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Types of tonic stresses in American English



 

Pitch refers to the high (or low) note on a syllable; intonation refers to the pattern of high (or low) notes in a phrase or a sentence: the range of your voice is the difference between the highest and lowest notes. When you use the full range of your voice in speaking, your speech is more intelligible and more interesting to your listener. If you speak with monotone intonation, your listener might think that you are uninterested or bored or even that you are sick.

Usually a slight rise in pitch near the end of a tone unit (tone group) indicates that more information will follow. In the following sentences, pitch jumps up to the stressed syllable of the important word. After that it may continue to go up or it may stay at the same level or even drop a little – but not to a very low pitch.

(a) Are you going to buy it?

(b) Some coffee?

 

Words on a list may be pronounced with a “listing” intonation. On the last word of the list the intonation falls. Cf.:

(c) ...ambitious, intelligent, and energetic…

 

Rising intonation usually means “incompleteness”, giving the listener the opportunity to say something. A steeper rise in pitch can indicate that the speaker is unsure about something. Cf.:

(d) I can get to the train station on this bus.

 

At the same time rising pitch will sound ‘inviting’ for the listener to participate. Cf.: (e) Bring that here.

(f) Open the window, won’t you?

(g) Would you like a hamburger?

 

Falling intonation usually indicates “completeness”. It is a common intonation pattern for a statements and wh-questions. Intonation falls after the most important word, or after the last stressed word. ‘Falling’ intonation, which communicates confidence, is primarily used in statements and special questions. Cf.:

(h) You’d better not drive today.

(i) He asked him to get up

 

‘Drop-rise’ intonation - drops quickly on the important word to a low pitch and then rises again. It is used to ask a stranger for help, or for information. It sounds polite and formal. Cf.:

(j) Excuse me. Do you have the time?

(k) Excuse me. Where can I make a phone call?

Intonation is a very important component of meaning; it can turn statements into questions and questions into statements. Cf.:

(l) She is out for a day. May I take a message?

(m) Your number is 865-7722.


APPENDIX

Text 1

(Elisabeth is describing her experience of finding the way about a strange town)

It seemed to take an age to get there. But eventually the bus stopped. We got to the terminus, and everyone got out. We were somewhere in a commercial district, but I wasn’t sure where. I couldn’t recognise anything. The others hurried off. I hesitated, wondering which way to start. I ought to have asked someone but it was too late, they’d gone. The street was empty. Even a bus driver had gone. I hurried across and turned into an alley-way and started to walk. It was dark and drizzling a little.

I went through an Archway and into another street where there were street lights. It was one of those pedestrian precincts, no cars admitted, with concrete benches to sit on and concrete tubs for plants. But the benches were wet. It was winter, and there wasn’t a plant to be seen. I passed some shops, bright lights, some bargains, and fashionable dresses on plastic figures, videos and fridges, and hundreds of shoes at give-away prices, left-over gift-wrapping, and holy and snow men.

I walked along looking in the windows. The last of the shop assistants was just closing the doors. ‘Could you tell me, please, where Market Street was?’ She’d no idea. She was a student doing a holiday job, and she didn’t know the district yet. She thought there was a pub in the first street on the left; perhaps, they’d know there. It was all very odd. There was just nobody about. I walked on and took the left turning, where she’d said, and found the pub. But, of course, they didn’t open till seven, and it was just half past five. I went round to a side door and rang a bell.

Text 2

(Mandy is telephoning David for directions to his house)

- David?

- Yes.

- It is Mandy here?

- Oh.

- Hi, listen, I’m in the «Horse and Groom».

- Are you?

- Yes.

- It is miles away.

- I know, I’m miles away.

- Right now, you want to get ahead here, I suppose.

- Well, I do.

- I’ve a map, actually, but it is dreadfully out of date.

- Right, actually, come out of the car park.

- Yeah.

- And really, you should turn left.... but you can’t because there’s that big dual carriage-way in the way, turn right.

- Turn right, out of the park.

- You can right ...

- O.K, turn right after car park.

