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Principles of the Classification of Head Types

The head of an intonation group stretches from the first fully stressed syllable (the onset syllable) up to the nucleus. The head is an optional element but it occurs in a very high proportion of intonation groups.

The head plays an important part in conveying the speaker’s attitude and feelings towards the listener, the subject matter and the situation, i.e. it is relevant for expressing the modal meaning and the emotional colouring of an utterance. The head performs this function in close cooperation with the nuclear tone.

The head is the most variable part of the intonation group displaying a great variation in pitch and stress pattern. Classifications of heads are based on the following major criteria:

1) the general contour of pitch movement over the head;

2) the pitch movement within each stress-group;

3) the distribution of relative prominence among words in the head.

According to the first criterion, heads fall into three major types:

a) Descending - the first fully stressed syllable is said on a high pitch, each fully stressed syllable begins lower than the preceding one.

E.g.: I think you’d better ask Helen.

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b) Ascending – the first fully stressed syllable is said on a low pitch, each following fully stressed syllable begins higher than the preceding one.

E.g.: I couldn’t possibly do it.

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c) Level – the syllables are said on a steady pitch. Level heads are subdivided into high, mid, and low variants.

E.g.: About six o ’clock. Nothing at all serious.

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According to the second criterion, heads fall into three types:

a) Stepping, characterized by even pitch throughout the stress groups;

b) Sliding – with downward pitch movement throughout the stress-group;

c) Climbing (Scandent) with upward pitch movement within the stress-group.

Thus, both criteria considered; Stepping Heads can be Stepping Descending, Stepping Ascending, and Stepping Level. Sliding Heads can be Sliding Descending, Sliding Ascending, etc.

According to the third criterion, heads are subdivided into:

a) those in which the onset bears a full stress, while all the other semantically important words are given partial stresses or are unstressed to symbolize their little importance. E.g.: I don’t think I can.

b) those in which all the semantically important words are given full stress to show their equal importance to the speaker. In this case the overall prominence of the utterance increases. E.g.: ‘Moscow is the ‘capital of `Russia.

c) there are both full and partial stresses in the head, i.e. a mixed distribution of prominence. E.g. ‘Tom said you ‘didn’t let him use the `type-writer.

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