Tench provides an introduction to the current state of functional linguistics studies in the intonation of English. Intended not only for students of linguistics and English language, the book also contains information ideal for consideration by language teachers, speech therapists, drama students and other professions that rely heavily upon the spoken word.
This handbook presents detailed accounts of current research in all aspects of language prosody, written by leading experts from different disciplines. The volume's comprehensive coverage and multidisciplinary approach will make it an invaluable resource for all researchers, students, and practitioners interested in prosody.
Summary: "Intonation in the Grammar of English is written for scholars who are interested in language, but not necessarily linguists or phoneticians. The introduction covers speech sound, locating it in relation to other phenomena and disciplines, discusses its representation and interpretation, and introduces the systems and strata which frame its analysis in terms of systemic functional linguistics. The three kinds of meaning - textual meaning (relating language to its ever changing context), interpersonal meaning (allowing us to enact our social exchanges with others) and ideational meaning (construing the logic through which we represent the world we live in) - are each achieved in part through intonation. We make these meanings through choices: in terms of locating the main rise or fall in an intonation contour; in terms of fitting an intonation contour to part of a clause, to a whole clause, or to more than a clause; and in terms of the shape of the intonation contour. A CD-ROM integrated with the book provides examples as the systems of intonational choices are presented, and also gives examples of these systems being drawn on in different dialects of English, and in the many different exchange situations in which speakers find themselves in the course of a day."--Publisher description.
The volume introduces a system for the multilingual transcription of intonation patterns, and the chapters are organized with the same general outline to highlight the differences between languages. The emphasis is on description and comparison, rather than on theory.
"It's not what she said, it's the way that she said it," is a complaint we have all heard (or made) some time or another. What does it refer to? It obviously relates to the various forms of wordless communication, but especially to the speaker's use of intonationthe rise and fall of the pitch of the voiceto convey sarcasm or resignation, anger or apprehension, or any of scores of other moods. In this summation of over forty years of investigation and reflection, the author analyzes the nature, variety and utility of intonation, using some 700 examples from everyday English speech. The work looks at both accent (pitch shift that points up individual words) and overall configurations (melodies that shape the meaning of whole sentences). It shows that most easily understood utterances employ one or another of a surprisingly small stock of basic melodies, and it shows both intonation and visible gesture to be parts of a larger complex that conveys grammatical as well as emotional information. Though it is one of the major divisions of the science of linguistics, intonation is of great interest to others outside of linguisticsto actors and lawyers who must use the voice to assert, to downplay, or to emote; to English teachers as an essential ingredient of idiomatic speech; to musicians for its many common elements in music theory; and to psychologists and anthropologists as a gauge of emotional tension and a clue to behavior.
This book provides a state-of-the-art survey of intonation and prosody from a phonological perspective, for advanced students and researchers in phonology.
Intonation - the rise and fall of pitch in our voices - plays a crucial role in how we express meaning. This accessible introduction shows students how to recognize and reproduce the intonation patterns of English, providing clear explanations of what they mean and how they are used. It looks in particular at three key functions of intonation - to express our attitude, to structure our messages to one another, and to focus attention on particular parts of what we are saying. An invaluable guide to how English intonation works, it is complete with extensive exercises, drills and practice material, encouraging students to produce and understand the intonation patterns for themselves. The accompanying CD contains a wealth of spoken examples, clearly demonstrating English intonation in context. Drawing on the perspectives of both language teaching and linguistics, this textbook will be welcomed by both learners of English, and beginning undergraduates in phonetics and linguistics.
This book was first published in 1969. Its author, David Crystal OBE, has since written some of the most important books on language and linguistics, including the Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language (1987) and the Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language (1995, 2003). Here, he provides the reader with a thorough and fascinating analysis of the patterns of intonation and prosody found within the English language. Crystal begins by contextualising his work on prosody within existing studies, before going on to discuss voice quality and sound attributes in prosodic systems. There are also comprehensive studies of the grammar, semantics and intonation of the spoken English language. This book provides a useful theoretical base for the study of language, prosody and intonation, and will be enjoyed by all with an interest in linguistics and speech patterns in general, and in the academic works of David Crystal more specifically.
Grounded in a systemic functional linguistic (SFL) approach, this book applies a contrastive interlanguage corpus-based approach to investigate the nature and role of L2 intonation and its pragmatic function in spoken discourse. The volume offers a brief overview of SFL theories and frameworks, with a clear focus on Halliday’s model of phonology and the proposal of developing a grammar of speech. Integrating a SFL framework with a corpus linguistic-informed approach, the book uses this foundation as a jumping-off point from which to explore the prosodic complexities involved in English language teaching and learning for L2 learners, highlighting its various functions as illustrated in examples from the UAM English Learner Spoken Corpus. A final chapter synthesizes these findings toward critically reflecting on future directions for the study of L2 speech prosody. This book will be key reading for graduate students and researchers in applied linguistics and English language teaching.
