Greek goddess aphrodite. Aphrodite - Greek goddess of love and beauty. The most beautiful among the Olympian gods

Intonation is a system of means of organizing coherent sounding speech. The system includes: 1) melody(movement of the pitch of the voice); 2) accents, involved in the design of intonational structures, the transmission of intonational meanings, as well as in the expression emotional state speaker, i.e. non-verbal(by its function) stress; 3) pace speeches; 4) pauses. The elements of intonation really exist only in unity, although for scientific and especially educational purposes they can be considered separately. By its nature, intonation is supersegmental: it is built on top of the linear structure of speech.

Intonation is a mandatory characteristic of spoken speech. Speech without intonation is impossible. The richness and content of speech, its expressiveness are ensured not only by the richness of the vocabulary and the skill of verbal expression, but also by its intonation flexibility, expressiveness and diversity. Intonation takes important place in the structure of the language and performs whole line functions.

Traditional terms for the section on intonation are prosody or prosody; There is also a newer term intonology.

Functions of intonation

Intonation 1) ensures the phonetic integrity of a phrase or part of it; 2) serves to divide a text or statement into meaningful and phonetically designed segments; 3) conveys the most important communicative meanings: narrative, question, motivation, etc.; 4) indicates certain semantic and grammatical relationships between the units that form a statement and between the statements themselves; 5) conveys the speaker’s attitude to the content of his statement or the statement of his interlocutor; 6) conveys information about the emotional state of the speaker [Bondarko, 1998. P. 230].

The wealth of expressive and structural-grammatical possibilities of intonation has been noted more than once by researchers. For example, the following types of intonations were distinguished: interrogative, exclamatory, vocative, persuasive, pleading, inviting, comparative, enumerative, affirmative, threatening, intonation of amazement, offense, indifference, polite request, surprise, warning, etc. Undoubtedly, the list of intonations can be significantly expand, but this will only raise doubts about the objectivity of their existence and the possibility, based on phonetic criteria, to distinguish one from the other. It is clear that when describing intonation types, only those that have clearly defined characteristics should be taken into account.

The most important link in describing the theory of intonation is syntagma.

The concept of syntagma

The simplest observations of spoken speech show that the speech stream consists of individual segments - words, groups of words, parts of sentences and sentences themselves, for example: That evening / Kazbich was more gloomy, / than ever, / and I noticed, / what he has under his beshmet / is wearing chain mail //(M. Lermontov). (With signs / pauses are indicated // - end of the phrase.) Meaningful combinations of words arise that also have certain syntactic functions. Intonation-semantic unities that arise in the process of speech and are components phrases are called syntagmas. The concept of syntagma was introduced into Russian linguistics by L.V. Shcherba, who defined syntagma as “a phonetic unity that expresses a single semantic whole in the process of speech and thought.” It is important here to point out that syntagms are semantic wholes that arise “in the process of speech and thought.” Shcherba saw in syntagmas such semantic unities that are created in a given speech situation. In syntagmatic division, therefore, the speaker’s understanding of a given situation is expressed. Therefore, it can convey various semantic nuances. Wed: 1. See you tomorrow evening and 2. See you tomorrow, / In the evening. In the second case, the time of the meeting is emphasized, and In the evening becomes a clarifying member of the sentence, while in the first case the time of the meeting is thought of indivisibly as tomorrow evening.

Syntagma has semantic, syntactic and intonational integrity.

IN semantic in terms of syntagma is a segment of a meaningfully dissected phrase. Two cases can be noted here. Firstly, each syntagma is a semantic whole, for example: Yesterday evening / father and mother / were at the theater //. Here each syntagma acts as an independent semantic unit. Secondly, a phrase may contain syntagms that do not constitute a semantic unity, for example: / Kolya played for the faculty team,/Petya/ and Vasya//. Here, one-word syntagmas are self-sufficient in terms of meaning Kolya And Peter; certainly not independent due to the presence of the conjunction syntagma and Vasya; rather, the first syntagma is dependent. However, the meaningfulness of the division in both cases is beyond doubt.

The semantic specificity of the syntagma is determined by the functional orientation of speech. Speech has as its function the transmission of some content, meaning, therefore the division of speech into syntagms should contribute to the implementation of this function.