- Turn right. The only ISI 6 there.

- That’s right.

- You’re right. Hm, follow on, and on your left is ... First is a cul-de-sac, then, you‘ll need next turning, second turning on the left.

- O.K go on, second left.

- Yeah. And you follow the road around. And there is an underpass to take you under that trunk road, and you keep going along, it is Hospital Lane, you know, ‘cause you....

- Hospital Lane, it is Hospital Lane?

- Hospital Lane.

- ‘Cause I’ve been asking for Hospital Road and they said there isn’t one, right. Hospital Lane.

- Well, the hospital, actually, is big red and yellow building.

- Good. There’s one there.

- You go to the end of there and come to junction with some, traffic lights; I think they are under local control because... an awful lot of ......, you can’t go to the centre.

- It is a one way, isn’t it?

- Ugh?

- It is a one way, because they are doing a lot of sewer work, or something in the road.

- Tell me, O.K, so I’ll go round the one way system.

- No, no, it is a set of traffic lights.

- Yeah.

- Yeah, then you turn right. And I think, it is ... well actually the arrows will tell you where to go because it is a diversion. When you turn.... it is about the second turning on the left, you go for about 50 yards, and you come to the main cross roads, I can’t remember what happens there, I think there might be some lights, as well, but get in the right hand lane.

- Right hand lane, yeah.

- O.K. It’s the shell service station on the right.

- Yes.

- And you’ll then be in College Lane.

- College Lane.

- It’s a long, long...

- O.K. And College Lane, I go up College Lane.

- In College Lane you’ll see the technical college, on the right, and then the primary school.

- Yes.

- And you come to tier junction.

- Yeah.

- Which is quite a big junction. It’s a Park Road. All, this is new, this is all new development. You haven’t seen this before. Park road.

- Yeah

- More light, you are to turn right.

- O.K.

- Until you come to a mini round-about. And you want, on the round-about, you want the first exit.

-Yeah.

- And that’s, that’s Park Close.

- And then I keep going on, left.

- Well, on the left, number 27.

- On the left, number 27, ‘course. Can you bear to get trough that again quickly? I’ll just put them in. O.K. Go on; just go on through it again. I know I’ve got to come out of the car park.

- O.K. Come out of the car park, turn right.

- I know how to get to Hospital Lane, I’ve done that before.

- You’ve done that before, you get out of Hospital Lane. At traffic lights you should turn right.

- Yeah.

- Second turning, left.

- Yes. And then I keep on. I get on a right hand lane.

- Yeah, right hand lane, by the shell service station, College Lane.

- Yeah, past the technical college.

- Yes, past the technical college, past primary school.

- Yes.

- Another junction, another tier junction, Park Road. Turn right.

- Take the first exit.

- First exit, at mini round-about.

- And that’s Park Close.

- That’s it.

- Ugh, O.K. see you.

- See you about in two minutes.

- Oh, joking.

 

Text 3

(Tony is talking to Sue about some of the people at the office where he used to work)

- Cheers.

-Cheers, Sue. Well what’s the news then? How is everybody? I suppose old Arthur is still there, still trying to keep everyone in order?

- Oh, yes. You’ve gone for ever. Nothing changes for Arthur, or if it does he doesn’t notice. You remember a friend of his, though .The guy who came from Liverpool. He always came on Fridays and nobody quite knew why.

- Oh, that tall guy. Yeah, had an old Bentley, or something, didn’t he? We used to say ‘he was…

- Yes, well, nobody knows what happened. But he had a nastily accident of some sort.

- An accident?

- In his car. You know Arthur, he never tells you much. So we didn’t know what it was. Anyway he suddenly stopped coming. I was sad really.

- What about Jane and Ted upstairs?

- Oh, well, Ted is still there. He is not really happy about it, though. He’d like a move if he could get one. But he is sort of thing to be stuck. And Jane, oh, she went about a couple of years ago. Really, I haven’t seen her for ages, so I don’t know what she is doing. Nobody seems to be in touch with her. Had Mary come before you left?

- Mary who?

