Basic elements of intonation
Our speech is enriched by various elements, making it expressive, emotional, rich.
- Speech melody (raising and lowering voice)
- Logical stress (highlighting in the voice the most important word)
- Pause (temporary stop of speech)
- Tempo (speech speed)
- Tone (sound coloring that gives emotional shades to speech)
These elements enhance the impact of speech on the listener. Without them, our speech would be lifeless, gray, inexpressive.
Definition
In the Russian language there are phrases, punctuation marks and manner of speech in order to correctly create a logical construction (according to the meaning of each element). In psychology, intonation expresses the true message: if people lie with their words, then their speech is most revealing. For oral speech, manner is an important tool. The tone of voice can change in a syllable or individual words, and the tonality can form the correct message.
Intonation is a demonstration of emotions for better communication with the interlocutor.
The meaning of the word intonation includes syntactic devices that must be used separately or in combination. The movement of the voice characterizes the melody and smoothness of speech: in the intonation technique, tonality, length, and the presence of pauses are important - this is the basis of speech construction.
Sentence intonation
The intonation of a sentence is its melodic and vocal design. Each type of sentence has its own intonation. Rising-falling intonation is characteristic of narrative sentences. In an interrogative sentence, intonation can be descending, rising, ascending-descending, depending on the place of logical stress. Incentive sentences are pronounced with a rising tone, especially if they express an order rather than a request.
Intonation also performs a syntactic function: it indicates what type of sentence the sentence is, whether it contains a question, an exclamation, or a narrative.
The reader learns about the syntactic role of intonation from punctuation marks.
Intonation as a characteristic of a sentence
Intonation is the second criterion that must be indicated when characterizing a sentence. If a sentence is pronounced emotionally, loudly, an exclamation point is placed at the end. This means that the sentence is exclamatory.
If the sentence is pronounced in a neutral, calm tone, then there is no exclamation mark, and the sentence is non-exclamatory.
In this case, it does not matter what the communicative purpose of the statement is: with a special feeling you can assert, and ask, and ask.
What signs end different types of phrases in written speech?
Types of sentences by intonation and purpose are highlighted in writing in different ways. It is punctuation that allows a person to understand what speech structures, by purpose and intonation, are on paper or the screen of an electronic device in front of him.
You need to know the following punctuation rules:
- A narrative non-exclamatory phrase ends with a period. (“The long-awaited summer has come”).
- An interrogative non-exclamation construction ends with a question mark. (“When will your dad come home from work?”).
- An incentive non-exclamatory phrase requires a period at the end. (“Stop being capricious and eat.”).
- A declarative exclamatory statement ends with an exclamation mark. (“I feel so good today!”).
- The interrogative exclamation structure ends with two marks - a question mark and an exclamation mark. (“Can I go mushroom picking too?!”).
- An exclamatory statement must end with an exclamation mark. (“For the faint of heart, please leave the audience!”).
When the types of sentences expressed are especially emotional, you can put several exclamation marks at once. (“Caution, there’s a cliff ahead!!!”).
If the construction has the effect of incompleteness, then it is necessary to put an ellipsis at the end of the statement. ("I'm really sorry…").
Now it’s clear what sentences there are based on intonation and purpose. It is important to know their features so that your statements are correctly perceived by people around you, both orally and in writing.
The main role in intonation is played by melody, and the main intonation means are tonal means.
The reader's eyes are stricter judges than the listener's ears. Voltaire
Intonation is the rhythmic and melodic aspect of speech, which serves in a sentence as a means of expressing syntactic meanings and emotional and expressive coloring. Intonation is a mandatory feature of oral speech. In writing, it is conveyed to a certain extent by punctuation marks.
Intonation is primarily a means of delimiting syntactic units, so it is discussed in more detail in syntax. In the Russian language, there are six main types of intonation structures, each of which has its own center - a syllable on which the bar, phrasal or logical stress falls, as well as pre-central and post-central parts, which in some cases may be absent. Of the many types of intonation, the intonations of narration, question and exclamation stand out especially.
