Scales in Detail The Stepping Scale

1. The Regular Descending Stepping Scale is characterised by steplike descend of all stress-tone units. The head-unit of the contour takes the highest pitch. The unstressed syllables within every stress-tone unit are said on a level sequence.

The Regular Descending Stepping Scale is commonly used in descriptive prose and in monologue parts of a conversation. It can serve any communicative type of utterance. It sounds formal, businesslike, matter-of-fact.

e.g. Im a first-year student of the English department.

The Regular Descending Stepping Scale can be combined with any of the six terminal tones.

2. The Broken Descending Stepping Scale

The Descending Stepping Scale can be broken on any important word (except the head one), which takes a higher pitch than the preceding stressed syllable. Then the step-like descend continues. This rise is called SPECIAL or ACCIDENTAL. It is used for several reasons:

• to avoid the monotony of a long syntagm:

e.g. I’m a first-year student of the ↑English department.

• to join short syntagms into longer ones:

e.g. Tomorrow morning we ↑ leave for Kyiv.

• to give special emphasis to an important word. There is a number of emotionally coloured words which are liable to take the Special Rise, they are: all, always, very, every, best, many, quite; all the numerals and so on.

e.g. Our classes begin at ↑three in the afternoon.

NOTE. If the Special Rise is produced during the second accented word, the preceding stressed word takes a low-level or a mid-level pitch.

e.g Our canteen is ↑always overcrowded.

3. The Ascending Stepping Scale is characterised by the step-like ascend of all stress-tone units. The head-unit of the utterance takes the lowest pitch. The unstressed syllables within every stress-tone unit are said on a level sequence.

The High Level Prehead often precedes it. It can be used on any communicative type of utterance. It conveys displeasure, disgruntled protest, critical surprise.

e.g. I thought perhaps you might stay up to see her. (displeasure)

¯Are you sure you don’t want to be a lawyer, John? (critical surprise)

The Sliding Scale

In the Sliding Scale every stress-tone unit is said on a sliding sequence, the accented syllables take level pitches.

e.g. He wrote a letter on Monday morning.

Note. In monosyllabic stress-tone units the pitch slides during the syllable.

e.g. Mike knows better.

The Slidindg Scale is often used in conversation.

It gives additional prominence to every accented word and sounds weighty and excited. It can be used in any communicative type of utterance, and can be combined with any terminal tone, but the preference is given to the Low Fall, High Fall and Fall-Rise. The High Descending Prehead often precedes it.

e.g. Mike knows it better.

Mike knows it better.

Mike knows better.

According to its direction the Sliding Scale can be:

• The Descending Sliding Scale.

e.g. I had such an exciting afternoon.

• The Ascending Sliding Scale.

e.g. As a matter of fact I’m nearly sixty.

• The Level Sliding Scale.

e.g. I didn’t find the shoes anywhere.

According to its regularity the Sliding Scale can also be of two types:

• Regular

• Broken

e.g. Long enough to ↑soak us to the skin.

He’s a first-year student of the ↑English department.