Intonation in English

Intonation is a complex unity of variations of pitch, stress, tempo, timbre and rhythm. It serves:

- to form sen-ces, int. groups or sense groups,

- to define the communicative type,

- to express the speaker’s thoughts,

- to convey the attitudinal meaning.

Int. cares important information that can not be rended (разорвана) by any other meanings.

Int. possesses definite phonetic features, which are closely connected with the meaning of the utterance. These features are:

1. Pauses between sen-ces and between sense group

2. Fluctuations of pitch of the voice. They are called speech melody (falls and rises)

3. Stress, the word that is most important in the sen-ce is usually stressed. It is also emphasized by a special moving tone – the pitch (falls and rises, or changes its movement first in one direction then in another one (fall rise, rise fall)

4. Other words are also stressed but the pitch of these words remains unchanged (static tones)

5. Structural words are usually unstressed and pronounced in the weak forms

6. Connected English speech comes as a series of closely-knit groups of words, each group containing only one stressed syllable. The stressed syllables occur at approximately equal intervals of time. The result of this interrelationship is a peculiar rhythm.

7. The rate of the speech is not constant. It is made to suit the semantic importance of each sen-ce of sense group of the utterance.

8. The timbre of the voice changes in accordance with the emotions of the speaker.

Conclusion: the most imp. features are speech melody, sen-ce stress and melody.

The communicative function is the main function of intonation. One of the aims of communication is the exchange of information between people.