Literary notes about inflection (AI summary)
The term "inflection" is employed in literature with a multifaceted significance, ranging from the modulation of vocal tone to denote emotion or attitude to the grammatical alteration of words that conveys nuances in meaning. In narrative passages, it is used to describe shifts in a speaker’s voice that reveal feelings such as hesitation or sarcasm—subtleties that enrich character dialogue ([1], [2], [3]). At the same time, scholarly works on language meticulously outline inflection as a systematic change in word forms that defines verb conjugations, noun declensions, and degrees of comparison, thereby anchoring the structural integrity of a language ([4], [5], [6]). Moreover, discussions on effective speech delivery highlight its critical role in shaping the pitch and cadence of sentences, influencing how ideas and emotions are communicated to an audience ([7], [8], [9]).
- He said no more, and I had to guess the rest from the inflection of his voice and his sharp relapse into silence.
— from Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton - He spoke to her in low tones, and she instinctively modulated her own to the same pitch, and her voice ultimately even caught the inflection of his.
— from Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy - “I assure you I did”—still with the sarcastic inflection which all the children, and Anne especially, hated.
— from Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery - Inflection is a change in the form of a word indicating some change in its meaning: as,— boy , boy’s ; man , men ; drink , drank .
— from An Advanced English Grammar with Exercises by Frank Edgar Farley and George Lyman Kittredge - The inflection of a verb is called its conjugation ( § 53 ).
— from An Advanced English Grammar with Exercises by Frank Edgar Farley and George Lyman Kittredge - Inflection is a change of form in a word indicating some change in its meaning.
— from An Advanced English Grammar with Exercises by Frank Edgar Farley and George Lyman Kittredge - Illustrate ( a ) trembling, ( b ) hesitation, and ( c ) doubt by means of inflection.
— from The Art of Public Speaking by Dale Carnegie and J. Berg Esenwein - It is the power of inflection to change the meaning of words that gave birth to the old saying: "It is not so much what you say, as how you say it."
— from The Art of Public Speaking by Dale Carnegie and J. Berg Esenwein - Remember, we are not now discussing the inflection of single words, but the general pitch in which phrases are spoken.
— from The Art of Public Speaking by Dale Carnegie and J. Berg Esenwein
