TOPIC 6 :INTONATION Functions of Intonation

What would an utterance lose if intonation were omitted?

Every syllable said on the same level pitch No pauses No changes in speed and loudness

Such would be speech produced by the mechanical speech device Therefore, intonation makes it easier for the listener to understand the meaning a speaker is trying to convey

DEFINITION OF INTONATION
Patterns of pitch change over an utterance or series of utterances ( Underhill, 2005). The rise and fall of the voice in speaking, esp as this affects the meaning of what is being said.

*Pitch is described as degree of height of our voice in speech.

Attitudinal function

Discourse function

FUNCTIONS OF INTONATION

Accentual function

Grammatical function

ATTITUDINAL FUNCTION
Intonation that enables us to express our emotions and attitudes as we speak. finality, confidence, interest, surprise,
doubt, joy, pain, irony, etc.

This adds a special kind of meaning to spoken language.

Falling tone-finality and definiteness Rising toneGeneral questions Encouraging Falling-rising tone-uncertainty, doubt, requesting, surprised. Rising-falling tone - Listing That is the end of the news. Im absolutely free. Can you do me a favour? Is it over ? It wont hurt. You may be right. I dont think he could do that. She likes red, brown, and yellow.

ACCENTUAL FUNCTION
It helps to produce the effect of prominence on stressed syllables. For example: SHE lost her pen. She lost her PEN.

Functions of Accentual Intonation

Intonation that used to clear out the ambiguities. Eg : I have plans to leave. ( I am planning to leave ) I have plans to leave. ( I have some plans/diagrams/drawings that I have to leave)

GRAMMATICAL FUNCTION
It helps to recognise the grammar and syntactic structure of the utterance. For eg : a) the placement of boundaries between phrases, clauses, and sentences b) The difference between questions and statements.

GRAMMATICAL FUNCTION performed by tone boundaries

Some sentences are potentially ambiguous, and can be disambiguated by means of intonation.
Those who sold quickly | made a profit. ( a profit was made by those who sold quickly) Those who sold | quickly made a profit. ( a profit was quickly made by those who sold)

The difference between questions and statements.

Theyre going to have a picnic is usually said as a statement like this: Theyre going to have a picnic. In informal speech, however, we may hear: Theyre going to have a picnic? (But its raining outside) The sentence serves as a question here.

DISCOURSE FUNCTION
It conveys the new-given information, or provides information for turn-taking. It can indicate when the speaker is indicating some sort of contrast or link with material in another tone unit.

In conversation it can convey to the listener what kind of response is being expected from him.

Attention Focusing
Placing of tonic stress on the appropriate syllable of one particular word in the tone unit. The tonic stress is placed on the word that is the most important. eg: |She went to Scotland| |He went to drawing-room|

 Intonation can be indicate subordination of a part of an utterance, indicating that it is of marginal importance. This is achieved by -dropping the pitch -increasing the speed -narrowing the range of pitch -lowering the loudness

Information Content
Sometimes, the tonic stress is placed on syllables in terms of information content. The more predictable a word occurrence in a given sentence, the lower its information content will be. Tonic stress will be placed on words with high information content. Eg: | I have to take the dog for a walk| | I have to take the dog for a vet|

 In many cases, it is still difficult to explain the tonic placement in terms of importance or information. For eg: | Your coat is on fire| | The wing is breaking up|

THANK YOU.