19. View intonation on the functional level
Intonation is functional, as it is used in a language for particular purpose. Within (в рамках) any language intonation is systemic – different speakers tend to use the same patterns for the same purposes. If the speaker uses wrong intonation can easily slip in accent or can even be misunderstood.
Let’s view the main functions of intonation.
см вопрос 20, 21, 24, 25.
20.Communicative function of intonation
Communicative function –is the basic function of intonation.
Intonation is a powerful means of human communication. It has a great value foe expressing ideas, emotions + it contributes to mutual (взаимному) understanding between people.
One of the aims of communication is exchange of information between people. And we can understand the meaning of any utterance not only with the help of grammatical structure or lexical composition, but also it derives from variations in intonation.
Since intonation is viewed as a powerful means of communication, its basic function is – communicative. It follows from this that it’s impossible to divorce any function of intonation from that of communication. No matter how many functions are exist, all of them are just realization of the communicative function
(не обязательно) All the uses of com. function of intonation can be grouped in 2 main functions:
1) distinctive function – the use of intonation to distinguish meanings.
2) organizing function – the use of intonation to organize, structure the oral text.
21. The distinctive function of intonation
Intonation is a language universal; it’s a very important component of communication because it is instrumental in conveying meanings, shades of meanings. Intonation is a powerful means of communication, so the main function of intonation is communicative. This function includes two uses or abilities of intonation:
its ability to discriminate the meaning (the distinctive function)
its ability to organize or structure the text (the organizing function)
According to distinctive function of intonation, intonation can differentiate different kinds of meaning:
the syntactic types (=communicative type) of sentences
Intonation can indicate whether the utterance is a statement, a question, a command or an exclamation.
e
.g.
Isn’t it ˏwonderful? (general question)
e .g. Isn’t it ˋwonderful! (exclamation)
e .g. Will you ˈstop ˎtalking? (command)
e .g. Will you ˈstop ˏtalking? (request)
So the change of the nuclear tone leads to the change of the syntactic type of sentence.
attitudinal meaning
Intonation can express attitudes of the speakers. The same sentence can be pronounced in different ways & express different attitudinal meanings:
e.g. What did he ˋsay? (involved, interested)
e.g. What did he ˎsay? (detached, reserved) (спокойно)
e.g. What did he ̬say? (astonished, awed) (изумлённо)
Not only the nuclear tone, but the type of head and pre-head can differentiate attitudinal meaning:
e .g. It’s quite a ˈgood ˎlecture (uninvolved)
e.g. It’s ̌quite a ˈgood ˋlecture (impressed)
Of course the rate of utterance, loudness and voice quality influences attitudinal meaning.
actual meaning of the utterance
Intonation can differentiate the meaning of the whole phrase. The change of meaning is achieved by the use of different terminal tones:
e .g. He’s an English ˎteacher (he comes from England)
e.g. He’s an ˎEnglish teacher (he teaches English)