Watch the clip of an episode of Friends at:
Intonation is the pattern of rising or falling of the voice as we speak. Patterns of intonation carry subtle meaning but can seriously influence
understanding of the spoken words. If the same phrase is spoken twice,
but with different intonation each time, the meaning can be interpreted completely
differently each time. In very general terms, if a statement ends in a rising
tone there is the suggestion of a closed (yes/no) question being asked. If just a phrase is spoken, rather than a
complete sentence, there is less verbal structure to assist meaning and the
intonation takes on a more significant role. In a case like this, if the intonation is misunderstood it is highly likely that there will be communication breakdown.
This video clip (from 05 mins 07 secs to 06 mins 17 secs), focuses on an incident in one episode of the sit-com series Friends, that arises due to a misunderstanding caused by intonation. In this segment, which lasts for only just over a minute, one phrase spoken by one of the girls as they all leave the apartment in a hurry leads them to return to the apartment later without any keys. What was the phrase and why did they not have the keys when they returned?
This video clip (from 05 mins 07 secs to 06 mins 17 secs), focuses on an incident in one episode of the sit-com series Friends, that arises due to a misunderstanding caused by intonation. In this segment, which lasts for only just over a minute, one phrase spoken by one of the girls as they all leave the apartment in a hurry leads them to return to the apartment later without any keys. What was the phrase and why did they not have the keys when they returned?
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