Actuality of the problem. Just like Latin was the language meant to gather people as the Roman Empire went on its row of conquests all over Europe and later, during the Enlightenment Period, it was French, at this moment English has this function.

However, as English has become more and more popular, people of all cultures learn and speak the language around the whole world. We should ask ourselves, then, how much English language is influenced by other languages and how much of this influence is acceptable.

Even being English the most spoken language in the world, its pronunciation is many times considered less important than grammar or written comprehension. But it must be remembered that the four main abilities of a language - reading, writing, listening and speaking - have all the same importance. Or even, as history recalls: Register came only after oral communication.

If the students are taught intonation at the same time that they learn vocabulary or grammar, like it happens when they learn their mother language, it would be easier for them to learn to speak the language naturally.

That's why I chose this theme for my course paper.

There are a variety of methods for recording intonation patterns in writing and the advantages and disadvantages of some of the commoner ones. The first three methods reflect variations in pitch only:

1. The method introduced by Ch. Fries involves drawing a line around the sentence to show relative pitch heights.

2. According to the second method the syllables are written at different heights across the page. The method is particularly favoured by D. Bolinger. This method is quite inconvenient as application wants a special model of print.

3. According to the third, “levels" method, a number of discrete levels of pitch are recognized, and the utterance is marked accordingly. This method was favoured by some American linguists such as K. L. Pike and others who recognized four levels of pitch, low, normal, high and extra-high, numbering them from 1-4. Since most linguists who have adopted this method have favoured low-to-high numbering. This notation corresponds to the pattern of the example illustrating the first method.

4. The fourth method is favoured by most of the British phoneticians such as D. Jones, R. Kingdon, J. O'Conner and G. Arnold, M. Holliday, D. Crystal and others, as well as by phoneticians who have successfully developed and improved it. This method has a number of advantages. Firstly, not only variations of pitch but also stressed syllable are marked. Secondly, distinct modifications of pitch in the nuclear syllable are indicated by special symbols, i. e. by a downward and an upward arrow or a slantwise stress mark. More than that. Pitch movements in the pre-nuclear part can be indicated too. Thirdly, it is very convenient for marking intonation in texts. One of the disadvantages of this method is that there has been no general agreement about the number of terminal tones and pre-nuclear parts English intonation system requires in order to provide adequate description. So the simplest recognizes only two tones, a fall and a rise-easy to distinguish, but not sufficient for the phonological analysis. Intonation is a powerful means of human intercommunication. The communicative function the main function of intonation. One of the aims of communication is the exchange of information between people. The meaning of an English utterance, i. e. the information it conveys to a listener, derives not only from the grammatical structure, the lexical composition and the sound pattern. It also derives from variations of intonation, i. e. of its prosodic parameters. The communicative function of intonation is realized in various ways which can be grouped under five general headings. Intonation serves:

1. To structure the information content of a textual unit so as to show which information is new or cannot be taken for granted, as against information which the listener is assumed to possess or to be able to acquire from the context, that is given information.

2. To determine the speech function of a phrase, i. e. to indicate whether it is intended as a statement, question, command, etc.

3. To convey conational meanings of “attitude" such as surprise, annoyance, enthusiasm, involvement, etc. This can include whether meanings are intended, over and above the meaning conveyed by the lexical items and the grammatical structure. The difference between a sincere intention and a sarcastic one would be conveyed by the intonation. Note that in the written form, here are only the lexics and the grammar. The written medium has very limited resources for marking intonation, and the meanings conveyed by it have to be shown, if at all, in other ways.

4. To structure a text. Intonation is an organizing mechanism. On the one hand, it delimitates texts into smaller units, i. e. phonetic passages, phrases and intonation groups, on the other hand, it integrates these smaller constituents forming a complete text.

5. To differentiate the meaning of textual units of the same grammatical structure and the same lexical composition, which is the distinctive or phonological function of intonation.

6. To characterize a particular style or variety of oral speech which may be called the stylistic function. There is no general agreement about either the number or the headings of the functions of intonation which can be illustrated by the difference in the approach to the subject by some prominent phoneticians. T. M. Nikolajeva names the three functions of intonations: delimitating, integrating and semantic functions suggests the semantic, syntactic functions the former being the primary and the two letter being the secondary functions singles out the fallowing main functions of intonation: communicative, distinctive, delimitating, expressive, appellative, aesthetic, integrating. Intonation is a powerful not possible to devorce any function of intonation from that of communication. In oral English the smallest piece of information is associated with an intonation group, that is a unit of intonation containing the nucleus. There is no exact match between punctuation in writing and intonation groups in speech. Speech is more variable in its structuring of information than writing. Cutting up speech into intonation groups depends on such things as the speed at which you are speaking, what emphasis you want to give to the parts of the message, and the length of grammatical units. A single phrase may have just one intonation group; but when the length of phrase goes beyond a certain point, it is difficult not to split it into two or more separate pieces of information. Accentual systems involve more than singling out important words by accenting them. Intonation group or phrase accentuation focuses on the nucleus of these intonation units.

