Publisher's Synopsis
Intonation, or speech melody, refers to the rise and fall of the pitch of the voice in speech; it has intimate ties to facial expression and bodily gesture, and conveys, underneath it all, emotions and attitudes. To illustrate his points, Professor Bolinger uses hundreds of examples from every-day English speech, presented much in the manner of musical notation. This study, the summation of over 40 years of investigations and reflection, looks at how intonation varies among speakers and societies in terms of age, sex and region; how it interacts with grammar; and how it has been invoked to explain certain questions of logic. The discussion of variation shows the degree to which intonation can be conventionalized and yet embody a universal core of feelings and attitudes, renewed with each generation.;The remainder of the volume demonstrates that no explanation of those apparently more arbitrary phenomena with which intonation interacts is adequate.;In examining recent proposals for a defining relationship between intonation and grammar or logic, the author shows that such relationships are inferential and based on attitudinal meanings. For example, a given intonation does not mean "factuality", but rather "speaker confidence", from which factuality is inferred. In general, the author shows intonation operating indispensable to interpreting other more arbitrary parts of language.
