Linguistics Encyclopedia.pdf

The linguistics encyclopedia 318
that users will be tolerant of very considerable phonetic variation within the range that
they will regard as realizations of the ‘same’ feature.
Variations in realization, which do not, however, affect the perception of oppositions
within the system, seem likely to account for many of the so-called ‘intonational’
differences between dialects, and even among languages. The bulk of the systematic
work carried out in intonation and related areas has concentrated upon English. There is a
fairly common assumption, but a more-or-less unexamined one, that the intonation
systems of different languages are radically different. Only by applying a method of
analysis which relates intonational choices functionally to what use speakers are making
of the language, can we hope to be in a position to compare like with like and to discover
to what extent differences are differences of system and to what extent they are
comparatively superficial matters of realization.
D.C.B.
SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING
Bolinger, D.L. (1985), Intonation and its Parts: Melody in Spoken English, London, Edward
Arnold.
Brazil, D.C. (1985), The Communicative Value of Intonation in English, (Discourse Analysis
Monograph, 8) English Language Research, University of Birmingham.
Crutenden, A. (1986), Intonation, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
Ladd, D.R. (1980), The Structure of Intonational Meaning, Bloomington, Indiana University Press.
Halliday, M.A.K. (1967), Intonation and Grammar in British English, The Hague, Mouton.