Nucleus and tail.

The case we have just been discussing are important because all tunes, and not merely those with a single prominent word, must end in one of the ways described above. No matter how long or how short the sense group is, no matter how many or how few prominent words it contains, the pattern of its tune from the stressed syllable of the last prominent word onwards will correspond to one or other of the six general patterns. In the examples below all the prominent words are italicized and it can be seen that, although the tunes differ in various ways, the ending conform to the patterns already laid down.

Low Fall ending: I want to be absolutely sure about it.

High Fall ending: What on earth did you do that for, Peter?

Rise-Fall ending: I quite agree with you, my dear chap.

Low Rise ending: Would you like to come to the theatre with us?

High Rise ending: It’s not fair, did you say?

Fall Rise ending: I doubt whether that would be any good.

If, then, we know in general terms what tune we wish to use in saying any sense group, and if we can identify the stressed syllable of the last prominent word, we now know the exact pattern of the tune’s ending. Clearly the stressed syllable of the last prominent word is a landmark of the highest importance, and it is on this syllable that the whole tune centres. This syllable is called the nucleus of the tune, and syllables following the nucleus are called the tail. In our last example above the nucleus is that and the tail contains all the words would be any good.

The rises and falls which take place on the nucleus or start from it are known as nuclear tones, of which there are six, corresponding to the six tune endings already described. By definition there can be no prominent word in the tail, but the tail may contain stressed words; stress alone therefore, after the nucleus, does not imply accent. The last prominent word is accented, that is, made to stand out, not by stress alone, but by combination of stress and pitch features.

So far, in order to give a fairly complete picture of the intonation of our examples, we have used a graphic method of large and small dots. It is more convenient in practice to use a shorter and more economical method of marking the intonation. This consists of placing a single symbol immediately before the nucleus to indicate the nuclear tone; this symbol tells us, by its position and its shape, which syllable is the nucleus of the tune and which of the six main endings is to be used.

Low fall:	_\ Two.	_\ Twenty.	_\ Seventy.

High Fall:	^\Two.	^\Twenty.	^\Seventy.

Rise-Fall:	^Two.	^Twenty.	^Seventy.

Low Rise:	_/Two.	_/Twenty.	_/Seventy.

High Rise:	^/Two.	^/Twenty.	^/Seventy.

Fall-Rise:	^{\ /}Two.	^{\ /}Twenty.	^{\ /}Seventy.

Unstressed syllables in the tail have no separate symbol, but stressed syllables are marked, not because they make any difference to the intonation, but because they contribute to the rhythmical pattern of the sense group. The symbol [ _] is placed immediately before each stressed syllable on, or beginning on, the lowest pitch level, and the symbol [ ˙ ] before any stressed syllable which is higher than the lowest pitch.

Low Fall:	_\Two, _ıPeter.

High fall:	^\Two, you _ısilly _ıchap.

Rise-Fall:	^Two, in_ıdeed!

Low Rise:	_/Two, I ^·think.

High Rise:	^/Two, did you ^·say?

Fall-Rise:	^{\ /}Two, you _ımean.

<== попередня сторінка	\|	наступна сторінка ==>
The tunes of longer sense groups containing only one important word.	\|	Pre-nuclear patterns.

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