Functions & uses of English Intonation

1. Functions & Uses of English
Intonation
Prepared by
Zhian Fadhil Asaad

2. Functions and Uses of English Intonation
Intonation and stress work together to express meaning.
Intonation makes it easier for a listener to understand
what a speaker is trying to convey. The following are
often cited as

3. Important functions of English intonation
a. the attitudinal function;
b. the accentual function;
c. the grammatical function;
d. the discourse function of intonation.

4. The attitudinal function
Intonation is used to convey our feelings and
attitudes. For instance, the same sentence can be said
in different ways, to express happiness, gratitude,
anger, boredom, etc. Usually, intonation units with
high heads sound more lively and interesting than
those with low heads. A few generalizations can be
made here: the falling intonation is said to be more
often associated with completeness and uncertainty or
questioning; the falling-rising is said to be associated
with feeling of hesitation, contrast, reservation or
doubt.

5. The accentual function
The location of the tonic syllable is of considerable
linguistic importance. The most common position for
this is on the last information word of the intonation
unit. For contrastive purposes, however, any word may
bear the tonic syllable.

6. The grammatical function
Some sentences may be ambiguous when written, but
this can be removed by the use of intonation.
For example:
' 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.)

7. The discourse function of intonation
In speech, people often use intonation to focus the
listener’s attention on aspects of the message that are
most important. So the placement of nucleus or tonic
stress depends on the “information content”: the more
predictable a word’s occurrence is in a given context,
the lower its information content is. For example,
people would say:
The telephone’s ringing.
The kettle’s boiling.

8. In speech, people often use the falling tone to indicate
new information and rising tone ( including falling-
rising) to indicate “shared” of “given” information.
People also use intonation to indicate to others that they
have finished speaking and that another person is
expected to speak.

9. The use of English intonation
The falling tone
-- indicating `definiteness' and `completeness'.
Types of sentences:
Ordinary statements
WH questions
Imperative sentences (strong commands)
Exclamatory sentences

10. The rising tone
- indicating `uncertainty', `incompleteness'
or `politeness'.
Types of sentences:
Yes-no questions
Statements intended as questions
Statements intended to be soothing or encouraging
Repetition questions

11. The falling-rising tone
- showing contrast, implication, disagreement, contradiction,
or warning, etc.
Types of sentences:
Statements where contrast is implied
Statements which imply reservation
Statements which show disagreement or contradiction
Warnings

12. Utterances : Question ,Statement , Sure ,Unsure 
Examples:
He left already.
Sally’s moving.
John missed his flight.
It’s snowing in New York.
Your name’s George, isn’t it?
It’s going to rain tomorrow, isn’t it?
You wanted to go, didn’t you?
We should offer to help, shouldn’t we?

13. Utterances: Yes-no ,Choice 
1. Are you coming Friday or Saturday?
2. Can you meet us at eight or nine?
3. Would you like beer or wine?
4. Are you going to Spain or Portugal?

14. Thank
you