- Mary, an accounts. She is Irish.

- I don’t think so. No, I knew Sarah. I remember she was an account. And then there was that other Jane, eh, Jane Harrison. Oh, yes, and there was Angela, of course , the rather serious one. But I don’t recall a Mary.

- Well, she must have been after you left then.

- Did she replace that man who’d got moved to head office? What’s his name now? He left round about the same time as I did. There was a lot of fuss about it because a lot of people talked...

- Oh, you mean John Fellows. Oh, they say he is doing very well incidentally.

- No, no. This was much later, some time after John went. No, you wouldn’t have known him, I expect. Oh, well, there wasn’t much point telling you about Theresa. Only there was quite a storm about it for the time...

Text 4

(A customer in a book shop is asking the assistant to help him find a book).

- Good morning. Can I help you?

- I’m looking for a book by Sutcliff. It’s «A Life of Arnold»

- «A Life of Arnold». Let me see now. Is that the title?

- I think so.

- It isn’t the title of the novel.

- Well, I don’t think it is. But the problem is I’m not quite sure.

- I see. You’ve looked in the biography section?

- Is that near the maps and things, over there?

- That’s right.

- Yes I’ve looked there. But I can’t see it.

- You don’t know who the publisher is?

- Sorry, no.

- Would you mind waiting a moment, while I serve this lady? And then I’ll see what I can do for you.

- Thank you.

Text 5

(The chairperson of philosophical society is opening the society monthly meeting)

Good evening, good evening to one and all. Welcome to our February meeting. Welcome, of course, to our regular members and attendants and several faces, I can see, they are not too familiar to me. And you are new here and for the first time, you are greatly welcome. And I hope you may consider join us on a more permanent basis. Before I introduce tonight speaker there is one important reminder: next month meeting at the same time will be our annual general meeting, and on that occasion we are hoping for good and spirited attendance and there are some urgent pieces of business to attend on that occasion.

The first and foremost and probably, the most important is to elect a new secretary. Jane Parks has served us marvellously, though. I think it is three years now, and our present secretary, - she is leaving us to take up her post in Glasgow, we wish her well. And any suggestions for replacing Jane before that meeting would be most welcome. Several committee members have also expressed wish to stand down retire for one reason or another ;pressure business and so on, will need to be replaced , so there will be elections for them.

Also, and it is rather sad, the treasurer tells me that we must seriously consider increasing subscriptions ; not a happy thing to suggest at this time of the year, but we are in fact going into the red in rather serious way. So, that is something to bear in mind for next month’s meeting. As these things are very important we need many of you here as possible to make the decisions about this matters. Unfortunately, today our attendance, I can say, is not as good as usual, - possibly due to the flu epidemic and the storm, and unseasonable weather outside. A number of people rang to say that they didn’t think they’d be able to make it. I won’t read out the apologies for absence, we’ll just take their word for it.

And now, the most important business for this evening is for me to introduce today’s speaker, Dr. Agnes Thompson is no stranger to us as you may remember her stimulating paper “On the track Tartars” , I think it was about three years ago, if I’m not much mistaken. Hmm, for the benefit of the others, who didn’t hear on that occasion, just a few words about her background? She graduated from this university before getting her master’s degree and subsequently her doctor’s at Harvard in the United States, and has since acquired a distinguished reputation on both sides of the Atlantic. Everyone familiar with our discipline will know of her many contributions to the literature. We look forward to her book; she says it should have fully been out in the autumn; and she’s recently returned to us from a year in India. She taught philosophy at the University of Haidrobad. On to her topic for tonight, - it is called ‘Language games or power games: Wittgenstein and feminist perspective’.

Ladies, gentlemen. Doctor Agnes Thompson.

Text 6

(Susan wants to talk to Tony at his home, but he is out)

- Northern 5 9 7

- Jane, Susan here.

- Hi, Susan. How are things?

- Fine, pretty busy, as usual. How about you?

- OK, pretty good really. Did you want to talk to Tony?

- Is he there?

- Well, no, actually it is his day in London today. It is nearly always on Tuesdays these days. He’ll be back this evening, though.

