60
THOMAS:
Yes, Michael. We will
increase
our
profits. Progress
is our goal!
MICHAEL:
Do you
project
having a new
market?
THOMAS:
Yes. Our latest
project
is the
import
of
exotic
fruit.
MICHAEL:
Really!
What will we
import?
THOMAS:
Pineapple
from
Hawaii
and
dates from the Sahara
Desert.
MICHAEL:
Did you say
desert
or
dessert?
I love
desserts!
THOMAS:
OK, Mike. I’m so
content
with the
content
of this
meeting.
I’ll treat you to some
fresh fruit.
MICHAEL:
Please , Tom , no more fruit!
Health
Digest
says fruit is hard to
digest.
I’ll have
strawberry ice cream.
Chapter III
Intonation
Unit 9.
Intonation. The Components of Intonation
Intonation may be defined as such a unity of speech melody, sentence–stress (accent),
voice quality (timbre) and speech tempo which enables the speaker to adequately
communicate in speech his thoughts, will, emotions and attitude
towards reality and the
contents of the utterance.
Speech melody,
or the pitch component of intonation, is the variation in the pitch of the
voice which takes place when voiced sounds, especially vowels and sonorants, are
pronounced in connected speech. The pitch of speech sounds is produced by the vibrations
of the vocal cords.
Stress in speech
is the greater prominence which is given to one or more words in a
sentence as compared with the other words of the same sentence.
The voice quality (timbre)
is a special colouring of the voice in pronouncing sentences
which is superimposed on speech melody and shows the speaker’s emotions such as joy,
sadness, irony, anger, indignation, etc.
The tempo of speech
is the speed with which sentences or their parts are pronounced.
Closely connected with the tempo of speech is its
rhythm
:
the recurrence of stressed
syllables at more or less equal intervals of time.
Intonation serves to form sentences and intonation groups, to define their
communicative type, to express the speaker’s thoughts, to convey the attitudinal meaning.
One and the same grammatical structure and lexical composition
of the sentence may
express different meaning when pronounced with different intonation.
→ Isn’t it ri
ˏ
diculous?
(general question)
→ Isn’t it ri
ˎ
diculous!
(exclamation)
61
The sentence is the basic unit of language. It may either be a single intonational unit or
consist of two or more intonational units. This intonational unit is called the
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