The main functions and the main components of intonation

• Functions of intonation


  • Grammatical Function
  • Attitudinal Function
  • Focus Function
  • Discourse Function
  • Psychological Function
  • Indexical Function
• Grammatical Function


  Helps distinguish sentence types (statements, questions, commands)
• Attitudinal Function


  Expresses emotions and attitudes (excitement, boredom, etc.)
• Focus Function


  Highlights specific words or phrases for emphasis
• Discourse Function


  Connects sentences and shows how ideas flow
• Psychological Function


  Makes speech easier to understand and remember
• Indexical Function


  Reflects a speaker's background or regional identity
• Main Components of Intonation

  • Auditory measures of prosody
  • Acoustic measures of prosody
• Auditory measures of prosody

  • Pitch of the voice
  • Loudness or prominence
  • Length of sounds
  • Timbre
• Pitch of the voice

  The highness or lowness of your voice. Intonation involves variations in pitch throughout your speech.
• Loudness or prominence


  How soft or loud you speak
• Length of sounds


  How long you hold certain sounds or syllables
• Timbre


  Quality of the sound
• Acoustic measures of prosody

  • Fundamental frequency
  • Duration
  • Intensity, or sound pressure level
  • Spectral characteristics
• Fundamental frequency


  Measured in hertz, or cycles per second
• Duration


  Measured in time units such as milliseconds or seconds
• Intensity, or sound pressure level

  Measured in decibels
• Spectral characteristics


  Distribution of energy at different parts of the audible frequency range