8 Intonation: tonality

Introduction
Spoken discourse not only uses rhythm as a resource, but intonation too. What
is intonation? Intonation is the linguistic use of pitch in discourse. It is linguis-
tic, in the sense that it carries meaning; changing the intonation of an utterance
can easily change the meaning of that utterance. For instance, the clause
• you understand, don’t you
has one meaning if the tag is accompanied by a falling tone, but a diferent
meaning if it is accompanied by a rising tone. (Say it to yourself, to make sure!)
he notion of linguistic can be extended to include the paralinguistic use of into-
nation, in which something of the mood or attitude of the speaker is conveyed,
for instance whether the speaker is angry, bored, insistent, etc. Linguistic might
also be extended to include sociolinguistic variation of the kind that shows where
a person comes from; for instance, the intonation of working-class Bristolians
is quite diferent from, say, that of middle-class Glaswegians. For practical
purposes, in this workbook, we will have to focus on just the one variety, SESP.
Note also that we need to make the distinction between intonation and
lexical tone in tone languages. In tone languages, a change of tone (i.e. pitch)
may change the meaning of a word/lexical item, as in Cantonese:
8.1 si - ‘silk’ (high level)
si 0 ‘to try’ (mid level)
si 1 ‘matter’ (low mid level)
si 2 ‘time’ (low level)

si Ơ ‘history’ (mid to high rising)
si Ơ ‘city’ (low to mid rising)
but in a non-tone language like English, a word like see will keep its lexical
meaning even when accompanied by diferent tones/pitches, but its meaning
in discourse might change:
8.2 see - said insistently
see 0 said in a bored manner, as if to mean I knew it would happen
see 1 said in a cold manner
see 2 said in a cold manner

see Ơ said in a challenging manner, as if to mean Do you understand now?
see Ơ said in an appealing manner, as if to mean I did tell you.

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 CHAPTER 8 Intonation: tonality

Intonation in English is thus the linguistic use of pitch in discourse, but it com-
prises more than tone. When we talk, we usually have more to say than just one
piece of information; sometimes it might only be one piece of information, like
hank you, but usually it is much more. Each piece of information is conveyed
by a unit of intonation; these units of intonation – called, by others, tone units,
tone groups, intonation contours or intonation phrases – constitute the tonality
of spoken discourse. As we will soon see, changes in tonality also efect changes
in meaning.
hirdly, each intonation unit has a word which is more prominent than the
others; they are made more prominent by a distinctive pitch movement or level
and loudness. hese words constitute the nucleus, or tonic, of the intonation
unit and indicate the speciic point of information, i.e. what the unit of intona-
tion focuses on. hese prominent, nuclear (tonic) words constitute the tonicity
of spoken discourse; again, changes in tonicity efect changes in meaning.
Tonality, tonicity and tone are the basic systems that operate in English
intonation; choices in all three systems are made every time we say something.
We always use all three systems together, although we can vary them in order
to create diferent meanings. Take the example of You understand, don’t you.
Listen to these three diferent renderings
8.3 you under\stand | \don t you
you under\stand | /don t you
\youunderstand | /don t you
he tonality of all three renderings consists of two units of intonation; the
upright bar ( | ) marks unit boundaries.
he tonicity of the irst two is the same, with the words understand and don’t
the most prominent in each of their units; underlining marks out the tonic syl-
lable of each word. he tonicity is diferent in the irst unit of intonation in the
third rendering, where you was chosen as the prominent; this will only make
sense if a contrast is being made with somebody else who presumably does not
understand.
he tones in each unit vary between falling (\) and rising (/). In the irst ren-
dering, the tag don’t you is accompanied by a falling tone, which suggests that
the speaker thinks that they know they are right; but in the other two render-
ings, the tag is accompanied by a rising tone, which suggests that the speaker is
not sure whether they are right or not.
You will be given guidance and practice in all three systems. We begin with
the case of tonality, because most of our spoken discourse is longer than a
single piece of information. We need to know the tonality of the discourse
before we can investigate the tonicity of each unit of intonation; and we need
to know the tonicity of the unit before we can safely identify the tone that
has been chosen. his ‘hierarchy’ of systems is the basis of the way these inal
Chapters of the workbook are organized.
However, before we get into the programme, we need to identify the parts
of an intonation unit, in order to show where the potential for intonational

