Unit 2. Falling-Rising and Rising-Falling Tones fn English

A. FALLING-RISING TONES

The falling-rising tone (sometimes called complex) is a bi-directional tone which means that there is a change in the direction of the pitch movement associated with one stressed syllable.

The fall and the rise may be combined within one syllable.

However, when the nuclear syllable is not the last syllable of the intonation-group (or rhythmic group), the Fall-Rise is split in form, the fall being carried by the nucleus and the rise -by the tail.

It should be noted that the first element of the Fall-Rise - the fall - is phonetically more prominent than the second.

According to the latter feature it is useful to distinguish between 2 varieties of the falling-rising tone: high and low varieties.

\/ Sometimes. _vSometimes.

Fromthe semantic point of view the falling-rising nuclear tone has an implicate meaning: utterances with this nuclear tone give the impression that the speaker intends thehearer to understand more than the words themselves convey. The implications include: emphasis, contrast, contradiction, correction, hesitation, doubt, uncertainty, warning, apology, etc. In eachcase the exact implication is understood from the context.

* He is crazy about computer games, isn't he? - Well, he \/ used to, | but it's all changed now. (contradiction)

* Just beyond the coffee-room was the post-room. And \/ Arthur's ^. room |was about 3 doors along. (emphasis)

* I'd like to have a word with you. - I'm rather \/ busy |just at _vpresent. (apology)

The falling-rising tone has an important modification: the so-called Fall-Rise Divided. The two elements of the Fall-Rise in this case are realized on two different words, which both acquire nuclear prominence:

* ^\ Not _/quite. It ^\ doesn’t _|really _/matter.

It must be emphasized that functionally the divided variant of the Fall-Rise is very similar to the undivided falling-rising tone: it also gives an implicatory meaning to the utterance.

* Are you upset about it? - 'Not \/ really.

Are you upset about it? - ^\ Not _/really.

It is clear from the above examples that the difference between the variants lies in the number of prominent ideas: the Fall-Rise Divided makes two ideas prominent instead of one.

A. RISING-FALLING TONES

 

The rising-falling tone is a bidirectional, or complex, tone (like the Fall-Rise), because it comprises two elements - a rise and a fall - which can be combined within one syllable: the voice first rises from a fairly low (or mid) to a high pitch and then quickly falls to the bottom of the voice-range.

* / ^\ Nice.

However, the rising-falling glide may be distributed between two or even three syllables. According to the number of syllables involved in the pitch change three structural variants of the nuclear rising-falling tone are distinguished: one-syllable type, two-syllable type, three-syllable type.

Three-syllable type. It's natural that this type of the rising-falling tone may occur only when the last stressed (nuclear) syllable of an utterance is followed by no less than two unstressed syllables.

* I 'm / ^\sure I can.

Two-syllable type. In this type the Rise-Fall is spread over two syllables, the first of which is stressed and pronounced on a steady mid-low pitch, while the second starts at the top of the normal voice-range and falls without stress to the bottom.

* / ^\Never.

One-syllable type. In this type the entire Rise-Fall is concentrated on one syllablewhich carries both the rise and the fall.

* / ^\No.

The difference between the three structural variants is not only in the form but also in the function: the unstressed syllables involved in the rising-falling movement get their part of semantic prominence.

The second element of the rising-falling tone - the fall - is phonetically more prominent than the first element - the rise: the interval of the fall is wider than that of the rise. The falling element is also more important functionally. The rising-falling tone has all the definiteness and finality of a falling tone, but it also gives the conversation a much more lively and emotional style.

The rising-falling nuclear tone can be compared with the falling-rising nuclear tone both in form and in function. The complex nature of their form leads to a specific functional characteristic, which might be called implicatory. The implications of the two tones, however, are of a different kind: in the Fall-Rise it is basically a continuation of the information already contained in theutterance, it is so-to-speak lexically

predicted. In the Rise-Fall the implication is basically of a modal-attitudinal: the Rise-Fall often gives the impression that what the speaker says is in conflict with his own or his listener's previous opinion. That is why it is sometimes called a quizzical tone.