What is intonation? Types of intonation
The rate of speech is its speed. A fast tempo is usually characteristic of excited speech, and a slow tempo is characteristic of solemn speech.
In a narrow sense, intonation is understood as “movement of vocal tone” and coincides with the concept of speech melody. In a broad sense, the term “intonation” denotes a complex phenomenon that is a combination of speech melody (i.e., raising or lowering the fundamental tone within the utterance), intensity, tempo of speech and pauses. Additional components of intonation are the timbre of speech (when expressing irony, doubt, inspiration, etc.) and rhythm.
Pauses are breaks in speech of varying duration. Pauses serve not only to divide speech into phrases and beats, but also to express the speaker’s emotions. In the absence of pauses between speech beats, intonation is the main means of combining phonetic words into speech beats. In combination with the movement of the vocal tone, pauses often serve to distinguish the meaning of statements: Execute cannot / cannot be pardoned and Execute / cannot be pardoned.
Skripnik Ya. N., Smolenskaya T. M.
Exclamatory intonation, on the contrary, is expressed by raising the tone towards the end of the sentence: What a night! How she sings!
Phonetics of the modern Russian language, 2010.
The melody of speech serves not only to organize the phrase, but also to differentiate meaning. Statements consisting of the same words can have different grammatical (syntactic) meanings depending on their melodic side, that is, by raising and lowering the fundamental tone of the voice, different purposes of the statement are expressed: message, encouragement to action, question, exclamation, request, reproach, etc. For example, Be silent! (an energetic, brief pronunciation of a stressed vowel and a sharp drop in tone expresses a categorical order) and Keep quiet?! (prolongation of a stressed vowel in combination with a rise in vocal tone expresses a threat; intonation in this case interacts with emphatic stress).
Narrative intonation is characterized by a calm, even pronunciation of the entire statement: The grass is turning green. The sun is shining. A swallow with spring in the canopy is flying towards us.
What is intonation? Types of intonation
Thus, intonation distinguishes sentences of different types, reflects a neutral and subjective attitude to the content of the statement, and conveys various shades of emotions. Timbre means of intonation are different qualities of the voice, determined by the state of the vocal cords: neutral voice, with - breathing, hoarse, tense, creaky, relaxed, tense, etc. Quantitative-dynamic means include: increasing or decreasing the volume and changing the tempo of pronouncing individual speech beats
Interrogative intonation is expressed by raising the tone at the beginning and lowering it towards the end of the statement: When will you be back? Has your child done his homework?
The word intonation is translated from Latin as “to pronounce loudly.” It plays an important role in speech, helping to change the meaning of a sentence depending on the chosen timbre of the voice. Speech intonation is the rhythmic and melodic part of a sentence, which performs syntactic and emotional functions during pronunciation.
Intonation is a necessary condition for oral speech; in writing it is conveyed by punctuation. In linguistics, intonation is used to mean the change in tone of voice in a syllable, word, and sentence. The components of intonation form an integral part of human speech.
The components of intonation are divided into:
- Timbre of speech. The timbre of speech helps to express a person’s emotions and feelings. The spoken speech in an emotional outburst changes depending on the emotions or experiences experienced.
- Intensity. The intensity of speech is articulatory and depends on the degree of effort during pronunciation. The intensity of speech depends on the work and direction of the muscles.
- Pause. A pause helps highlight phrases and syntagmas in speech. This is a stop in sound.
- Melodica. This is the movement of the main tone, its increase or decrease.
The basic elements of intonation are used in a combined form and are considered separately for study purposes only. The expressiveness and variety of speech is manifested through skillful verbal expression and its ability to change depending on intonation. Intonation plays an important role in language structuring. The following intonation functions exist:
- Dividing speech into intonation and semantic parts of syntagmas.
- Creation of syntactic structure in a sentence, intonation structures are involved in the design of sentence types.