- You don’t know what time this evening?

- Well he is usually in at about six.

- OK.

- Is there anything I can do, tell him to ring back or anything?

- Would you mind, ... only there is something I’ve got to sort out with him. I suppose I could leave it till I see him on Thursday at the meeting. But tonight would be better though.

- Will you be at home or at the office?

- Hang on a minute. I shall have to think about that. If he could possibly make it about seven, I’ll certainly be home by then. Or perhaps it would be better if I called him?

- No, don’t worry. He is sure to be here at seven. I’ll tell him, don’t worry.

- Thanks Jane. Are you going to be there on Friday?

- I hope so, if the baby sitter doesn’t let us down.

- See you then.

- Sure

- By now.

- By.

Text 7

(Val is talking about what happened to her one day when she returned to her car after she had been shopping)

I’ve been shopping, you know, it was getting late. And I left the car in that multistoried car park, just off First Street. And when I’ve got out of the lift I looked across and thought there was someone sitting in the passenger seat, you know. So, I thought ‘That is odd? I couldn’t have locked it properly’, and then I wondered ‘What am I going to do now?’ you know.

Well, anyway, they saw me coming because the door opened and this person got out. And there was a little old lady with a shopping bag, and she said ‘I hope you don’t mind that I’ve arranged to meet my daughter here and I started to feel ever so giddy’. So then she said she just had to sit in my car. Well, I said ‘When was your daughter supposed to be coming?’ .And she said: ‘Half an hour ago. I can’t think what’s happened to her, she’s never late like this before’. So I said: ‘Where do you live?’ and she said she was going back to her daughter’s and then she said: ‘Would you be going out of your way to drop me near there’.

Well, there was nothing I could do, I thought, ‘I can’t leave her standing there’. Apart from anything else, it was very cold outside, it was that very cold time we had in February, you know, and she looked perfectly awful. So I had no choice, I told her to get in the car. I decided to drive her to her daughter’s. Anyway, as we were driving along she was very, very still and quiet, and … sort of ... worried me a bit. And I kept saying ‘Are you OK?’, and she had muttered something, you know, and as the traffic got a bit easier I managed to look across at her, and she was shuffling about a bit and then she took out one of her hands out from underneath her coat, and as soon as I saw it, I thought ‘That is not a woman’s hand’. She covered it up straight away but I could see that it was big and it was hairy. Then I looked down at her shoes and aside of her face I could see that I was truly in a situation. So I thought ‘What am I going to do now?’

As it happened we were just coming up to a big roundabout now, and I deliberately passed the exit we needed and took the next one, and she said ‘Sorry, dear, but wasn’t that the road?’, ‘Oh, yes’, I said, ‘Yeah, it was. How stupid of me. It’s a long time since I came this way’, and then said ‘I have to turn around’. A bit further along the road there was a narrow drive on the left. So I stopped and I said ‘Look I’m not very good at that sort of thing. Would you mind just getting out and seeing me back into that drive?’ So, anyway, he got out with his bag and everything and went round at the back of the car. And as soon as the door was closed, I swung smartly around and accelerated off just as fast as I could to the police station. Well, I told them what had happened, and they said ‘Can we borrow your keys, because we’d like to go out and search your car?”

And when they came back they asked me if I could tell them what was in the car? And I thought there was my shopping, but I didn’t think there was anything else. And they said: ‘Are you sure that’s all?’ And they kept saying ‘Thank God’, and I said ‘No, I’m sure, that’s all’. Anyway in the end they just told me ‘We found an axe down beside the rear seat’.

Text 8

(Mr. Tom Williams is being interviewed on the radio about his news on British transport system.)

-Among the speakers at today’s National Transport Conference will be Mr. Tom Williams. Mr. Williams, I understand that having been a keen, not to say fanatical, motorist for most of your life, you are now having second thoughts?

- That’s quite correct, yes.

- What exactly is it that you will be saying to the conference?

- It’s, it’s a very simple message really. I’m saying we should restrict the manufacture and use of private motorcars and concentrate instead on developing efficient and cheap public transport.