IN syntactic in terms of syntagma is a segment of a syntactically correctly divided phrase. A syntagma can make up an entire phrase ( It's been raining since morning), be a simple member of a sentence ( Kolya; Peter) or common ( were at the theater - predicate group), or not in any way related to syntactic constructions (For the faculty team performed). However, it is clear that the semantic meaningfulness of the division also corresponds to syntactic meaningfulness.

The syntactic structure of sentences in many cases predetermines syntagmatic boundaries, which turn out to be forced. Here are a few typical examples: a) compound sentence: Lightning flashed, / and immediately thunder roared //; I ran, / and he stayed //; b) complex sentence: I will come, / because I promised //; If you want, / let's go out of town, / when the rain stops //; V) homogeneous members offers: Trams moved through the streets,/ trolleybuses / and buses//; d) isolated members of the sentence: He fell, / dropping the package from my hands//; Tall tree ,/ noticeable from afar, / served as a guide for us //; e) appeal: Mother, / where is my briefcase?//

An analysis of intonation patterns of phrases based on the material of the English language was carried out, from which it was concluded that intonation is a complex unity of the pitch of the voice (melody), the strength of the words (phrase stress), timbre, tempo and rhythm. IN English language, just like, for example, in Russian, there are two main speech melodics, two tones: descending and ascending. Without them there can be no oral speech at all. Thoughts, feelings, moods are consciously or involuntarily conveyed using intonation means (melody, logical stress, pauses, tone, timbre of voice, tempo of speech). The role of intonation is so great that it can even change the meaning of a word. Thanks to intonation, we can grasp the meaning of a statement even without knowing the words that make it up. At the same time, the role of intonation increases as the emotionality of speech increases. Intonation is a complex phenomenon. It consists of several elements: melody (raising and lowering the tone of the voice), logical (semantic) stress, volume (strength) of sound different parts statements, rate of speech, timbre (“coloring” of the voice, which depends on individual characteristics work of the vocal cords), pauses (breaks in sound). Each element of intonation is indicated by special icons: for example, /, //, /// – pauses of different lengths, (short, medium long, long), logical stress, enhanced logical stress, ^ – raising the voice, v – lowering the voice. In general, intonation is a set of prosodic characteristics of a sentence, tone, melody of speech, volume, tempo of speech and its individual segments, rhythm, and phonation features. Together with stress, intonation forms the prosodic system of language.

intonation

melody

Components

emphasis

1. Artemov V.A. Spectral analysis speech sounds and intonation. – M.: Moscow State University Publishing House, 1969.

2. Bernstein S.I. Intonation (sound means of language) // Great Soviet Encyclopedia. – M., 1972.

3. Bonk N.A., Kotiy G.A., Lukyanova N.A. English textbook, part one / N.A. Bonk, G.A. Kotiy, N.A. Lukyanova. – M.: MP “FIRM ART”, 1992. – 637 p.

4. Dubovsky Yu.A. Analysis of intonation of oral text and its components. – Minsk: Higher School, 1978. – 137 p.

5. Intonation, its functions and components [ Electronic resource] http://metropolys.ru/artic/17/02/b-0122-05010.html (accessed 12/16/13).

6. Kodzasov S.V., Krivnova O.F. General phonetics. – M.: RSUH, 2001. – 592 p.

7. Nikolaeva T.M. Linguistics: Favorites. – M.: Languages of Slavic culture, 2013.

8. Torsueva I.G. Intonation // Linguistic encyclopedic Dictionary/ ed. V.N. Yartseva. – M.: Soviet encyclopedia, 1990.

9. Sokolova M.A. Theoretical phonetics of the English language: a textbook for higher education students educational institutions. / M.A. Sokolova, K.P. Gintovt, I.S. Tikhonova et al. – 3rd ed., stereotype. – M.: Humanitarian Publishing Center VLADOS, 2004. – 286 p.

10. Linguistics. Big encyclopedic dictionary / ch. ed. V.N. Yartseva. – 2nd ed. – M.: Great Russian Encyclopedia, 1998. – 685 p.

Intonation (Latin intonatio “loud pronunciation”) is the unity of interconnected components: melody, intensity, duration, tempo of speech and timbre of pronunciation. Together with stress, intonation forms the prosodic system of the language. Unlike segmental phonetic units (phonemes) and their differential features, which do not have their own content plan, all intonation units are bilateral, that is, they are an important means of forming a statement and expressing its meaning.

