Intonation and its components

Intonation is a complex unity of 4 components:

1. The pitch component or melody is the changes in the pitch of the voice in connected speech. It is produced by the vibrations of the vocal cords.

2. Sentence stress or accents is the prominence of one or more words among other words in the same sentence.

3. Tempo is a relative speed with which sentences and intonation groups are pronounced in connected speech.

4. Timbre is a special coloring of voice which shows the speaker’s emotions such as pleasure, displeasure, sorrow.

Most foreign authors consider intonation as pitch variations only (D. Jones). At the same time, they also admit that variations and pitch are closely connected with the stress but they don’t refer it to intonation.

The role of intonation in speech

Intonation serves to form sentences and intonation groups, to define their communicative type, to express the speaker’s thoughts, to convey (передавать) the attitude in all meaning.

One and the same grammatical structure may express different meaning when pronounced with different intonation.

Isn’t it ridiculous? – low rise

Isn’t it ridiculous? – high fall

Intonation – group division

Long sentences must be subdivided into intonation groups. This division depends on the length of the sentence, its grammatical structure and lexical composition, the stylistic interpretation of its meaning.

Each intonation group is characterized by a certain intonation pattern (pre-head – head – nuclear tone (nucleus) – tail).