The Rising Tone

The Rising type of pitch change in English has two structural varieties:

1) the rise of the voice takes place on the stressed syllable;

2) the rise is carried by the unstressed syllables following the stressed one while the latter is pronounced on a steady pitch. The first variant occurs when the nuclear syllable is the last syllable of an intonation group, i.e. when there is no tail; the second is found in intonation groups having a tail,

e.g.: Yes ____ I know it. ___________ Beautiful. __________

____ ___________ __________

For practical purposes four relevant variants of a nuclear rise should be distinguished in English.

4.1.1 Formsof the Rising Tone:

1 The Mid Wide Rise ( m). The voice rises from a mid to a high pitch level, e.g.

Is it o k? Did you take my papers, Wendy?

__________ _________________________

2 The High Narrow Rise ( m). The voice rises from a mid high to the top of the voice range, for example: ΄Jack? ΄Pardon?

__________ _____________

3 The Low Wide Rise ( m). The voice rises from a low to a mid high pitch level, for example: ,June,| Ju ly, | ,August… .

___________________

4 The Low Narrow Rise ( m). The voice rises from the bottom and ends in the mid low zone, as in (preceded by low head)

I don’t ,mind. Nobody’s ,happy.

___________ _____________

4.4.2 Functions of the Rising tone:

1 The Mid Wide Rise (MWR) is typically used in genuine Yes/No questions where the speaker does not know the answer; in alternative (the 1^st intonation group) and tag questions (the 2^nd intonation group with the condition that the speaker is uncertain).

Examples: Isn’t he nice? Do you take cream in your coffee? Was that in April or `May? They won’t `come, will they?

2 The High Narrow Rise (HNR) is used when the speaker is asking for repetition or clarification, or indicating disbelief.

For example: 1) A: I’m taking up Taxidermy this autumn. - B: Taking up ′what? (clarification). 2) A: She passed her driving test. – B: She ′passed?

3 The Low Wide Rise (LWR) is

- commonly pronounced in unfinished parts of utterances indicating that a continuation is going to follow (for example, in adverbial or subordinate clause followed by a main clause).

E.g.: When I passed my last e,xam | I was very `happy. If you ,see him, | give my `message. He ‘joined the army | and spent all his time in `Aldershot;

- can be used in independent utterances with an effect of the speaker’s interest in the situation and in the listener’s response:

e.g.: I’ll be back by ,lunch-time; Where did you ,put it?

- used in enumerations (lists), showing incompleteness. If the list is closed, the falling tone is used on the final item.

For example: I got ‘calls from ,Jason, ,Mary, ,Neil, and ‵Joe.

4 The Low Narrow Rise (LNR) is associated with non-assertiveness and lack of interest. It is used in various remarks, afterthoughts, etc.

E.g.: Of ,course. I’ll `do it | if you don’t ,mind.

Speech Exercises

<== попередня сторінка	\|	наступна сторінка ==>
Ex. 3 Extend the following tunes pronouncing the phrases given in brackets a) as the head, b) as the prehead, c) as the tail.	\|	Ex. 1 Read out the phrases reproducing the indicated variants of the Rising tone.

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