3. The identificatory function of prosody is to provide a basis for the hearer’s identification of the communicative & modal type of an utterance, its semantic & syntactical structure in accordance with the situation of the discourse.
All the functions of prosody are fulfilled simultaneously & cannot be separated one from another. They show that utterance prosody is linguistically significant & meaningful.
Each language has a certain limited number of such meaningful units, capable of distinguishing utterances. They are defined as intonemes. or utterance prosodemes.
The prosodic system is characteristic of each language. The prosodic systems of one language are not the same in form as those of other languages. Nor do they necessarily express the same meanings, though there may be resemblances here & there.
Emphasizing the role of intonation in speech, R.Kingdon says: “Intonation is the soul of a language while the pronunciation of its sounds is its body…
Thus, the linguistic character of prosody can be summarized in the following way:
Prosody of speech is significant & meaningful.
Prosody is systematic. It is not invented in speaking but produced according to the system of prosodic structures of a given language.
Prosody is a characteristic feature of each concrete language & cannot be used in speaking another language.