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 PART TWO . . . and Discourse

contrasts lies. Let us take the sentence I wish I understood it; a native speaker of
English is most likely to say it as
8.4 I wish I under\stood it

as one single piece of information (i.e. as one intonation unit), with focus on
understood and a falling tone to indicate a statement. he structure of the unit
consists, at one level, of two parts:
1. the part that includes the tonic syllable with its distinctive tone, and any
syllables that follow (in this case -\stood it); this is called the tonic
segment;
2. all the rest of the intonation unit that precedes the tonic segment (in this
case I wish I under-); this is called the pretonic segment.
he tonic segment is usually divided into two: the tonic syllable itself, and the
remaining syllables, oten called the tail. he pretonic segment is also usually
divided into two: the segment that contains the irst stressed syllable and all
the remaining syllables up to the tonic syllable – this segment is oten called
the head; any unstressed syllables preceding the head are oten called the
pre-head. All four segments are illustrated in the example:
pretonic segment | tonic segment
I wish I under\stood it
pre-head | head | tonic | tail

here is the potential for contrasts not only in the tonic syllable but in the head
and pre-head segments too; that is why we need to identify them. he tail does
not usually carry contrasts, but it does carry pitch changes for the compound
tones (see later).
he tonic syllable is obligatory; if a unit of intonation is begun, but no syl-
lable is made tonic, then we conclude that that intonation unit has been aban-
doned. his sometimes happens in informal discourse, as a speaker changes
their mind and starts an intonation unit afresh. he tail, head and pre-head
are all optional, in the sense that they may perhaps not be required in the
construction of an intonation unit. Consider these examples:
8.5 I wish I under\stood (no tail)
\think about it (no head, no pre-head)
I’ll \think about it (pre-head, but no head, since the irst stressed syllable
happens to be the tonic syllable)
\think (tonic syllable only; no head, no pre-head, no tail)

Symbols
he symbols used in this workbook are, in general, consistent with Crystal
(1969, 1975), Tench (1996) and Wells (2006); see the panel below for the minor
diferences with Wells. hese symbols are simple and economic to use; their
design is relatively iconic, and are as follows:

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 CHAPTER 8 Intonation: tonality

| = intonation unit boundary

underlining = tonic syllable
 = non-tonic stressed syllable
\ = falling tone
/ = rising tone
V = falling-rising tone
V
= rising-falling tone
– = level tone
- = pause (equivalent to a syllable)
. = brief pause
(xx) = indecipherable
(laughter) = relevant note

Wells Halliday Brazil ToBI

feature
paratones ǁ ǁ ǁ↑
intonation units ǀ ǀ ǁ ǁ %
tonic syllables tonic tonic tonic, tonic TONic
falling tone \so \so 1 p H*L L%
low \so \so 1⫺ L*L L%
high \so \so 1⫹
V V
rising-falling tone so so 5 p+ L H*L%
V
low so 5̱
rising tone /so /so 2, 3 r+ L*H H%
low /so /so

high /so /so H*H L%

raised ↑/so ⫺2
mid level tone –so ˃so o H*H L%
falling-rising tone Vso Vso 4, 2̱ r H*L H%
low Vso 4̱
non-tonic stress so so / nonTONic H, L
↑
high head so so H1
↓
low head ̱so so ⫺2, ⫺3 L
falling head ↘ so \so H⫹H*L%
rising head ↗ so /so ⫺1 L⫹L*H%
V
pause -
brief pause .

1
i.e. an initial H or L in the ‘intonational phrase’ (see Gussenhoven 2004)

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 PART TWO . . . and Discourse

Other authors use diferent symbols. Pike (1945), for instance and those in his
Tagmemic tradition used a set of numbers to indicate pitch heights. Halliday
(1967, 1970; see also Halliday & Greaves 2008) use a set of numbers to indi-
cate whole ‘tunes’; Brazil (1975; 1997) and those in his Birmingham Discourse
Intonation tradition use letters to indicate ‘tunes’, but both are relatively easily
converted to the above; see the panel below. Pierrehumbert (1987), Ladd
(1996), Beckman & Elam (1997), Gussenhoven (2004) and others use the Tone
and Break Index, ‘ToBI’, and a set of letters and symbols to indicate pitch height
and movement. It is diicult to ‘translate’ these ToBI formulae, because there
does not seem to be an equivalent theory of information structure or a clear
designation of tonicity; furthermore, there are diferences between these four
authors, but an attempt is made in the panel below to compare Gussenhoven’s
system with that introduced here. he ToBI approach is used widely in North
America. (Gaps in the panel indicate that a particular feature is not recognized
in that particular system.)

