ed as a statement, question, command, etc.
. To convey conational meanings of attitude "such as surprise, annoyance, enthusiasm, involvement, etc. This can include whether meanings are intended, over and above the meaning conveyed by the lexical items and the grammatical structure. The difference between a sincere intention and a sarcastic one would be conveyed by the intonation. Note that in the written form, here are only the lexics and the grammar. The written medium has very limited resources for marking intonation, and the meanings conveyed by it have to be shown, if at all, in other ways.
. To structure a text. Intonation is an organizing mechanism. On the one hand, it delimitates texts into smaller units, i. e. phonetic passages, phrases and intonation groups, on the other hand, it integrates these smaller constituents forming a complete text.
. To differentiate the meaning of textual units of the same grammatical structure and the same lexical composition, which is the distinctive or phonological function of intonation. p align="justify">. To characterize a particular style or variety of oral speech which may be called the stylistic function. There is no general agreement about either the number or the headings of the functions of intonation which can be illustrated by the difference in the approach to the subject by some prominent phoneticians. T. M. Nikolajeva names the three functions of intonations: delimitating, integrating and semantic functions suggests the semantic, syntactic functions the former being the primary and the two letter being the secondary functions singles out the fallowing main functions of intonation: communicative, distinctive, delimitating, expressive, appellative, aesthetic, integrating. Intonation is a powerful not possible to devorce any function of intonation from that of communication. In oral English the smallest piece of information is associated with an intonation group, that is a unit of intonation containing the nucleus. There is no exact match between punctuation in writing and intonation groups in speech. Speech is more variable in its structuring of information than writing. Cutting up speech into intonation groups depends on such things as the speed at which you are speaking, what emphasis you want to give to the parts of the message, and the length of grammatical units. A single phrase may have just one intonation group; but when the length of phrase goes beyond a certain point, it is difficult not to split it into two or more separate pieces of information. Accentual systems involve more than singling out important words by accenting them. Intonation group or phrase accentuation focuses on the nucleus of these intonation units. p align="justify"> The aim is defining general, functional characteristics of inton...
