Intonation

German – like English and Italian – is classified as an intonation language. Intonation languages differ from tone languages in that the speech melody operates at the postlexical level (i.e. a change in the speech melody of a word does not imply a change in the meaning of that word). Intonation in such languages has three main functions: (i) it structures the speech flow in units, (ii) it contributes to encode the information structure of utterances and (iii) it serves to structure and organize interaction in conversation and to characterize specific communicative actions as such.