Is there a branch of science that studies how the meaning of sentences can change depending on how they are spoken?

Would that be a science or an art?

And, BTW “Dude” has many of the same attributes as your example “No”. It is extremely versatile and depending upon the inflection and tone can assume a wide variety of meanings.

Sounds like it could be partially linguistics and partially philology

I love this Q and will be watching.
Consider this example: “Is he the one?”

Now repeat it stressing different words. The meaning is totally different.

An example of the oddities of English from “Young Sheldon” that was on last night.

Missy had English homework in which she had to identify complete sentences from incomplete ones. The first example was “Most of the country”. Brother Georgie said it didn’t look like a complete sentence to him.

Missy then said to ask her “Who drives pickup trucks?” and when he did so she answered “Most of the country”. They both decided it sounded like a complete thought then.

Linguistics, and as noted in the question, specifically intonation.

Wikipedia – Intonation – In linguistics, intonation is variation in spoken pitch when used, not for distinguishing words (a concept known as tone), but, rather, for a range of other functions such as indicating the attitudes and emotions of the speaker, signalling the difference between statements and questions, and between different types of questions, focusing attention on important elements of the spoken message and also helping to regulate conversational interaction.

If you’ve not been exposed before, you might be amazed at the enormous breadth of the subject. People make careers of studying in excruciating detail what we take for granted every time we speak. For example, see the lengthy wiki page for dipthong.

Thanks for the Wikipedia reference. Of particular interest, in tonal languages like Mandarin Chinese, differences in tone are used to distinguish words which are otherwise pronounced identically, so intonation is different from English. It would be interesting to hear a recording of how this works.

Even without study, we all practice an ad hoc sort of science when we distinguish surprise or sarcasm or anger from ordinary discourse by the way a word is uttered. How many ways can we say “Really?”

Which of us hasn’t heard or spoken the words, “It’s not what you said, it’s how you said it.”?

Try speaking a sentence like this and see how the implicit meaning of a simple declarative sentence changes when we stress different words: “I’ve been here for a long while.” (Naturally, context is also important.)

Sociolinguistics, including that of the Deborah Tannen variety, sheds some light.

For an interesting take on the delivery of a word or phrase and its varying import, have a look at a BBC series called Playing Shakespeare, a master class from 1982 with some leading actors, some of whom (McKellen, Stewart) are still playing principal roles. A main theme is how the dramatist’s words are rendered and interpreted by an actor.

In one episode, director Barton puts an actor through the exercise of uttering the same phrase with a range of expression to convey different meanings. A slight change can be subtle but effective.

Which of us hasn’t heard or spoken the words, “It’s not what you said, it’s how you said it.”?

I still cringe with guilt at an experiment we performed on our dog. We said “Good girl! You are such a good girl!” But we said it the tone normally used for, “BAD girl!! You are so bad! You ate my shoes!”

She flattened out on the floor, put her ears back and cowered. My heart hurts just thinking about it. I loved that dog so much.

We immediately embraced her, gave her a hot dog, and ran around the yard with her in atonement.

One time, decades ago, I was in a relationship with a group I would soon leave, as I considered them both too nosy and too judgmental. I knew a particular question would soon be asked of me, so I planned an answer based upon the idea that the words were absolutely true, but my intonation would make them think the opposite was true. Looking back, I recognize that when I said it with that intonation, it was actually a lie. “Oh, what a tangled web we weave . . . .”

@Qav That reminds me of a Simpson’s episode where an old guy is retiring. As he’s walking out the door, they ask him if he has any parting words of wisdom.
He turns and says “Remember, you can’t use too much cooling water!” and leaves.

They start arguing among themselves Does that mean we need more water, or we should use less water? The arguing continues as a warning light begins to flash. As the camera zooms out we see a mushroom cloud rising in the distance.

It’s called linguistics and applied linguistics (yes, there’s a difference). I’ve been reading quite a bit about it lately.