Intonation (speech)

Intonation is about the variation in pitch of speech which may change meaning. How something is said may change its meaning. All spoken languages use this tactic.

  • "He found it on the street?" It is a question when street in emphasised (technically, rising pitch).
  • "Yes, he found it on the street". (street not emphasised, not rising pitch)

The study of intonations is part of prosody.[1][2]

A simple example which shows how important prosody is. A parent says to a child "well done". Without some annotation, one can't decide whether the child has indeed done well, or whether it has {say} knocked a glass of milk over.

References change

  1. Crystal, David 1969. Prosodic systems and intonation in English. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-07387-5
  2. Trager, George L. & Smith, Henry Lee 1951. An outline of English structure. American Council of Learned Societies.