There are two types of intonation means (intonemes):

phrasal accents - placed mainly on stressed syllables of words; their main symptom is a change in tone. They perform the most important functions of intonation: the direction of movement of the tone indicates the purpose of the utterance, or illocution (for example, in Russian the indicator general issue serves as an ascending movement of tone), the place of phrasal emphasis is on the “focus” of the utterance (the element of the sentence that most interests the speaker: cf. “Vanya came on Tuesday?” and “Vanya came on Tuesday?”);

integral (non-accentual) characteristics - cover groups of words or entire sentences.

Functions of intonation:

Semantic: expressing the purpose of a statement, its “communicative organization”, distinguishing parts of a statement according to semantic importance, dividing into theme and rheme.
Expressive: expressing the emotions of the speaker, influencing the emotions of the listener. It is realized by integral means, which is the reason why the latter are characteristic of dialogical and artistic speech.
Syntactic: the syntactic component of a sentence is often formed as a single intonation group with common integral characteristics and one phrasal accent.
Euphonic: promoting the euphony of a segment of speech, in particular its division into fragments commensurate in time of sound, alternating strong and weak stresses.

Until the middle of the 20th century, Russian linguistics mainly studied the role of intonation in distinguishing between types of utterances. In the 1940-1950s. interest in the relationship between intonation and syntax has increased. In the 1960s E.A. Bryzgunova proposed a description of intonation in the Russian language using the concept of intonation structure. The basis for the classification of constructions is the nature of the tone on the stressed and adjacent syllables, together called the center of the construction.

As for the methodology for studying intonation processes, in this context we can say that to determine the inventory of intonation means of a particular language, as in determining the system of phonemes, the method of comparison of minimal pairs can be used, as well as the identification of conditions determined by position (for example, position relative to stress) options. Every utterance from pause to pause, regardless of its length, is phonetically formed as a whole. This design is called the intonation of a statement or sentence. Traditionally in linguistics, intonation is considered as an acoustic factor and is characterized as a rhythmic-melodic design of speech, i.e. it phonetically organizes speech, giving it expressive and emotional coloring, and is a means of expressing various syntactic meanings and categories.

Intonation differs from language to language. When perceiving foreign language speech (even with quite good knowledge language), subtle shades of meaning conveyed by unfamiliar intonation means often elude the listener. It is known how difficult it is, for example, to catch a joke or irony in a foreign language or to express different shades surprise, irritation, contempt, trust, distrust, which in most cases are conveyed only by intonation. It is also well known that the most difficult thing for foreigners to learn is intonation. People who perfectly pronounce individual words of a foreign language often make mistakes in intonation, especially when pronouncing large sections of speech. We can say that intonation represents the most characteristic phonetic feature of a given language. The most common function of intonation is communicative. Since the intonation system of a language is characterized by greater mobility compared to the grammatical system, therefore, intonation has more opportunities to directly meet the goals of communication. The close connection that exists between intonation and the meaning of a sentence makes it one of the most important factors of communication. It is intonation that tells whether a statement is complete or unfinished, whether it contains a question, an answer, etc.

Intonation, combined with the appropriate grammatical structure of a sentence and its lexical composition, is an important means of expressing the meaning of a statement. The most well-studied components of intonation are melody and stress. So, in the English language, for example, there are two main speech melodies, two tones: descending and rising. The descending tone expresses the completeness of the statement, categoricalness. Therefore, affirmative sentences are pronounced with a falling tone. The falling tone in English is used in imperative and declarative sentences. However, the fall in tone in English has a peculiar character: it is sharper and deeper than in Russian. Melodics is closely related to phrasal stress. To the teacher’s question: “What letter is written on the board?” - the student can answer in different ways: “The letter “a” is written on the board,” “The letter “a” or simply “a.” The semantic completeness of each of these answers is determined by the fact that they will all be framed in appropriate intonation.

There are several opinions about intonation. A narrow definition of intonation belongs to foreign phoneticians - Daniel John, O'Conner and others: intonation - is the variations of the pitch of the voice. These phoneticians believe that it is only the melody of the utterance, although the pitch of the fundamental tone of the voice is indeed very important in intonation.

