Discourse function

FUNCTIONS OF INTONATION

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Intonation makes it easier for a listener to understand what a speaker is trying to convey. It can have different functions:

a) We express emotions and attitudes as we speak, and this adds a special kind of meaning to spoken language. This is often called the attitudinal function of intonation. Ми виражаємо свої емоції та своє ставлення до того, що ми говоримо. Це функція демонстрації відношення.

E.g.: Fall can express finality, definiteness, etc.; rise is used in general questions, for listing (= enumeration), it is encouraging, etc.; fall-rise is requesting, it expresses uncertainty, doubt, etc.; rise-fall: surprise, being impressed, etc.

b) Intonation helps to mark out stressed syllables and in particular nuclear (tonic) syllable as the most important syllable in the tone-unit. This has been called the accentual function of intonation. Інтонація допомагає відзначити наголошені склади та ядерний склад, що є найважливішим у синтагмі. Це акцентуальна функція (акцент = наголос).

E.g.: It was VERy BOR ing. It was VER y BORing.

c) Intonation helps to recognize the boundaries between phrases, clauses or sentences, the difference between questions and statements. This has been called the grammatical function of intonation. Інтонація допомагає визначити, де закінчується фраза, частини складного речення, прості речення, демонструє різницю між питаннями та розповідними реченнями... Це граматична функція інтонації.

E.g.: DID you PARK the CAR / general ←question→special WHERE did you PARK the CAR /

They are COMing on TUES day / ARENT they / tag - questioning

They are COMing on TUES day / ARENT they / tag - confirming

THOSE who SOLD QUICK ly / MADE a PROF it / = A profit was made by those who sold quickly.

THOSE who SOLD / QUICKly MADE a PROF it / = A profit was quickly made by those who sold.

d) Looking at the act of speaking in a broader way, we can see that intonation can signal to a listener what is to be taken as ‘new’ information and what is already ‘given’, can suggest when the speaker is indicating some sort of contrast or link with material in another tone-unit. Such functions are examples of intonation’s discourse function. Інтонація вказує слухачу, що має бути сприйняте як „нова” інформація і що вже є даним. Інтонація пов’язує речення одне з одним, наголошує контрастну інформацію.

Discourse function

Consider the four sentences in the following:

A: Have you got any free time this morning?

B: I might have later on if the meeting’s off.

A: They were talking about putting it later.

B: You can’t be sure.

- each sentence could be studied in isolation and be analysed in terms of grammatical construction, lexical content and so on. Кожне речення можна вивчати в ізоляції, визначити його граматичну та лексичну будову. But it is obvious that the sentences form part of some larger act of conversational interaction between two speakers; the sentences contain several things that indicate some shared knowledge (e.g. that meeting implies that both speakers know which meeting is being spoken about). Втім, зрозуміло, що речення є частиною якогось певного акту обміну інформацією.

Іntonation can help in focusing attention. The tone chosen can indicate whether the tone-unit in which it occurs is being used to present new information or to refer to information which is felt to be already possessed by speaker and hearer. Інтонація може допомогти зфокусувати увагу слухача. Обраний тон може показувати, чи синтагма, у якій він трапляється презентує нову інформацію, або інформацію, що вже має бути відомою слухачеві. For example, in the following sentence:

SINCE the LAST time we MET / when we had that HUGE DINNER / ive BEEN on a DIET /

The first two tone-units present information which is important to what the speaker is saying, but which is not something new and unknown to the listener. The final tone-unit, however, does present new information. Writers on discourse intonation have proposed that the falling tone indicates new information while rising (including falling-rising) tones indicate ‘shared’ or ‘given’ information.