Preface

Intonation refers to pitch patterns of spoken English, speech tunes or melodies, and musical features of English.

Intonation is based on three major premises:

1. Intonation is significant: Utterances that differ in intonation can produce a difference in meaning.

2. Intonation is systematic: Tunes are originally learned as children. There is a limited number of pitch patterns used to produce meaningful effects.

3. Intonation is characteristic: Varies by language. The same intonational effect produced in one language does not produce the same effect in another.

Intonation also has several roles and functions.

• It divides long utterances into grammatically relevant word groups.

• Also has a grammatical purpose: Different intonations (i.e. tunes and patterns of pitch) convey different meanings.

  • Example: You can have | beans or cabbage | |. Depending on the type of pitch, it can mean you can have beans and cabbage only or beans and cabbage are merely examples of a list of vegetables you can also have. Raising the pitch of your voice on "beans" and lowering it on "cabbage" represents a limited choice. However, raising the pitch on both "beans" and "cabbage" would indicate the latter.

• It can express the attitude of a speaker.

  • Example: "Thank you". Your voice falling expresses genuine gratitude, for example.