The aim is defining general, functional characteristics of intonation as text-organizing means.

The object is theoretical phonetics of the English language.

The subject is intonation system of English language in the process of historical development

The tasks of the research:

Intonation is a language universal. There are no languages which are spoken without any change of prosodic parameters but intonation functions in various languages in a different way.

There are two main approaches to the problem of intonation in Great Britain. One is known as a contour analysis and the other may be called grammatical.

The first is represented by a large group of phoneticians: H. Sweet, D. Jones, G. Palmer, L. Armstrong, I. Ward, R. Kingdon, J. O'Connor, A. Gimson and others. It is traditional and widely used. According to this approach the smallest unit to which linguistic meaning can be attached is a tone-group (sense-group). Their theory is based on the assumption that intonation consists of basic functional "blocks". They pay much attention to these "blocks" but not to the way they are connected. Intonation is treated by them as a layer that is superimposed on the lexico-grammatical structure. In fact the aim of communication determines the intonation structure, not vice versa.

The grammatical approach to the study of intonation was worked out by M. Halliday. The main unit of intonation is a clause. Intonation is a complex of three systemic variables: tonality, tonicity and tone, which are connected with grammatical categories. Tonality marks the beginning and the end of a tone-group. Tonicity marks the focal point of each tone-group. Tone is the third unit in Halliday's system. Tones can be primary and secondary. They convey the attitude of the speaker. Hallyday's theory is based on the syntactical function of intonation.

The founder of the American school of intonation K. Pike in his book "The Intonation of American English" considers "pitch phonemes" and "contours" to be the main units of intonation. He describes different contours and their meanings, but the word "meaning" stands apart from communicative function of intonation.

There is wide agreement among Russian linguists that on perception level intonation is a complex, a whole, formed by significant variations of pitch, loudness and tempo closely related. Some Russian linguists regard speech timbre as the fourth component of intonation. Neither its material form nor its linguistic function has been thoroughly described. Though speech timbre definitely conveys certain shades of attitudinal or emotional meaning there is no good reason to consider it alongside with the three prosodic components of intonation, i. e. pitch, loudness and tempo.

M. Sokolova and others write that the term prosody embraces the three prosodic components and substitutes the term intonation. It is widely used in linguistic literature, it causes no misunderstanding and, consequently, it is more adequate. They feel strongly that this term would be more suitable for their book too, but, unfortunately, it has not been accepted in the teaching process yet.

Many foreign scholars (A. Gimson, R. Kingdon) restrict the formal definition of intonation to pitch movement alone, though occasionally allowing in variations of loudness as well. According to D. Crystal, the most important prosodic effects are those conveyed by the linguistic use of pitch movement, or melody. It is clearly not possible to restrict the term intonation by the pitch parameters only because generally all the three prosodic parameters function as a whole though in many cases the priority of the pitch parameter is quite evident.

There is no general agreement about either the number or the headings of the functions of intonation which can be illustrated by the difference in the approach to the subject by some prominent Russian phoneticians. T. M. Nikolayeva names three functions of intonation: delimitating, integrating and semantic. L. K. Tseplitis suggests the semantic, syntactic and stylistic functions the former being the primary and the two latter being the secondary functions. N. V. Cheremisina singles out the following main functions of intonation: communicative, distinctive (or phonological), delimitating, expressive, appellative, aesthetic, integrating. Other Russian and foreign phoneticians also display some difference in heading the linguistic functions of intonation.

D. Crystal distinguishes the following functions of intonation.

Emotional function's most obvious role is to express attitudinal meaning - sarcasm, surprise, reserve, impatience, delight, shock, anger, interest, and thousands of other semantic nuances.

Grammatical function helps to identify grammatical structure in speech, performing a role similar to punctuation. Units such as clause and sentence often depend on intonation for their spoken identity, and several specific contrasts, such as question/statement, make systematic use of it.

Informational function helps draw attention to what meaning is given and what is new in an utterance. The word carrying the most prominent tone in a contour signals the part of an utterance that the speaker is treating as new information.

Textual function helps larger units of meaning than the sentence to contrast and cohere. In radio news-reading, paragraphs of information can be shaped through the use of pitch. In sports commentary, changes in prosody reflect the progress of the action.

Psychological function helps us to organize speech into units that are easier to perceive and memorize. Most people would find a sequence of numbers, for example, difficult to recall. The task is made easier by using intonation to chunk the sequence into two units. Indexical function, along with other prosodic features, is an important marker of personal or social identity. Lawyers, preachers, newscasters, sports commentators, army sergeants, and several other occupations are readily identified through their distinctive prosody. [1,45]

1.2 Components of intonation and the structure of English intonation group