"In linguistics, intonation is the variation in pitch used to indicate the speaker's attitudes and emotions, to highlight or focus an expression, to signal the illocutionary act performed by a sentence, or to regulate the flow of discourse."
The rising and falling of pitch in speech that can convey different meanings or emotions.
Pitch: Pitch is the fundamental feature of Intonation. It refers to the highness or lowness of a sound or note.
Tone: A distinct musical or vocal sound characterized by sound quality, pitch, and duration.
Stress: The emphasis put on a syllable, word or phrase to define its meaning and pronunciation.
Rhythm: The pattern and flow of sounds and pauses in speech.
Boundaries: The pauses or intonations that indicate the end of a sentence or question.
Intonational phrases: Phrases in speech used to convey meaning that are shaped by pitch changes and boundaries.
Tonal Languages: Languages that use pitch as a distinctive feature to convey meaning, such as Mandarin Chinese or Vietnamese.
Melody: The tune or sequence of pitches in speech.
Accents: The specific way in which a language or dialect is spoken, including variations in intonation.
Speech Prosody: The patterns of intonation, stress, rhythm, and melody in speech that convey the speaker's intended meaning.
Rising intonation: A rising tone indicates that the speaker is asking a question or seeking confirmation from the listener.
Falling intonation: A falling tone indicates that the speaker is making a statement.
Rising-falling intonation: This tone is used to indicate contrast or surprise. For example, "I thought you said you were going to the store, not the beach.".
High rising intonation: This tone is used to indicate a list of items or choices. For example, "Do you want chocolate, strawberry, or vanilla?".
Low rising intonation: This tone is used to show uncertainty or a lack of confidence in what the speaker is saying.
Fall-rise intonation: This tone is usually used to indicate hesitation or uncertainty.
Rising-fall-rise intonation: This tone is used to indicate excitement or strong emotion.
Flat intonation: This tone is used when the speaker is being monotone or unemotional, usually when conveying factual information.
Melodic intonation: This tone is used to emphasize a certain word or phrase in a sentence.
Upward inflection: This intonation is used to indicate that the speaker is not finished speaking, often seen in lists or items.
"[Intonation is used] to indicate the speaker's attitudes and emotions, to highlight or focus an expression, to signal the illocutionary act performed by a sentence, or to regulate the flow of discourse."
"The English question 'Does Maria speak Spanish or French?' is interpreted as a yes-or-no question when it is uttered with a single rising intonation contour, but is interpreted as an alternative question when uttered with a rising contour on 'Spanish' and a falling contour on 'French'."
"Although intonation is primarily a matter of pitch variation, its effects almost always work hand-in-hand with other prosodic features."
"Intonation is distinct from tone, the phenomenon where pitch is used to distinguish words (as in Mandarin) or to mark grammatical features (as in Kinyarwanda)."
"[Intonation is] the variation in pitch used to indicate the speaker's attitudes and emotions."
"The English question 'Does Maria speak Spanish or French?' is interpreted as a yes-or-no question when it is uttered with a single rising intonation contour."
"[Intonation is used] to highlight or focus an expression."
"[The question] is interpreted as an alternative question when uttered with a rising contour on 'Spanish' and a falling contour on 'French'."
"Although intonation is primarily a matter of pitch variation..."
"[Intonation is used] to regulate the flow of discourse."
"[Intonation is used] to signal the illocutionary act performed by a sentence."
"[Intonation's] effects almost always work hand-in-hand with other prosodic features."
"Intonation is distinct from tone, the phenomenon where pitch is used to distinguish words (as in Mandarin) or to mark grammatical features (as in Kinyarwanda)."
"[Intonation is used] to highlight or focus an expression."
"[Intonation is used] to indicate the speaker's attitudes and emotions."
"[Intonation is used] to regulate the flow of discourse."
"Intonation is distinct from tone."
The paragraph does not specifically address this question.
"Although intonation is primarily a matter of pitch variation, its effects almost always work hand-in-hand with other prosodic features."