The point of view of our domestic phoneticians, such as Artemov V.A., Torsuev G.P., Vasiliev V.A is this: intonation - is a complex unity of speech melody, sentence stress, tempo, rhythm and voice timbre, which enables the speaker to express his thoughts, emotions and attitudes towards the contents of the utterance. Acoustically intonation is a complex combination of varying fundamental frequency, intensity and duration.

V.A. Artemov believes that the main function of intonation is to express feelings of will, without the elements of which no life communication is conceivable. Syntax has almost no means of encoding the modal emotional-volitional function. This role is played by vocabulary and intonation.

Artemov divides syntactic meaning intonation into two types:

1) dividing sentences into syntagms that correspond to its understanding by the speaker, depending on the communication situation;

2) syntactic connection of parts of a sentence - logical plans and logical modality of thought expressed in a phrase (intonation of a cause-and-effect conditional relationship, intonation of certainty, uncertainty, opposition, comparison, introductory thought, etc.).

Uncertainty in the interpretation of the concept of “function” has led to the emergence of systems for classifying functions and intonation that are heterogeneous in principles and contradictory in content. Various authors distinguish emotional and intellectual, verbal and vocal, logical, emphatic and emphatic, emotional, emphatic and physiological and other functions.

L.R. Zinder gave an interpretation of the term “linguistic function” - the function of a given linguistic device should be considered “its intended purpose for conveying the corresponding linguistic category.” In accordance with this interpretation, the following functions of intonation can be distinguished:

1) function of dividing into syntagms;

2) function of connection between syntagmas;

3) the function of distinguishing communicative types (situations);

4) the function of accentuating elements of syntagm;

5) function of expressing emotional meanings;

6) function of transferring modal relations.

The systematic nature of the intonation functions under consideration, their relative independence and interconnection are revealed:

1) according to their ability to form special units;

2) by inventory and quantitative expression of those phonetic means, which are predominantly used in the implementation of this functional load of intonation.

There is a widespread belief that intonation is a subjective thing, that different artists read the same text differently and that the difference in reading can be very significant. However, different readings are by no means indifferent to understanding the text. Different intonation of the same text is a consequence of different understandings of it by different readers. The same sentence can be pronounced with different intonation. And each time it will be slightly different.

In intonation, two aspects should be distinguished: one, which can be called communicative, since intonation tells whether the utterance is complete or unfinished, whether it contains a question, an answer, etc. Another, which could be called emotional, is that intonation contains a certain emotion, which always reflects the emotional state of the speaker, and sometimes his intention (however, not always realized by him) to influence the listener in a certain way. The latter is meant when they talk about “emphasis,” the emotionally expressive highlighting of a part of a statement through intonation.

If we keep in mind the purposefulness of intonation, then we can speak as N.S. does. Trubetskoy, about its functions, but his classification of functions seems unconvincing. N.S. Trubetskoy proposes to distinguish three functions of the sound expression of speech: explicative, coinciding with what is called communicative above, appellative, serving to influence the listener, and expressive, making it possible to identify the personality of the speaker, his membership in a particular social group, etc. It is hardly permissible to consider the three functions distinguished by Trubetskoy as phenomena of the same order. When we, for example, lower our voice towards the end of a sentence, we can say that this is done precisely in order to show that we are finishing it. When we say “affectionately” or “angrily,” we want to show the listener our attitude towards him in connection with the content of the statement. When our speech contains signs by which we can determine whether it is normative or non-normative, or find out who exactly is speaking, it is not because we want to communicate this to our interlocutors. Thus, if we are talking not about aspects, but about functions, then the reflection of the speaker’s emotional state must be excluded from the expressive function.

The emotional aspect of intonation is not necessarily related to the semantic content of the utterance. Whether the sentence is said: “Petrov returned” with joy or with regret, it will remain a message about the same fact of objective reality, in other words, it will have the same denotative meaning. This will not affect the syntactic structure of the sentence. Therefore, until recently, the emotional aspect was practically excluded from linguistics, and the question of its meaning, from a linguistic point of view, of its linguistic function remains theoretically unexplored today.

In its communicative aspect, intonation has the following meanings:

1. Intonation is a means of dividing speech into sentences. This is especially important in reading, which in our time, thanks to the development of radio and television, plays a huge role. This implies, in particular, the importance of the connection between punctuation marks in writing and intonation, studied in detail by T.M. Nikolaeva.

