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Intonation and meaning

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Abstract

A general theory of meaning is introduced, based on a distinction between the content of a mental act and its mode of arousal. The distinction is extended to speech acts and to the role of intonation in determining their mode of utterance. Difference judgments based on intonation are used to produce a mode space with dimensions of Credence, Option, Salience, Arousal, and Weak Belief. It is argued that the modal function of intonations should not be restricted to the enrichment of declarations. The distinction between mode and content is used to separate the specficially linguistic content of intonations from other contents which they convey perceptually and by implication.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Educational Research Centre, St. Patrick's College, Dublin 9, Ireland

    Owen Egan

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  1. Owen Egan
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Additional information

This research was supported by a Canada Council Doctoral Fellowship) (W70 3030, W71 4373).

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Egan, O. Intonation and meaning. J Psycholinguist Res 9, 23–39 (1980). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01067300

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01067300

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