Tonality
Tonality is the division of spoken discourse into discrete units of intonation,
each of which carries one piece of information. his function can easily be
demonstrated by listening to one sentence spoken with diferent tonality:
8.6 i they’re coming on \Monday
ii they’re \coming | on \Monday
he irst rendering presents just one piece of information, whereas in the
second, the speaker irst tells one thing (‘they’re coming’) and then adds a
second piece of information (i.e. when they are coming). here is thus a con-
trast in tonality, and that contrast signals a diferent distribution of informa-
tion. Tonality thus represents the way the speaker perceives all the information
and then organizes it into units of intonation.
As oten as not, tonality boundaries coincide with clause boundaries; and
there is good reason for this. A clause is designed to convey reference to a
situation or happening, with a verb indicating the activity or state of afairs,
and nouns (and nominal groups) representing the participants; adverbs and
prepositional phrases represent reference to any circumstances; conjunctions
represent links between the situations or happenings. A clause, in essence, is
the grammatical means of representing pieces of information – an activity or
state of afairs, participants, circumstances and linkage. And an intonation
unit, in essence, is the phonological means of representing pieces of informa-
tion in spoken discourse. In this way, there is a neat congruence of phonology,
grammar and semantics (the ‘pieces of information’); when this congruence
is actually realized in spoken language, we speak of neutral tonality: a single
unit of intonation representing a single piece of information worded as a single
clause. his was the case, for instance, in i above.
Neutral tonality accounts for at least half of the instances of intonation units

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 CHAPTER 8 Intonation: tonality

in informal conversation. Listen to the following account of a dangerous child-

hood prank: listen for the intonation units and mark them with the upright
bar ( | ), and then notice how oten – but not always! – the tonality boundaries
coincide with clause boundaries. Listen as oten as you need; concentrate on
lines 5 to 17, since the speaker is still sorting out the story in his mind in the
earlier lines, 1 to 4.

8.7 Dangerous childhood pranks 1

A: my cousin Mervin . that was in the REME . uh . got me a thirty eight 1

B: gun 2
A: Wesson . Smith and Wesson . special . and Benny’s . no it wasn’t 3
it was Rick Holmans’s shed . and Benny . Brian Beddingields . 4
knew his dad had some . ammunition . from the war . and he found 5
it and they were thirty eight . so we um . took them over the 6
marshes and shot a couple of rounds of and that was great and 7
then one . one day we were in up Prospect Road . near the scout 8
hut . in a shed . in a . um Rick Holmans’s shed . so there was four 9
of us in this . sort of eight by s . six shed – – and we were 10
playing about with the thing . and we messed about with it and did 11
the usu you know and and sort of said oh we’ll put a cross in it 12
and make a dum-dum of it . and ired it . in the shed . at . at at the 13
bit of wood (laughter) . and this bullet went round the shed about 14
three times . and we all just froze . (laughter) and this bullet went 15
round and round and round (laughter) was absolutely outrageous . 16
and we had no concept of what we what could have happened 17

You will, perhaps irst of all, notice that the pauses do not always coincide
with either clause boundaries or intonation unit boundaries; the reason is
clear: pauses oten indicate hesitation by the speaker in the process of compos-
ing their discourse. In line 5, for instance, the brief pause before ammunition
seems to indicate the speaker’s hesitation as he sought the right word, and not
the division between one piece of information knew his dad had some and a
second piece ammunition. But the pause ater ammunition does seem to indi-
cate the end of one piece of information and the beginning of a second piece
(i.e. the source of the ammunition). he pause ater war seems to conclude the
whole clause knew his dad had some ammunition from the war and to prepare
for the next piece of information and he found it. But there does not seem to
be a pause between that piece of information and the next, and they were thirty
eight. So although pauses may oten indicate the boundary of intonation units,
they are not absolutely necessary, and in any case, oten indicate something
quite diferent, hesitation.
Secondly, you will notice the movements of pitch throughout the discourse;
for instance, there is a falling movement from a relatively high pitch on -ition
and then on war, found it and -eight. hese will turn out to be tonic syllables
because they each appear in what seem to be separate intonation units. But the