- Can you explain to us why you feel so strongly about this?

- Well, I think, I think, first and foremost is what I call the environmental case. We all know that cars consume valuable energy resources, they produce carbon dioxide in great quantities, and they are major contributors to environmental problems, for instance, the manufacture uses up our scarce often irreplaceable nature resources. And they are essentially short lived articles; they create continuing and ever-increasing problems of disposal, when they are no longer wanted.

- But if we have to rely on public transport as you are suggesting. Why should we lose a great deal in a way of mobility and freedom to go where we please?

- Well, I mean, it must be obvious to everybody that the traffic congestion has already reached crisis proportion in many places. And now this in itself effectively reduces the very mobility that cars are supposed to promote. And, and, there is the need to accommodate them in towns and to provide the parking for them, over-riding all of the considerations in town planning. I mean, can you, can you, show me a multi-storied car park that is architecturally beautiful? I’m sure you can’t. And the result is a devastation and dehumanisation of many of our urban centres, and even if you stay away from the towns, out of towns, for instance. And even the trunk roads and motorways (we hear complains about this everyday) are rapidly eating into rural landscape, affecting the quality of life. People who live in the country look at it as threatening wild life itself.

- And presumably, you have in mind also the risk to life and limb that the motorcars represent.

- Indeed I do. You see, advertising pressures in the motor industry, they emphasise, speed, they emphasise performance and worst of all they emphasise its qualities under the banner of being able to do it safely. Do you see what I mean you can be heroically dangerous, and do it safely if you’ve got good tyres or good brakes. And this in itself incites all kinds showing off; all encourage irresponsible and aggressive behaviours, especially, in the young. And apart from the resulting tragic injury and loss of life, the resulting accidents make enormous demands on medical services which could be better employed in other ways.

- Mr. Williams aren’t you overlooking the economic aspect with it, I mean our prosperity as a nation, like that of Japan, for instance, seems to be so tightly bound up with our ability to make and sell cars. How will you be able to reverse all this?

- Quite frankly, I regard this as the most serious aspect of all. It is all an illusion, the seemingly limitless mass market for motor cars. It distorted the economies of advanced countries; in particular, it’s come to be seen as essential for maintaining an acceptable level of employment. Now, I have to agree, this is disengaging also, for this is never going to be easy. The longer this is going on, the greater will be the problem of trying to change it without creating economic and social chaos, and it doesn’t only concern us as an international dimension to all of this, you see, there is understandable desire, on the part of still developing countries, to get in on the act and follow us in putting what is our dream of the universal motorcar ownership, before other economic objectives which in their case should be given higher priority .

- So, what you are saying, Mr. Williams is that they would do better to learn from our mistakes than follow our examples.

- That’s precisely what I am saying.

- Mr. Williams, thank you very much. That was Mr. Tom Williams, who will be addressing National Transport Conference in London this afternoon.

Text 9

(A radio announcer is introducing the second instalment of a serial)

After giving up the management of her successful fashion store in her home county, Penelope Wainwright retired to a seaside cottage on the Suffolk coast. Her daughter Helen took over the running of the shop. But it was not without a certain amount of opposition from Derek, her song-writing husband. Derek, who is 32, has still not lost hope of making big time in the entertainment world, agreed only on the condition that they keep their flat on in town as a base for his professional activities.

For Penelope retirement promises to be more eventful than she’d bargained for. An uninvited guest at the party she had given just before she left the cottage was Morgan, a one-time commercial traveller, to whom she had been engaged in the days when she was still a sales-assistant. Embittered and disillusioned by his experiences in Australia, where he went after he and Penelope had decided to go their separate ways, he has since turned up a number of times in Suffolk. These visits have exited the interest of her neighbours although Penelope is reluctant to tell him outright that he is not welcome. She is finding his attentions embarrassing and an obstacle to her setting down in her new life.

Meanwhile gossip has reached her via a former business associate that her son-in-law is using the London base for other activities than strictly professional ones.

 


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