ABSTRACT

This chapter considers some of the putative universal properties of intonation. After a brief definition of intonation and tone, the chapter discusses whether all languages have intonation, including tone and pitch-accent languages as well as intonation languages. It then summarizes some of the cross-linguistic patterns that have been documented in how intonation is used to mark structure, to distinguish sentence types, to convey information structure and to express emotion. The chapter concludes with considerations of whether intonation is innate, and of what listening to the intonation of an unknown language might tell us about that language and how it is used.