The Roles of Intonation in English Discourse

Book excerpt: This work is an attempt to construct a comprehensive theory of the functions of intonation. Whereas many linguists have contributed details of the forms of intonation and have dealt with various aspects of particular functions of intonation, this study aims to bring all these together into a single, coherent description. Although the study is based on Halliday's model of intonation, it draws extensively on other linguists, particularly Pike, Jassem, O'Connor and Arnold, Crystal, Lehiste, Brazil, Brown, Cruttenden, Ladd and Liberman. The study is enhanced by detailed analysis of actual, recorded speech, and by a new departure in intonational analysis, namely the theory of the «stylistic potential» of intonation in different spoken genres.