleus, the head, the tail and the pre-head. The nuclear tone is the most important component of the intonation pattern, because the intonation pattern can’t exist without the nuclear tone. The nuclear tone is the most significant change in pitch. It also has the greatest semantic value.

The function of the intonation pattern is to actualize syntagms into intonation groups.

Functions of Intonation

Intonation is a powerful means of communication. It has a fantastic potential for expressing ideas and emotions and it contributes to mutual understanding between people. Because of its high linguistic potential and because of its complex nature the functions of intonation have been very differently described and classified by different scholars.

The main function of intonation is communicative. This function includes two uses or abilities of intonation: its ability to discriminate the meaning and its ability to organise or structure the text. Let’s call the first the distinctive function and the second – the organising function and analyse each in more detail.

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