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:
Intonation is significant: Utterances that differ in intonation can produce a difference in meaning.
Intonation is systematic: Tunes are originally learned as children. There is a limited number of pitch patterns used to produce meaningful effects.
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.
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