- Intonation helps a person express emotions, feelings, and experiences.
- The semantic-discriminating function serves to distinguish lexical elements between sentences.
- The functions of intonation of a phrase are distinguished - this is the modality of the phrase, its narrative, exclamatory and interrogative differences.
Intonation is the main component not only in the Russian language, but also in any oral speech. In writing, intonation is distinguished by punctuation: ellipses, commas, question marks and exclamation marks. It is no longer known for certain what Russian speech sounded like many centuries ago. The types of intonation in Russian are very diverse. There are 16 of them in total. But there are intonations that are used equally in all countries of the world.
What are the sentences for the purpose of the statement:
- Narrative.
The last syllable of the statement is pronounced in a raised tone. Narrative utterances contain an intonation peak and an intonation decrease. The intonation peak is a high tone, and the intonation decrease is a low tone. If a word or phrase is combined in a narrative form, then part of the phrase is pronounced with a raised or lowered intonation. The most common use of demotion is during enumeration.
- Interrogative.
Interrogative types of intonation are used in two cases:
- When the question concerns an entire statement. In this case, the voice is raised to the last syllable of the interrogative statement.
- When raising the voice is applied only to the words to which the question is addressed. The intonation pattern of a sentence depends on the location of the word.
- Exclamation.
This type of human speech is divided into the exclamatory type itself, where the intonation is higher in tone than in narration, but lower than in a question. As well as an incentive intonation, which contains a request or order.
All types of intonation are combined in one concept - logical intonation. It is intonation that determines the characteristics of the expression, remaining the opposite of emotional pronunciation.
Depending on life situations, people talk to each other in different ways, from tongue twisters and poems to business speeches. Intonation has an individual character; it is impossible to find the same timbre of voice and manner of pronunciation of a word.
There are also unfinished sentences regarding intonation:
- Oppositions. Opposition is found in complex sentences. In a letter, punctuation or a dash makes it stand out.
- Warning. Warning intonation breaks the sentence into two parts with a long pause. The divided part of the sentence is pronounced in a raised tone.
- Introduction. There are no pauses between words or stress in the introductory intonation. She has a fast pace of speech.
- Transfers. Enumeration is characterized by a pause between homogeneous parts of the sentence. When listing words in a sentence, logical stress is placed. If there is a generalizing word before the listing, then it is highlighted when pronounced.
- Segregations. Isolation is separated in a sentence by a pause and emphasized. The first pause is long, the second shorter.
Musical intonation
Musical intonation has theoretical and aesthetic meanings that are closely interrelated. It represents the organization of sound in music, their sequential arrangement. Musical and speech intonations are not interrelated and differ in sound in pitch and location in the system of sounds. Intonation in music is also called the music of words. But the difference from the word it is that musical intonation or singing intonation does not contain any meaning.
The expression of intonation in music follows from speech intonation. Listening to a conversation in a foreign language, you can understand not only the gender and age of the speaker, but also their attitude towards each other, the nature of the conversation between them, the emotional state - joy, hatred, sympathy.
It is this connection with speech that musicians use consciously, and sometimes unconsciously. The intonation of human speech conveys the character, feelings, and psychological subtleties of communication, which are then expressed in a piece of music.
Music, using intonation, can convey and reproduce:
- gestures;
- body movement;
- harmony of speech;
- emotional condition;
- person's character.
Intonation musical expressions have a rich, centuries-old history. Simple intonation has evolved over time into numerous musical genres and styles. Example, arias of sorrow, lamentation, written in the Baroque era. Tense or anxious ballads, lyrical pieces, and a solemn anthem are easily identified. Each composer has a unique musical and intonation signature and style.
Types of sentences by intonation
Based on the intonation and strength of the expressed feeling, and the emotional coloring, two types of sentences are distinguished:
- exclamation marks
- non-exclamatory.
Non-exclamatory sentences
Every sentence has end-of-sentence intonation. If the statement is pronounced calmly, without much emotional stress at the end, it is a non-exclamatory sentence.
