The Communicative Value of Intonation in English

The Communicative Value of Intonation in English, originally published in 1985 by the English Language Research unit in Birmingham and revised in 1992, sets out David Brazil's description of the system of intonation in English. This model of English intonation takes a discourse-based approach and attempts to assign 'meaning' or a communicative value to the different aspects that make up the system of intonation. Chapters within the book descibe parts of the intonation system which vary according to speaker choice: the tone unit as a whole, prominence, key, pitch and orientation. Three chapters are devoted to tones and their communicative value. This is an important and controversial work, which has influenced scholars in the field and ELT materials writers alike. A cassette containing all the examples of intonation features in the book is available.