This study offers empirical evidence for the claim put forward by Uldall (1960), Gussenhoven (2002), Hirschberg (2002) and House (2006), among many others, that intonation can convey meanings that go beyond the informational value of any sentence and reflect the speakers attitude towards that information. Data are used to validate that claim for the particular variety of Peninsular Spanish. Political discourse is chosen because of its deliberate nature and clear objective, namely, to convince an audience. Affective meanings of intonation contours are derived from the socio-political context surrounding each of the speeches. Results show that speakers choice of intonation contours is motivated by and modifies the pragmatic context at the same time, thus confirming its ever-changing nature and prominent status in language studies.