A sentence in which no feeling is expressed is called non-exclamatory.
Examples of non-exclamatory sentences
Late at night it began to rain heavily. He merrily knocked on the windows, made a dashing noise in the dense foliage of the trees, and busily gurgled in the drainpipes (L. Lagin).
In summer, the abundant clusters of glossy black berries immediately catch the eye (V. Soloukhin).
A large area of the old city above the Dnieper is overgrown with grass. It was quiet and orderly here. Swallows hovered over the cathedral of Catherine's times (A. Tolstoy).
Exclamatory sentences
Simple sentences can further express the emotions and feelings of the speaker. Then they are pronounced with a special exclamation intonation.
In the village it is much more free than in the city. You can go to the forest to pick berries, and to the river to swim and fish. And for lunch, what a soup! (G. Skrebitsky).
The last sentence in this message is exclamatory in intonation, as it expresses a feeling of admiration.
In exclamatory sentences, pronouns and adverbs are used as intensifying particles:
My dear, how beautiful! What is there to admire here? Oh, I admit - even though it hurts me, I’m also wrong! (I. A. Krylov)
Main functions
Phrase accents perform the most important functions when the direction of movement of the tonality indicates what purpose is being pursued during the utterance. Intonation means can be divided into two main types:
- individual phrasal manner of pronunciation,
- integral or non-accent characteristics that cover the entire sentence or extend to a group of words.
Phrase intonation and its types are used in conjunction with different linguistic means. The way in which its elements are used depends on the language in which they are used. In Russia and Germany, the most important means of expressing the correct attitude in presentation is the physical expressiveness of speech and the distribution of stress on individual words or syllables. This function in the French language system is provided by the so-called descriptive phrase. At the same time, there are general signs of intonation structure. This is true for a narrative message, which is expressed by a pleasing drop in tone at the end of a phrase.
Emphasis in intonation
Emphasis in intonation plays an important role, since the entire meaning of the statement depends on its placement. Stress involves highlighting a word using basic phonetic elements. Word stress is not the only type in the Russian language. In addition to verbal stress, there are other types:
- Syntagmatic. Syntagmatic or tact stress highlights the main semantic words in a sentence in the speech tact of the syntagma. Syntagma selects a separate syllable, parts of text or words from the entire speech stream. The resulting semantic groups have syntactic meaning.
- Boolean. Logical stress helps to highlight important words from a statement, using the basic means of intonation in a specific situation. In logical stress, any words from a sentence are highlighted.
Example, “Who was here? “I was here”
It arises when using intonation, the main role in which is played by melody along with an increase in verbal stress.
- Emphatic. The phenomenon of emphatic stress was introduced and discovered by the Russian linguist L. V. Shcherba. It is used to express the emotional connotation of words and expressions, highlighting the state of the speaker when communicating. Emphatic stress differs from logical stress in its emotional coloring of the word. In Russian, this stress lengthens the stressed vowel: a wonderful person, a most beautiful day.
Question
The second group includes interrogative sentences. They are used accordingly to ask various questions. A special intonation is used for this. At the end of such sentences a question mark is written. They use question words: when, where, why, where. You can ask using particles or adverbs: often, exactly, whether, perhaps, really. You can also construct an interrogative sentence using a special word order.
When will you go to the museum?
Are you really going to go to the museum?
Will you go to the museum?
Here are the actions performed using interrogative sentences:
- to question;
- interrogate;
- find out;
- beg;
- find out;
- elicit;
- to scout;
- pry out.
Incitement to action
The third group includes incentive offers. They are used to call people to any action. For this purpose, incentive intonation is used. Particles, interjections, and verb forms are also used to construct such constructions. Often such sentences contain appeals.
Guys let's be friends!
Passengers, please enter the carriage.
Clean your room immediately.
With the help of incentive sentences you can express the following:
- forbid;
- ask;
- order;
- instruct;
- forbid;
- advise.