Introduction

In the preceding chapters we described how an analysis was made of the melodic properties of Dutch and British English intonation, and gave the results in terms of ‘intonation grammars’. We explained what these grammars are claimed to do.

In this chapter we will concentrate on applications. It will become apparent that these should not be thought to lie exclusively in the domain of speech technology.

We will make a dichotomy between already existing and implemented applications, on the one hand (7.1), and potential applications, on the other (7.2). With respect to the first, we will deal with a course of Dutch intonation, to be used by, among others, people who want to study Dutch as a second language (7.1.1). Subsequently, we will present some promising results obtained in investigations on the use of an intonable electrolarynx by laryngectomees (7.1.2). Section 7.1.3 will deal with the incorporation of some rules for Dutch intonation in aids for otherwise vocally handicapped people. In section 7.1.4 we will illustrate how the experimental phonetic analysis may help to focus on a number of specific intonation-related linguistic problems.

With respect to potential applications, we will briefly discuss (section 7.2.1) why we expect that Dutch students of foreign languages will benefit from the explicit description of the melodic possibilities as obtained in the analysis of intonation in languages other than Dutch.