The Intonation Systems of EnglishThis book provides an introduction to the current state of functional linguistic studies in the intonation of English (i.e. standard, educated, British English). It is aimed at both undergraduate and postgraduate students whose main aim is to acquire a descriptive framework of the English language and thus the book parallels corresponding books in phonology, syntax, lexis, discourse, etc. The book follows a sequence of topics that has been successfully presented in a programme of lectures and incorporates student exercises which have been classroom trialled. Intonation has traditionally not received the same degree of attention that has been accorded to the study of consonants, vowels, rhythm and word stress. During the last two decades, however, linguistists have been turning to intonation in a much more systematic fashion as a result of interest in discourse studies. As a result, much more is now known. The main objective of this book is to convince the reader that the forms and meanings of English intonation can be described with much precision, despite the common opinion that intonation is highly subjective. |
Contents
Conclusion | 29 |
the focal point of intonation | 53 |
the tunes of intonation | 73 |
Copyright | |
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accompanied adjuncts ascending attitude attitudinal Brazil Chapter communicative functions context contrast Crystal descending head English intonation example expression fall-rise falling tone final focus of information function of intonation glissando going grammatical Halliday high fall high rise incomplete interrogative word intonation system intransitive kind kinesic label last lexical item level head lexical tone linguistic low fall low pre-head low rise marked tonicity meaning metafunctions mid level mid-high mid-low Nairobi neutral forms neutral tonicity neutral/high non-final O'Connor and Arnold onset syllable organization of information paralanguage paralinguistic person phonological paragraph piece of information Pike pitch level pitch movement pitch variation pre-tonic segment prosodic refers relative clause rise-fall rising tone semantic sentence sequence speaker speech spoken discourse statement stressed syllable structure syntactic tags tail Tench theme Tom Jones tone languages tone system tonic syllable unit of intonation unstressed utterance verb wh-questions Yes Yes Yes YES/NO QUESTIONS