Abstract:

English is a tone language, its tone pattern is part of sentence structure. In English, intonation has extraordinary significance to transfer information. The importance has attracted widespread attention at home and abroad. The tone has different functions: the accentual function, the semantic function, the grammatical function, and the attitudinal function. Different functions have different effects on communication. When Chinese people talk with native English speakers, they often failed to continue because of incorrectly understanding of intonation. The study is started in this backdrop. Through theresearch of dialogue in “Growing Pains”, analyze English words, sentences with different stress and produce different meanings. The purpose is to understand the using features of stress function, so promote Chinese students with a better understanding when studying English intonation function in English, and to promote the communicative ability.

Key words: Intonation function , Stress function

摘要：

语调是语言在使用中所体现的特征，英语是一种语调语言,其语调模式是句子结构的一部分.英语中,语调l对信息的传递有着非同寻常的重要意义.这一重要性已经引起了国内外语言学家的广泛注意.而语调又有不同的功能:重音功能,语义功能,表态功能,语法功能.不同的功能对交际有着不同的影响.中国人在与英语本族语者交流时,常会因为语调理解不当而导致交际不能进行.本研究正是在这样的大背景下展开的.通过对《成长的烦恼》中对白的研究，分析英语话语中字、词、句重音不同而产生的不同意义。目的是了解重音功能的使用特点，从而使中国学生学习英语时更好的理解英语语调功能，促使交际能力的进步。

关键词：语调功能，重音功能

1.    Introduction
 As is known, English is an intonation language, and intonation is regarded as its soul, which is the key factor in oral communication. It may indicate different attitudes of the speaker, reflect varied emotive status and transfer varieties of intentions.
Pike (1972:56 Cited in Raphael O. Atoye, 2005) once stated the communicative impact of intonation in the following words:
“Actually, we often react more violently to the intonational meanings than the lexical ones; if a man’s tone of voice belies his words, we immediately assume that the intonation more faithfully reflects his true linguistic intentions.”