Bernard Shaw once said a wonderful thing: “There are 50 ways to say yes, as many ways to say no. But there's only one way to write it down. This is about intonation. After all, with its help you can not only express a thought, but also convey your attitude to what was said. What is intonation? Why is it so necessary?
Definition
Intonation is a change in the strength, tempo and tone of speech. In other words, it is a variation of the sound of the voice. The main types of intonation are as follows: narrative, exclamatory and interrogative. The first variant is characterized by an even and calm pronunciation, but the last syllable is pronounced a little lower than the rest. For example, "You got a ticket to Hawaii" is simply stating a fact.
Bright emotional coloring and emphasizing the most important word in a higher tone - this refers to the exclamatory type of phonetic organization of speech ("You took a ticket to Hawaii!"). In sentences of the latter type, a question word is emphasized with increased intonation. It's doneregardless of whether it is at the beginning or at the end of the phrase ("Did you get a ticket to Hawaii?").
Why change intonation?
The human voice is a wonderful instrument. If you use it correctly, then with its help you can enliven the performance, move the audience, even cause a tear. And most importantly - to encourage action. In everyday speech, this is usually not a problem. But when it comes to public speaking, there may be some difficulties.
Speech, even very meaningful, but without any changes in intonation, is similar to the work of a typewriter, which mints letters at the same pace. It is ideal that the sound of the voice resembles a melodic playing of a musical instrument. Some speakers, due to excitement or the fact that they are trying to read an already written text, forget about what intonation is. Therefore, their speech sounds really monotonous. Such performances are lulling. In addition, if the speaker does not change the strength, pitch or tempo of the voice, then one cannot understand his personal attitude to his own words.
How to do it?
But this cannot be achieved with some technical tricks. For example, mark in the summary of the speech where it is necessary to add the strength of the voice, and where to increase the tempo. Such a report will lead the audience into bewilderment. Experienced speakers say that the secret of their success is that they try to imbue themselves with the thoughts that they want to convey to the audience. And then the intonation of speech does not sound artificially, butSincerely.
Changing the strength of the voice
This technique is not just a periodic increase or decrease in volume, which occurs with boring monotony. First of all, it would distort the meaning of what was said. On the other hand, too frequent and unjustified amplification of the voice would cut the ear. It would look like someone is turning the volume up and down on the radio from time to time.
The strength of the voice is mainly determined by the material itself. For example, if you need to express an urgent request, order, condemnation or deep conviction, then increasing the volume of speech would be very appropriate. Also in this way, you can highlight the main points of the statement. Secondary thoughts must be expressed by weakening the volume and accelerating the pace of speech. A tense and muffled voice conveys excitement and anxiety. But if you always speak too quietly, then the audience may perceive this as insecurity or indifference to their own words. Sometimes the unjustified use of the intensity of the sound of speech can not achieve the ultimate goal of the statement. This happens in those cases when words need just not strength, but cordiality.
What is intonation: change of tempo
In everyday conversations, words flow easily and spontaneously. If a person is excited about something, he speaks quickly. When he wants the audience to remember his words well, he slows down the pace. But in public speaking, this is not always easy. Especially if the speaker memorized the text by heart. In this case, his intonation is cold. Hefocused only on not forgetting something. Accordingly, the pace of his speech is likely to be the same throughout the speech.
In order not to make such mistakes, you need to learn the basic techniques of competent conversation technique. Speech should be speeded up on unimportant details or minor details. But the main thoughts, significant arguments or climactic points should be voiced slowly, clearly, with an arrangement. Another important point: you should never chatter so fast that diction suffers from it.
What is intonation: pitch
Without a change in key (modulation), speech would be devoid of euphony and emotionality. Joyful excitement and zeal can be conveyed by raising the tone, anxiety and sadness by lowering it. Emotions help the speaker to reach the heart of his listeners. This means that it will be faster to encourage them to take certain actions.
True, there are tonal languages (such as Chinese) in which pitch changes affect the meaning of the word itself. Therefore, there is a different concept of what intonation is. The Russian language is not one of them. But even in it, with the help of modulation, you can express different thoughts. For example, to turn a declarative sentence into an interrogative one, its final part is pronounced with an ascending intonation. As a result, we perceive the spoken phrase differently.
Intonation for any statement, whether it be everyday conversation or public speaking, is like spices for a dish. Without them, it is tasteless. Indeed, it must be usedmind so as not to overdo it. In this case, the speech will look feigned and insincere.
