Paul Tench’s the Intonation Systems of English (1996)

TONE/ PITCH MOVEMENT LINGUISTIC DIMENSION PARALINGUISTIC DIMENSION

INFORMATIONAL FUNCTION COMMUNICATIVE FUNCTION
Falling pitch Fact or definite statement certainty

When Paul Tench separates one piece of information off another in an utterance, he states that
information is said in one, two or more ‘goes’.

Paul Tench alludes to the two functions of intonation:

The communicative function: the intended effect that the speaker wishes to produce on those
who are being addressed. It answers the question “why is it being said?”

The informational function: it answers the question “what is being said?”

THE FALL

- It suggests certainty; ‘knowing’

- A falling tone in an intonation unit that contains major information denotes ‘speaker-
dominance’: the speaker knows and tells, orders, demands, etc.

THE RISE

- It suggests uncertainty; ‘querying’

- A rising tone denotes ‘speaker-deference’: the speaker does not know and so asks, does not
have authority and so requests, coaxes, etc.

TONALITY

|She washed and brushed her hair|

|She washed| and brushed her hair|

|My brother who lives in Nairobi|

|My brother| who lives in Nairobi|

|He spoke to me honestly|

|He spoke to me| honestly| (He spoke to me. Honestly!)