2. Intonation is involved in distinguishing communicative types of sentences, sometimes being the only means of the so-called general question (cf.: Peter is going home. Is Peter going home?). The same can be said about the actual division of the sentence. So, depending on the logical emphasis of the word Peter or the word home, respectively, one or another of them will denote a new thing (rhema). Consequently, in the first case the sentence will mean that it is Peter, and not anyone else, who is going home, and in the second - that he is going home, and not somewhere else.

3. Only intonation carries out division into syntagms, which is determined by the meaning and is associated with the expression of one or another member of the sentence. If, for example, in the sentence: “I entertained him with my brother’s poems,” we put the boundary of the first syntama after the word -him-, then it will be a direct object; if you put it after the word -verses-, then the direct object will be -my brother-.

4. Intonation marks whether a given segment of speech is a finite or non-finite syntagm (cf.: “He returns home” and “He returns home when evening comes”).

The examples given are sufficient to show the various functions of intonation, which are associated with the meaning and syntactic structure of a sentence. It should be noted that intonation as such only indirectly expresses the syntactic role of a particular word or syntagm. So, in the last example, we learn from intonation only that the first sentence does not end the statement, but we cannot judge from it that it is the main one: the intonation of the first part will remain unchanged in its main features if the subordinate clause comes first.

The number of such intonation units in different languages, naturally, may not coincide, but for the same language, different authors set different number their. So, A.M. Peshkovsky can count more than 20 such units in the Russian language. E.A. Bryzgunova distinguishes only 7 basic intonation structures. In general, we can say that the question of intonation units remains theoretically undeveloped, and therefore there are no clear criteria for distinguishing them. Related to the autonomy of intonation is the question of whether intonation contours are signs. N.S. Trubetskoy, answering this question positively, wrote: “... phrase-distinguishing means... are fundamentally different... from all... word-dividing means. This fundamental difference is that phonemes and word-distinguishing prosodic features are never linguistic signs in themselves: they represent only part of a linguistic sign... On the contrary, phrase-distinguishing means are independent signs: “warning” intonation means that the sentence has not yet completed, lowering the case means that this segment of speech is not connected with either the previous or the subsequent, etc.”

Summarizing the above, we can state that intonation consists of several components:

2) intensity (dynamic component);

3) duration or tempo (time, temporal component);

5) timbre.

All components of intonation, except the pause, are necessarily present in the utterance, because no element of it can be pronounced without some kind of pitch, etc. Therefore, all components of intonation closely interact with each other. However, it is possible, firstly, to establish a certain hierarchy of them, and secondly, there is data indicating some division of functions between them.

Reviewers:

Kuklin A.N., Doctor of Philology, Professor of the Department of the Mari Language, Institute of Finno-Ugric Studies, Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Professional Education "Mari" State University", Yoshkar-Ola;

Kudryavtseva R.A., Doctor of Philology, Associate Professor of the Department of Finno-Ugric Literature and Folklore, Director of the Institute of Finno-Ugric Studies, Mari State University, Yoshkar-Ola.

The work was received by the editor on July 15, 2014.

Bibliographic link

Pronnikova N.V. ON THE QUESTION ABOUT THE FUNCTIONS OF INTONATION // Basic Research. – 2014. – No. 9-5. – P. 1131-1135;
URL: http://fundamental-research.ru/ru/article/view?id=35030 (access date: 07/16/2019). We bring to your attention magazines published by the publishing house "Academy of Natural Sciences"

There are several opinions about what intonation is and there is still a problem of determining intonation. A narrow definition of intonation belongs to a number of foreign phoneticians, such as Daniel Jones, O'Conner, etc.: intonation- is the variations of the pitch of the voice. These phoneticians believe that it is only the melody of the utterance, although the pitch of the fundamental tone of the voice is indeed very important in intonation.

The point of view of Soviet phoneticians, such as V.A. Artemov, G.P. Torsuev, V.A. Vasiliev is as follows: intonation- is a complex unity of speech melody, sentence stress, tempo, rythm and voice timbre, which enables the speaker to express his thoughts, emotions and attitudes towards the contents of the utterance. Acoustically intonation is a complex combination of varying fundamental frequency, intensity and duration. Perceptually it`s a complex of speech melody, loudness, tempo and timbre.

