NAME- JANHVI TIWARI

CLASS- MA 1
SUBJECT- ENGLISH
PAPER- 4(INTRODUCTION TO LINGUISTIC AND
PHONETICS)
 INTONATION
DEFINITION-

Intonation is the way the pitch of your voice goes up and down as you talk or
reciting something by singing it . Intonation is primarily a matter of variation in the
pitch level of the voice (see also tone), but in such languages as English, stress and
rhythm are also involved. Intonation conveys differences of expressive meaning (e.g.,
surprise, anger, wariness).
FUNCTION OF INTONATION
The most important functions of intonation are:
• to distinguish types of sentences (statements, questions, commands, requests)
• to divide sentences into sense groups
• intonation allows speakers to express various emotions.

Development Of Intonation
Intonation is one of the earliest aspects of phonology to develop. The nuclear tone
begins on the nuclear accent, which is the primary stressed syllable of an
intonation group. Together, the nuclear accent and the syllables that follow to the
end of the tone group make up the nuclear tone
Two basic patterns of intonations:-
FALLING intonation , RISING intonation

FALLING TONE – RISING TONE –

It is commonly found in : Rising intonation invites the speaker to
continue talking . It is normally used with
• statements yes/no questions and question tags that are
• commands real questions.

• Wh- questions
• confirmatory question tags
• exclamations
Example of FALLING TONE: Example of RISING TONE:

• Nice to meet you. (sentence) YES/NO Questions-

• Write your name here. (command) • Do you like your new teacher?
• Whose bag is this (Wh- question) • Have you finished already?
• It doesn't seem to bother him much. • Do you sell stamps?
Does it? (question tag) QUESTION TAGS-
• How nice of you! (exclamation) • We've met already, haven't we?
• You like fish, don't you?
• This view is beautiful, isn't it?
COMBINATION OF TWO TONES:
We sometimes use a combination of rising and falling intonation in the same sentence.
The combination is called-
RISE-FALL or FALL- RISE intonation
RISE- FALL intonation:
We use rise-fall intonation for:
• choices
• lists
• unfinished thoughts
• conditional sentences
FALL-RISE intonation:
The main function of fall- rise is to:
• show that the speaker is not certain of
the answer they are giving to a question,
or is
• reluctant to reply
• also used in polite requests or
suggestions
Example of RISE-FALL Example of FALL-RISE
intonation: intonation:
.

• Does he speak German or French? • So you've be willing to confirm that?...

Well... I sup pose so... ( reluctance)
( choice)
• You didn't see him on Monday? I don't
• I like football, tennis, basketball and quite re member...
volleyball. ( list)
• Do you like my new handbag? Well the
leather is nice... ( but i don't like it)
• Unless he insists, I'm not going to go.
( conditional sentences)
THANK YOU…