Classification of heads

The head is the element of the intonation group which starts with its first fully stressed syllable and stretches up to the nucleus

Heads can be classified acording to the following criteria:

• general contour of the pitch movement over the head

• pitch movement within the stressed (rhythmic) group

• distribution of semantic prominence (the number of fully or partially stressed syllables in the head).

According to the general contour of the pitch movement heads can be grouped into Descending ( – the following stressed syllable(s) is(are) pronounced lower than the preceding ones)

Ascending ( – the following stressed syllable(s) is (are) higher than the preceding ones)

Level ( – all the stressed syllables are on the same level).

According to the pitch movement within the rhythmic groups heads are classified as

Stepping ( – the unstressed syllable(s) in each rhythmic group is (are) on the same level as the preceding stressed one).

Sliding ( – the unstressed syllable(s) is (are) pronounced lower than the preceding stressed ones).

Scandent ( – the untsressed syllable(s) is(are) pronounced higher than the preceding stressed ones)

According to the prominence distribution there are also three types of heads:

One-peak head – has only one fully stressed syllable;

Diffuse(double peak) – all notional words are fully stressed;

Mixed prominence head – some notional words in the head are fully stresed, and some – partially stressed.

The stepping heads. Their usage and modal meaning

The Gradually Descending Stepping Head ( always diffuse/double-peak or mixed prominence) is stylistically and emotionally neutral, even monotonous, so it is mostly used in formal conversations, lecturing, didactic monologues, and in reading written texts. It gives the feeling of seriousness and weight to the utterance.

e.g.: The De'scending 'Stepping 'Head is sty'listically neutral.

This head may achieve extra prominence by breaking the downward movement and pronouncing one of the stresssed syllables on a rather high pitch level. Such a head is called The Broken Descending Stepping Head or the head with the “special” or “accidental” rise. The words that normally receive special prominence are the so-called “itensifiers”, which express an unusual degree of quantity, quality, size or unexpexted and extraordinary actions.

nouns: crowds, hundreds, thousands;

verbs: cry, push, shout;

adverbs: much, more, too, very, immediately.

e.g.: We’ve 'wasted ''thousands of ‘dollars! Or: We’ve 'wasted thousands of ‘dollars!

The High Level Head (always one-peak) sounds airy and light, so it is generally used in informal lively conversations to express a friendly attitude.

e.g. ˡWho would he `choose?

The Low Level Head is frequently combined with low narrow tones, falling or rising, conveying a cool, phlegmatic dissaproving and disinterested attitude of the speaker.

e.g.: Why aren’t you in bed?

This head is also typical in parenthesis/appositions which are used in the middle of a sentence to express either the same information as the previous sense-group (“old information”) or are used as an afterthought.

e.g.: >Brussels| the capital of ‚Belgium| is the 'headquarters of the 'Common `Market.

The Ascending Stepping Head (always diffuse/double-peak or mixed prominence) is often combined with the high falling or rising tones. There is often a feeling of surprise, protest, or impatience. It can be used to express emphasis, for contrast, the contrasted word being the nucleus of a sense group.

e.g.: Why are you 'critisizing ‘me?