Most researchers believe that the main function of intonation is to convey the emotional and modal attitude of the speaker to what is being communicated. And when they say that a sentence was uttered “without any intonation,” this means in the first case that it was said with monotonous intonation, and in the second - that the intonation was not expressive enough.

Artemov divides the syntactic meaning of intonation into two types:

1. dividing sentences into syntagms that correspond to its understanding by the speaker, depending on the communication situation.
2. syntactic connection of parts of a sentence - logical plans and logical modality of thought expressed in a phrase (intonation of a cause-and-effect conditional relationship, intonation of certainty, uncertainty, opposition, comparison, introductory thought, etc.)

Zinder L.R. gave an interpretation of the term “linguistic function” - the function of a given linguistic device should be considered “its intended purpose for conveying the corresponding linguistic category.” In accordance with this interpretation, the following functions of intonation can be distinguished:

1. function of dividing into syntagms
2. function of connection between syntagmas
3. function of distinguishing communicative types (by situation)
4. function of accentuating elements of syntagm
5. function of expressing emotional meanings
6. function of transferring modal relations

The systematic nature of the intonation functions under consideration, their relative independence and interconnection are revealed:

1. by their ability to form special units
2. by inventory and quantitative expression of those phonetic means that are primarily used in the implementation of a given functional load of intonation.

There are two aspects to be distinguished in intonation: one which can be called communicative, since intonation tells whether the statement is complete or unfinished, whether it contains a question, an answer, etc. The example discussed earlier can serve to illustrate this aspect. Another one that could be called emotional, is that intonation contains a certain emotion, which always reflects the emotional state of the speaker, and sometimes his intention (however, not always realized by him) to influence the listener in a certain way. The latter is meant when they talk about “emphasis”.

If we keep in mind the purposefulness of intonation, then we can talk, as Trubetskoy does, about its functions, but his classification of functions seems unconvincing. Trubetskoy proposes to distinguish three functions of the sound expression of speech: explicative, coinciding with what is called communicative above, appellative, serving to influence the listener, and expressive, making it possible to identify the personality of the speaker, his membership in a particular social group, etc. It is hardly permissible to consider the three functions distinguished by Trubetskoy as phenomena of the same order. When we, for example, lower our voice towards the end of a sentence, we can say that this is done precisely in order to show that we are finishing it. When we say “affectionately” or “angrily,” we want to show the listener our attitude towards him in connection with the content of the statement. When our speech contains signs by which we can determine whether it is normative or non-normative, or find out who exactly is speaking, it is not because we want to communicate this to our interlocutors. Thus, if we are talking not about aspects, but about functions, then the reflection of the emotional state of the speaker must be excluded from the expressive function.

The emotional aspect of intonation is not necessarily related to the semantic content of the utterance. Will a sentence be said Petrov is back with joy or with regret, it will remain a message about the same fact of objective reality, in other words, it will have the same denotative meaning. This will not affect the syntactic structure of the sentence. Therefore, until recently, the emotional aspect was practically excluded from linguistics, and the question of its meaning, from a linguistic point of view, of its linguistic function remains theoretically unexplored today.

At the same time, the emotion of an utterance is undoubtedly associated with its modality, a category that in modern linguistics is given great importance. And indeed, every act of communication reflects not only what is about we're talking about(denotative aspect), but also the attitude towards the message on the part of the speaker (connotative aspect).

Some studies indicate that forms of expression of emotions, having a psychophysiological basis, in this sense are universal. Along with this, there are facts that make it obvious that intonation varies from language to language. When we listen to foreign language speech (even with a fairly good knowledge of the corresponding language), subtle shades of meaning conveyed by intonation means that are unfamiliar to us often elude us. It is well known how difficult it is, for example, to catch a joke or irony in a foreign language or to express different shades of surprise, irritation, contempt, trust, mistrust, etc. etc., which in most cases are conveyed only by intonation. It is also well known that the most difficult thing for foreigners to learn is intonation. Persons who perfectly pronounce individual words of a foreign language often make mistakes in intonation, especially when it comes to longer sections of speech. We can say that intonation represents the most characteristic phonetic feature of a given language.

Thus, the exclusion of emotion from the object of study of linguistics cannot be justified. Recently, the study of emotions has begun to attract the attention of researchers, mainly in phonetic terms: a number of experimental phonetic works are devoted to the intonation of emotions. A significant obstacle to such research is the lack of a strict and consistent classification of emotions.

