English intonation

[Anonymous]

Dear teacher,

In the sentence It's interesting if people lay stress on the word people and use falling intonation it can suggest three meanings: 1. sacastic. 2. A polite way to say I don't agree with you. 3. To help the speaker to get out of an akward situation. In the first case the intonation has a lexical function. What about the rest two? Are they semantic functions or lexical functions? To me they are semantic functions? Am I right? I am looking forward to hearing from you.

Thank you in advance.

Jiang

 

[RonBee]

• It's interesting if people lay stress on the word people and use falling intonation.

Is that the sentence?

 

[Casiopea]

Dear teacher,

In the sentence "It's interesting", if people lay stress on the word interesting and use falling intonation it can suggest three meanings: 1. sarcastic. 2. A polite way to say I don't agree with you. 3. To help the speaker to get out of an akward situation.
In the first case the intonation has a lexical function. What about the other two? Do they have a semantic functions or lexical functions? To me they have a semantic function? Am I right? I am looking forward to hearing from you.

It's [pause] interesting, with falling intonation on the word 'interesting' expresses the following: 1. sarcasm, 2. disagreement, 3. I really don't care to think about it.)

 

[Tdol]

I would say that they are semantic rather than lexical. The functions they perform don't really strike me as lexical. It could also be argued that the sarcasm is semantic. ;-)

 

[Casiopea]

I would say that they are semantic rather than lexical. The functions they perform don't really strike me as lexical. It could also be argued that the sarcasm is semantic. ;-)

Agreed. If it were lexical, then interesting would have three separate lexical entries, as in the stress different between a noun and verb that share the same form (an example fails me at the mo'). Intonation is supra-linguistic: above the lexicon.

 

[Tdol]

Import\record

Even here the stress is semantic, imho,- it changes grammatical form.
HTH ;-)

 

[Casiopea]

Import\record

Even here the stress is semantic, imho,- it changes grammatical form.
HTH ;-)

import and record don't share the same form, shape.

 

[jiang]

Thanks and further explanation

• It's interesting if people lay stress on the word people and use falling intonation.

Is that the sentence?

Thank you very much for your reply. The sentence should be:

In the sentence 'It's interesting' if people lay stress on the word interesting and use falling intonation it can suggest three meanings....

I am looking forward to hearing from you.

Thank you in advance.

Jiang

 

[RonBee]

Re: Thanks and further explanation

• It's interesting if people lay stress on the word people and use falling intonation.

Is that the sentence?

Thank you very much for your reply. The sentence should be:

In the sentence 'It's interesting' if people lay stress on the word interesting and use falling intonation it can suggest three meanings....

Thank you. Cas's interpretation was the correct one then.

 

[jiang]

I would say that they are semantic rather than lexical. The functions they perform don't really strike me as lexical. It could also be argued that the sarcasm is semantic. ;-)

What does your last sentence mean? Does it mean you think even when it is sarcastic it should be semantic rather than lexical?