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Find and mark the possible items of the following intonation patterns. Use the example to help you.

 

Ex. | I could have | \ kicked | myself.|

 
 

 


Pre-head Nucleus Tail

1. They oughtn’t to have \ told you.

2. What a terrible \ rail disaster!

3. ¯When \ will you be giving up, d’you think?

4. Jack’s ııstill in the \ bath.

5. It’s æno use ˙asking \ /Philip.

6. ¯Would you mind handing me that /brush?

7. /Did you ˙call him a ˙liar?

8. I’m afraid we’ve ˙finished your \ whisky.

9. Malcolm ˙isn’t \coming.

10. ııWhy don’t they ııwork in the \ evenings?

11. ˙Thank you very much in\ deed.

12. It’s \ Ann’s turn, you know.

 


Tunes and Tone Groups.

 

A simple tune may have a low pre-head, a high pre-head or no pre-head at all; it may have one of the three different kinds of head or no head at all; and it will have one of the six nuclear tones (with or without the appropriate tail). If every one of these parts of a tune can be combined with every other part, the total number of basic pitch patterns will be seventy-two, without even considering compound tunes. But it is not necessary to deal with seventy-two or more different units for two reasons:

1. Some of the patterns occur very much more frequently and with a much wider usefulness than others; attention must be concentrated, at least for a time, on the commonest ones.

2. Some patterns which are different have differences of meaning so slight that they would be very difficult to define in any very helpful way. Indeed some patterns which are different have exactly the same meaning, so far as the intonation is concerned. This is the case with the two examples below:

 

John was \ late.

But John was \ late.

 

The difference between the two tunes is certainly very slight – a low pitched unstressed syllable at the beginning of the second example which is absent in the first – but even so the actual patterns of pitch are not identical. Yet the meaning, or at any rate that part of it which the intonation gives, is exactly the same in both cases; and as it is meaning which is the really important factor, we can usefully group together any tunes which mean substantially the same. These groups of tunes all conveying the same attitude on the part of the speaker are called Tone Groups. The tunes within each tone group have pitch features in common which distinguish them from tunes belonging to any other tone group. Below are listed ten tone groups with a specification of all the features found in the tunes of each tone group. Items enclosed in brackets may be present or absent; unbracketed items must be present. Tails are not mentioned since their presence or absence never affects the intonation meaning.

 

Tone Group I: (Low Pre-Head +) (Low Head +) Low Fall.

 

E.g. \No. \Nobody. Im\possible.



It’s ri\diculous. I ııcan’t be \bothered.

ııDon’t \mention it. ııJohn’s about \thirty.

 

Tone Group II: (Low Pre-Head +) Stepping Head + Low Fall or High Pre-Head + Low Fall.

 

E.g. Sit \down. What a \pity!

What a perfectly awful thing to \happen!

He expected everyone else to think as \he did.

¯The \brute! ¯Good \morning. ¯It was ap\palling.

 

Tone Group III: (Low Pre-Head +) (Low Head +) High Fall.

 

E.g. \No. \Nonsense. It’s ab\surd.

ııWhy did you \do it?

I could ııhardly beıılieve my \eyes.

 

Tone Group IV: (Low Pre-Head +) Stepping Head + High Fall or (Low Pre-Head +) High Fall(s) + High Fall or High Pre-Head + High Fall.

 

E.g. What’s \that? I can’t be\lieve it.

I can’t imagine why he \ did it.

\When did you \order it? I \don’t want \anything.

¯Why \me? ¯By \all means ıask him.

 

Tone Group V: (Low Pre-Head +) (Stepping Head +) Rise Fall.

 

E.g. ^Yes. ^Certainly. ^Lot’s of ıpeople ıdo it.

It’s ri^diculous. I can i^magine.

I can hardly wait to ^hear about it.

 

Tone Group VI: (Low Pre-Head +) (Low Head +) Low Rise.

 

E.g. /No. /That ·won’t ·matter.

It’s ııall /right.

ııNobody’s going to ııtake it a/way from you.

 

Tone Group VII: (Low Pre-Head +) Stepping Head + Low Rise or High Pre-Head + Low Rise.

 

E.g. What’s /that? Try not to be /late.

Will you be staying to /lunch?

¯Is /John ·coming? ¯Hul/lo.

 

Tone Group VIII: (Low Pre-Head +) (Stepping Head +) High Rise.

 

E.g. /Sugar? Is /this the ·one?

You think I’ll en/joy it?

What’s /that did you ·say?

 

Tone Group IX: (Low Pre-Head +) (Sliding Head +) Fall-Rise or (Low Pre-Head +) (High Fall(s) +) Fall-Rise.

 

E.g. \/Possibly. \/Some people can ·do it.

You can \/try.

æNobody ·wants to \/force you to ·do it.

It æisn’t ·only a æquestion of \/money.

It’s \not my \/brother’s ·fault.

I \don’t think you \/ought to ·go.

 

Tone Group X: (Low Pre-Head +) (Stepping Head +) High Fall + Low Rise.

 

E.g. \That’s /John. \That’s the ııone I /wanted.

I should \like one of /those.

I shouldn’t be surprised if it was \over by the ııtime we /get there.

 

The High Pre-Head, which is mentioned only in Tone Group II, IV and VII above, also occurs instead of the Low Pre-Head in other cases. These cases and the contribution which the High Pre-Head makes to the meaning of utterances will be dealt with at the end of the next chapter.

 

Answer the following questions:

 

1. Why do we mark out only 10 main pitch patterns not dealing with all the variety of them?

2. What is the definition of a tone group?


II


Date: 2016-01-05; view: 1216


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