Intonation

Abstract

When originally published in 1986, this book was the first to survey intonation in all its aspects, both in English and universally. In this updated edition, while the basic descriptive facts of the form and use of intonation are presented in the British nuclear tone tradition, there is nevertheless extensive comparison with other theoretical frameworks, in particular with the ToBI framework, which has become widespread in the United States. In this new edition Alan Cruttenden has expanded the sections on historical background, different theoretical approaches and sociolinguistic variation. After introductory chapters on the physiology and acoustics of pitch, he describes in detail the forms and functions of intonation in English and discusses the sociolinguistic and dialectal variations in intonation. The concluding chapter provides an overview of the state of the art in intonational studies.