Intonation and Inflection---It Keeps us from being Robots!

English is a musical language when you think about it. Consider this seven word sentence: "I DIDN'T SAY HE STOLE THE MONEY." I can say that sentence in seven different ways so that it has seven different meanings simply by placing stress on each succeeding word. Watch: "I didn't say he stole the money."(with the stress heavily on "I") means someone ELSE said he stole the money......If I stress "DIDN'T", the sentence now means I am protesting my innocence after someone has accused me......If I stress the word "SAY", it means I only "SUGGESTED" he stole the money. Maybe I hinted that he stole it, but I didn't SAY it!.....If I stress the word"HE", I now mean I think someone else took it....If I stress the word "STOLE", I maybe suggesting the idea that the money was only "BORROWED" and not stolen.....If I stress the word "THE", I didn't say he stole "THE" money, but some OTHER money.... and finally if I stress the word MONEY, I could be suggesting that perhaps he didn't steal money at all but stole JEWELRY!......It can be a strange language, this language of ours!