Abstract
The article so proposed summarizes the results of the experimental & phonetic research of sounding speech intonation based on the material of the French, Kazakh and Russian languages. It considers intonation component functions (of melodics, duration, and intensity). A set of prosodic means is identified that convey the intonational specifics of sounding speech, and the relevant intonational components in interconnection and in combination that participate in the differentiation of utterances. Universal properties of intonation components, linguistic meanings as well as their role in the presentation of sounding speech are determined. The results of the research are based on the experimental data, and on the generalization of general provisions of the theory of intonation in the light of the current trends of general linguistics.