In its communicative aspect, intonation has the following meanings

1. Intonation is a means of dividing speech into sentences. This is especially important in reading, which in our time, thanks to the development of radio and television, plays a huge role. This implies, in particular, the importance of the connection between punctuation marks in writing and intonation, studied in detail by Nikolaeva.
2. Intonation is involved in distinguishing communicative types of sentences, sometimes being the only means of the so-called general question (cf.: Peter goes home. Is Peter going home?). 3. The same can be said about the actual division of the sentence. So, depending on the logical emphasis of the word Peter or words home, accordingly, one or another of them will denote a new one ( rhema) what is reported about this ( topic).Consequently, in the first case the sentence will mean that it is Peter, and not anyone else, who is going home, and in the second - that he is going home, and not somewhere else. 4. Only intonation carries out division into syntagms, which is determined by the meaning and is associated with the expression of one or another member of the sentence. If, for example, in a sentence: I entertained him with my brother's poems put the boundary of the first synth after the word - his-, then it will be a direct object; if you put it after the word - in verse-, then the direct complement will be - my brother- . 5. Intonation marks whether a given segment of speech is a finite or non-finite syntagma (cf.: He's coming home And He's coming home when evening comes).

The examples given are sufficient to show the various functions of intonation, which are associated with the meaning and syntactic structure of a sentence. It should be noted that intonation as such only indirectly expresses the syntactic role of a particular word or syntagm. So, in the last example, we learn from intonation only that the first sentence does not end the statement, but that it is the main one cannot be judged from it: the intonation of the first part will remain unchanged in its main features if the subordinate clause comes first.

From the recognition of the autonomy of intonation it follows that languages must have a known set of intonation patterns or, in other words, intonation must be discrete in a paradigmatic sense. This point of view is currently dominant. There is no single term for designating an intonation unit, just as there is no generally accepted definition of it. It is called both an intonation contour, and an intonation construction, and an intoneme: among American descriptivists it is called in some cases a tone phoneme, in others - a completion phoneme.

The number of such intonation units in different languages, naturally, may not coincide, but for the same language, different authors establish different numbers of them. Thus, Peshkovsky can count more than 20 such units in the Russian language. Bryzgunova distinguishes only 7 basic intonation structures. In general, we can say that the question of intonation units remains theoretically undeveloped, and therefore there are no clear criteria for distinguishing them.

Related to the autonomy of intonation is the question of whether intonation contours are signs. Trubetskoy, answering this question positively, wrote:

"... phrase-distinguishing means... are fundamentally different... then all... word-dividing means. This fundamental difference is that phonemes and word-distinguishing prosodic features are never in themselves<языковыми знаками>: they represent only<часть языкового знака>... On the contrary, phrase-distinguishing means are independent signs: “warning” intonation stands for that the sentence is not yet completed, lower case stands for that this segment of speech is not connected with either the previous or the subsequent one, etc.

The following considerations can be cited against the point of view expressed here. Firstly, the fact that one or another intonation unit or even all of them may be associated with a certain meaning is not in itself proof of its such nature. The phoneme, to which Trubetskoy contrasts the intonation unit in this regard, can also be associated with meaning. Shcherba even considered this a sign of a phoneme. To prove this, it is enough to recall such monophonemic words as Russians a, u, s, k, and so on. Secondly, it seems there is no reason to doubt that the same intonation contour can be used to formulate a narrative sentence in Russian - Peter goes home- and interrogative - When will Peter go home?- In general, it must be said that if the principle is true compensation, compensation then the inevitability of such a situation follows from it. However, compliance with this principle must still be experimentally tested in a number of languages. Thus, the question of whether intonational means are linguistic signs, or whether they represent only a plan for the expression of such a sign, remains unresolved.

Intonation consists of several components: 1) the frequency of the fundamental tone of the voice (pitch or melodic component); 2) intensity (dynamic component); 3) duration or tempo (time, temporal component); 4) pauses; 5) timbre. All components of intonation, except the pause, are necessarily present in the utterance, because no element of it can be pronounced without some kind of pitch, etc. Therefore, all components of intonation closely interact with each other. However, it is possible, firstly, to establish a certain hierarchy of them, and secondly, there is data indicating some division of functions between them.