ABSTRACT
That intonational features of languages may differ from one language to another is evident from even a casual analysis; such differences have been documented in numerous contrastive studies, and foreign-language learners – especially those learning English – are often given training in intonation on the assumption that there is something for them to learn. But it is also frequently asserted that intonation may actually be rather similar across different languages, and there have been discussions of intonational ‘universals’ (Bolinger 1964, 1978; Cruttenden 1981, 1986; Ladd 1981; Ohala 1983; Vaissière 1983); the assumption behind such assertions is that all languages must do rather similar things with intonation, and that they have rather similar means of doing them, the differences being superficial and rather insignificant.
