Intonation (Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics)

This is the first textbook on intonation for linguists, and the first textbook which attempts to widen the discussion of intonation to languages other than English. All languages use intonation to convey attitudes and to link speech together, and the central chapters of the book explore the sort of theoretical framework that has to be set up in order to analyse intonation, describe in detail the meanings associated with intonational differences, and examine intonation from a comparative perspective. Introductory chapters describe the physiology and acoustics of pitch and the complex relationship between intonation, stress, accent and rhythm, while the final chapter provides an overview of the state of the art in intonational studies. A cassette, reproducing many of the illustrative examples in the book, is also available.