Basic Nuclear Tones: Falling Tones
The falling tone is realized by a downward movement of the voice on the stressed syllable, while the tail is pronounced on the same level or fall slightly to a lower pitch.
-
Variant
Meaning
Usage
Example
The mid wide fall (from a high mid to the bottom of the voice range)
The most neutral, unemotional speech, assertiveness, calm, serious, weighty, decisiveness
Any types of utterances: statements, special questions, imperative sentences
Pete speaks French.
The high wide fall (from a high or very high to low pitch)
Completeness, finality, protest, insistence, interested, enthusiastic, personal concern and involvement
-----
Certainly.
The low narrow fall (from mid low to very low)
Completeness, finality, phlegmatic, calm, dogmatic, cool, uninterested, reserved
-----
-When does the pub open?
-At seven.
The high narrow fall (from a high or very high to the middle)
Completeness, the least degree of finality, light, airy
In direct addresses and short comments, expressing agreement
Come on, Terry!
Basic Nuclear Tones: Falling-Rising Tones
The falling-rising tone is bidirectional tone, there’s a change in the direction of pitch movement. There are the following structural variants:
Within one syllable
Within the nucleus and the tail
The first element is more important phonetically.
According to the beginning and ending points of falling-rising there are:
High fall-rise
Low fall-rise
From the semantic point of view the falling-rising tone has an implicatory meaning. The implication expressed in an utterance may be that of emphasis, contrast, contradiction, correction, doubt, hesitation, uncertainty, warning, and apology.
The falling-rising tone has an important modification: the so called the fall-rise divided. The 2 element of fall-rise in this case are realized on 2 different words, which both acquire nuclear prominence.
The difference between the variants lies in the number of prominent ideas: the fall-rise divided makes 2 ideas prominent instead of 1.
Basic Nuclear Tones: Rising-Falling Tones
The rising-falling is a bidirectional or complex tone because it comprises 2 elements: a rise and a fall. The fall is phonetically is more prominent than the first element. This tone is associated with one stressed syllable, yet the unstressed syllables involved in the glide also belong to the nucleus which is expended.
-
Type
Way of pronunciation
Meaning
Example
Three-syllable type
The stressed syllable is uttered on a steady mid-low pitch while the first of the unstressed syllables is pitched high and the second is pitched at the bottom of the normal voice range.
Due to the falling element it sounds definite and final, it adds more expression to the utterance, giving the conversation a much more lively and emotional style. It expresses implication of a modal-attitudinal kind: it gives impression that what the speaker admits is in conflict with his own or his interlocutor’s previous opinion. That’s why it is sometimes called a quizzical.
I’m sure I can.
Two-syllable type
The stressed syllable is pronounced on a steady mid-low pitch, the unstressed syllable starts at the top and falls without stress to the bottom of the voice range.
Never.
One-syllable type
The nucleus carries both the rise and the fall.
No.
When the nucleus is followed by more than several syllables the beginning of the tail is marked with a low pitch mark or with a low stress mark.