Oral speech is characterized by the presence of a variety of emotional-intonational shades. With their help, one and the same expression can add different meanings: surprise, mockery, question, statement and other options. In writing all this is much more difficult to convey, but it is possible with the help of punctuation marks, which reflect the basic elements of intonation.
The concept of intonation
Speaking without intonation seems boring, dry and lifeless. Only with the help of voice transfusions can any narrative be made alive and expressive. Therefore, intonation is called the rhythmic and melodic side of the speaking process.
The narrower meaning of intonation implies fluctuations in vocal tone, which in general terms is identified with the melody of oral speech. A broader understanding expands the concept of melody, complementing it with pauses, pace and other components of the speech stream, up to the timbre of the voice and its rhythm. There are less familiar and obvious basic elements of intonation. Emphasis applies to them as well as possible. In this case, we are talking not only about verbal, but also about its logical version. Highlighting one word in the speech flow significantly changes the whole sentence tone.
Melody as the basis of intonation
To understand the difference in the semantic load of the same phrase, but in different speech situations, you need to look at its melody. It is with her that the basic elements of intonation begin.
To begin with, note that the melody organizes one phrase together. But also with its help semantic distinction is made. The same statements take on new shades depending on how the melody manifests itself.
If you increase or decrease the tone of the voice during the speaking process, you can easily change the purpose of the statement: from message to question, from censure to the urge to act.
Consider this with a concrete example: "Sit!" pronounced with a sharp and loud intonation, emphasizing the vowel, shows a definitive order. "Side-to-eat ?!" - expresses a question and indignation due to the length of the stressed vowel and ascending intonation at the end of the phrase. Thus, we see that the same word, enriched with different melodics, has a completely distinct semantic load.
Intonation in the syntax
To distinguish parts of a sentence, highlight its semantic center, complete a speech phrase, a person uses different intonational means. Since this is extremely important for a science such as syntax, it most of all studies these tools.
The Russian language has six types of intonation constructs. Its central part is the syllable to which all types of stresses go. This center also divides the design into two parts, which are not highlighted in all phrases.
The most common types, and, consequently, sentences of intonation are narrative, interrogative and exclamatory. It is around these intonation patterns that the main melodic picture of speech is built.
Types of offers
Syntaxists distinguish sentences by purpose, intonation. Each of them expresses completely different information and has its own melody.
Narrative sentences calmly, evenly and without any obvious intonation highlight transmit information. Most of the emotional shades in such sentences are formalized at the lexical level: "At the seaside, the oak is green, the golden chain is on that oak ..."
The question is characterized by ascending and descending intonation, in which the tone rises significantly at the beginning of the question, and decreases to its end: "When did you come here?"
But the exclamation has a smooth upward intonation. The tone of the phrase rises gradually, and at its end gains the highest tension: "She has come!"
We conclude that intonation, the examples of which we examined above, serves to express the emotions and attitude of the one who speaks to the content of the information he said.
Other intonational means
If we examine this issue in more detail, then sentences on intonation are not only of three types. Its additional means give an unlimited picture of emotional-intonation expression.
A person’s voice has different qualities. It can be loud and quiet, hoarse and sonorous, creaky, tense and fluid. All these qualities make speech more melodic and expressive. But they are poorly transmitted in letters by separate characters.
With a strong or weak voice at the time of speech, intonation also changes significantly. Examples of that are fright or insecurity, which are expressed very quietly, or anger, which, on the contrary, sounds very loud.
Its intonation picture also depends on the speed of speech. The melody of fast speech indicates the excited state of the person who is speaking. A slow pace is characteristic in situations of uncertainty or solemnity.
Well, and perhaps the most basic means of intonation are pauses. They are phrasal and tact. Serve for expressing emotions and dividing the speech stream into completed blocks. By their modality, pauses are complete and incomplete. The former are used at the absolute end of a sentence. In the middle of it there is a place for incomplete pauses that form the end of a measure, but not the whole phrase.
The meaning of the sentence depends on the correct use of the pause. Everyone knows an example: "You can’t have mercy on execution." It depends on the place of the pause whether the person will survive or not.
Reflection of intonation on a letter
The intonation of the text is more characteristic of live speech, when a person can control the voice, and with its help change the melody of the statement. Written speech looks rather dry and uninteresting if you do not use the means by which intonation is transmitted. Examples of such signs are known to everyone from school - these are dots, dashes, exclamation and question marks, commas.
The end of thought draws up a point. Sequential unfolding of a phrase is made out with commas indicating the place of pauses. An unfinished, ragged thought is an ellipsis.
But causal relationships are expressed using dashes. Before him, in speech, intonation always rises, and after that it goes into decline. The colon, on the contrary, is characterized by the fact that the voice in front of him calms down a bit, and after a pause a new round of its development begins with a gradual fading to the end of the sentence.
General intonation of the text
With the help of intonation, you can add the overall tone of the sound to the text. Romantic stories are always tense and intriguing. They evoke empathy and empathy. But rigorous reports do not respond at all on an emotional level. In them, apart from pauses, there are no other significant intonational means.
Of course, it cannot be argued that the overall sound of the text is completely dependent on private intonational means. But the overall picture is reflected only if certain elements of the melody are used to reveal the main idea. Without this, the essence of the message may be incomprehensible to people who have read it.
Intonation of different styles of speech
Each style of speech has its own intonation picture. Depending on the goals of the statement, it can be both maximally developed and versatile, and minimal, without any special emotional overflows.
The official business and scientific styles in this regard can be called the driest. They tell about concrete facts based on dry information.
The most emotional styles can be called conversational and artistic. To convey all the colors of oral speech in writing, the basic elements of intonation, and other less popular means, are used. Often, for the reader to present the character’s speech, the authors resort to a detailed description of the pronunciation process. This is all complemented by written intonation marks. Therefore, the reader easily reproduces in the head that intonation that he sees through visual perception.