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 PART TWO . . . and Discourse

point here is that ater each fall there is an eventual return to a higher pitch; the
low end of the fall signals the end of one unit, and the beginning of a change of
pitch is one of the signals for the next unit. Similarly, ater a rising tone, there
will be a return to a lower pitch.
hirdly, there is a tendency for unstressed syllables at the beginning of an
intonation unit to be articulated more quickly than those at the end; this may,
however, be diicult to perceive or measure without instrumentation. Yet this
change of pace also contributes to the impression that a boundary is being
marked.
he clearest boundaries are marked by all three features: pausing, a change
of pitch and a change of pace. Oten, only two, or even only one feature is
present. What also helps is the grammar; for example, some ammunition con-
stitutes one single nominal group, and so it would be most likely that a piece of
information will include the whole of it. Furthermore, as we have seen, clause
boundaries are very likely places for intonation unit boundaries because they
will also constitute pieces of information. Help also comes from a perception
of the pieces of information as such – that is how we, the listeners, process the
information. We processed the information of 8.6i as one piece, but we seem
to hear two pieces of information in 8.6ii. Altogether, there is a whole set of
phonetic, grammatical and semantic clues.
Now let us present that same discourse (from line 5) clause by clause, to see
to what extent that there is a matching up of clauses and intonation units:
1. knew his dad had some ammunition | from the war 5
2. and he found it 5–6
3. and they were thirty eight 6
4. so we um took them over the marshes 6–7
5. and shot a couple of rounds of 7
6. and that was great 7
7. and then one one day | we were up in Prospect Road | near the
scout hut | in a shed | in a um Rick Holmans’s shed| 7–9
8. so there was four of us | in this sort of eight by six shed 9–10
9. and we were playing about with the thing 10–11
10. and we messed about with it 11
11. and did the usu you know 11–12
12. and and sort of said ‘Oh we’ll put a cross in it 12
13. and make a dum-dum of it’ 13
14. and ired it | in the shed | at at at the bit of wood 13–14
15. and this bullet went round the shed | about three times 14–15
16. and we all just froze 15
17. and this bullet went round | and round | and round 15–16
18. was absolutely outrageous 16
19. and we had no concept | of what we what could have happened 17
he matching up of clause and intonation unit – neutral tonality – is demon-
strated in clauses 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 16, 18 – in at least twelve of the

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 CHAPTER 8 Intonation: tonality

nineteen clauses. (In clause 11, there is only one main verb, did, because you
know would be treated as a comment adjunct/adverbial (or discourse item); in
clause 12, there is a reporting clause said with its complement “Oh we’ll put a
cross in it. . ., and thus only one main clause.)
But what about the others? When a clause and an intonation unit do not
have common boundaries, the tonality is marked. Marked tonality was dem-
onstrated in 8.6ii; usually, marked tonality is chosen when the speaker decides
to present more than one piece of information within a single clause, as in that
case. Occasionally, the reverse can happen when a speaker words a single unit
of information/intonation as two clauses, for example:
8.8 he did I \saw him

Now let us examine the cases of marked tonality in the discourse.

1. knew his dad had some ammunition | from the war 5
he irst unit contains the mental process knew and its complement, an embed-
ded clause. It is potentially a ‘candidate’ for neutral tonality, but the clause has
not yet been inished. he second unit has only a prepositional phrase – less
than a clause; it provides additional information, like 8.6ii. hus there is one
main clause, but two units of information/intonation – marked tonality.
7. and then one one day | we were up in Prospect Road | near the scout
hut | in a shed | in a um Rick Holmans’s shed| 7–9
One clause, but ive units of information/intonation – marked tonality. he
irst one is a case of marked theme; see below (p. 141). he other units present
ever more detailed information about the location.
8. so there was four of us | in this sort of eight by six shed 9–10
One clause, but two units of information/intonation – marked tonality. he
irst presents existential information, the second the location.
14. and ired it | in the shed | at at at the bit of wood 13–14
One clause, but three units of information/intonation – marked tonality. he
irst tells us what happened, the second where it happened, and the third what
the target was. he irst unit is a potential ‘candidate’ for neutral tonality, but
the speaker has decided to add further, separate, pieces of information in the
form of prepositional phrases.
15. and this bullet went round the shed | about three times 14–15
One clause, but two units of information/intonation – marked tonality. he
irst tells us what happened, and the second its frequency. Again, the irst unit is
a potential ‘candidate’ for neutral tonality, since there is full complementation
of the verb, but the speaker adds extra information in the form of an adjunct.
17. and this bullet went round | and round | and round 15–16
One clause, but three units of information/intonation – marked tonality. he
irst again tells us what happened, and the second and third the direction of the
bullet, rather like a list.

