INTONATION PATTERNS AND MEANING

This section provides the description of meanings and attitudes conveyed by the patterns of the eight pitch-and-stress groups with no reference to various sentence types. It should be pointed out that no pattern is used exclusively with this or that sentence (communicative) type. Broadly speaking any sentence type can be linked with any tone group.

One must also remember that the particular meaning of every pattern must be studied only in a certain context and with reference to a particular style and type of speech. So in this section we shall try to describe only the most neutral, common meanings expressed by the patterns, and their phonostylistic usage will be dealt with in Part Six.

In each group the meanings and attitudes expressed by Pattern One - without any head - are very much the same as of the nuclear tone itself. Patterns TW9 and Three with the Falling Head and the High (Medium) Level Head have difference in meaning so slight that they are all described together -as one Item.

In the description of attitudinal meanings we try to mention !hose common to all sentence types. But if some sentence types diiffer greatly from others in attitudes and meanings we underline It in notes and illustrate it by examples.

Emphatic variants of pre-heads or pre-nuclei (usually high ones) and heads intensify the meanings and attitudes ­expressed by commonly used patterns; that is why emphatic patterns are listed separately and form 'Emphatic Usage' (Common or Occasional) subgroup. Thus the eight Pitch-and-Stress Groups are divided according to their usage.

This table shows that Group II (High Fall), Group III (Rise- Fall). Group V (High Rise) and Group VII (Rise-Fall-Rise) are only emphatic. i.e. their patterns have only emphatic usage. It is quite obvious because these nuclear tones are common for emphatic speech.

On the other hand Group VIII (Mid-Level) has only non-emphatic usage because its two patterns are very common in unemphatic speech.

Group I (Low Fall), Group IV (I:ow Rise). Group VI (Fall-Rise) have both non-emphatic and emphatic usage.