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 PART TWO . . . and Discourse

19. and we had no concept | of what we what could have happened 17

One main clause, but two units of information/intonation – marked tonality.
he irst is a mental process, derived from conceive; the second is the com-
plement of the process. he speaker appears to want to emphasize both the
lack of conception and the possibility of a catastrophe – thus two pieces of
information.
*
Now try a similar task, but this time with a discourse that was written to be
spoken, as the script of a play. here is no ‘original’ audio recording as such,
but simply the imagination of the playwright of how they expected it to be per-
formed. But you too will be able to imagine how the dialogue could be spoken;
but there might well be points where there is a legitimate choice – and you
have the right to choose as if you were directing the play! Furthermore, in this
extract from George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion the three characters have very
diferent accents, but the principles of tonality will apply to all of them.
Pygmalion, Act 2
HIGGINS Why, this is the girl I jotted down last night. She’s no use: Ive got all the 1
records I want of the Lisson Grove lingo; and I’m not going to waste 2
another cylinder on it. [To the girl] Be of with you: I don’t want you. 3
THE FLOWER GIRL Don’t you be so saucy. You aint heard what I come for yet. [To Mrs 4
Pearce, who is waiting at the door for further instructions] Did you tell 5
him I come in a taxi? 6
MRS PEARCE Nonsense, girl! What do you think a gentleman like Mr Higgins cares 7
what you came in? 8
THE FLOWER GIRL Oh, we are proud! He aint above giving lessons, not him: I heard him 9
say so. Well, I aint come here to ask for any compliment; and if my 10
money’s not good enough I can go elsewhere. 11
HIGGINS Good enough for what? 12
THE FLOWER GIRL Good enough for yə-oo. Now you know, dont you? I’m coming to 13
have lessons, I am. And to pay for em tə-oo: make no mistake. 14
HIGGINS (stupent) Well!!! [Recovering his breath with a gasp] What do you 15
expect me to say to you? 16
THE FLOWER GIRL Well, if you was a gentleman, you might ask me to sit down, I think. 17
Dont I tell you I’m bringing you business? 18
HIGGINS Pickering: shall we ask this baggage to sit down, or shall we throw her 19
out of the window? 20
THE FLOWER GIRL [running away in terror to the piano, where she turns at bay]
Ah-ah-oh-ow-ow-ow-oo! [Wounded and whimpering] I wont be called a 21
baggage when Ive ofered to pay like a lady. 22
he punctuation helps signiicantly as a guide to the tonality of this dis-
course, by indicating the boundaries of the clauses, which are usually short

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 CHAPTER 8 Intonation: tonality

enough to contain single pieces of information and single intonation units.

here may, however, be disagreements between two ‘directors’ of the play: one
might imagine a slower pace of delivery than the other, in which case they
might expect a greater number of units of information/intonation. Secondly,
one might interpret the management, or distribution, of some information
diferently from the other – the ‘legitimate choices’ mentioned above.
he discourse also illustrates a number of other features of tonality.
• Exclamations are treated as pieces of information – little chunks of
interpersonal information; for example, Why (line 1), Nonsense (7), Oh (9),
Well (10, 15, 17) and Ah-ah-oh-ow-ow-ow-oo! (21).
• Restrictive (or deining) relative clauses are qualiiers within nominal
groups and, as such, do not count as main clauses; they are part of the
information of the nominal group to which they belong. Examples: I jotted
down last night (line 1), I want (2).
• Mental and verbal processes oten have a clause as their complement, with
the whole structure comprising a single main clause. Examples: You aint
heard what I come for yet (4), Did you tell him I come in a taxi? (5–6),
What do you think a gentleman like Mr Higgins . . . (7–8), you might ask me
to sit down (17), Don’t I tell you I’m bringing you business? (18), shall we
ask this baggage to sit down (19). All these cases would probably be spoken
as single units of intonation.
• Long clauses of ive stressed syllables or more (or even sometimes of only
four or three) have to be broken up into manageable pieces: Ive got all the
records I want of the Lisson Grove lingo (1–2) will probably get a break
between want and of the Lisson Grove lingo, which is an interrupted
qualiication of all the records. Such breaks will come typically at syntactic
boundaries.
• Clauses containing both a inite main verb and a non-inite verb constitute
single clauses and single pieces of information. he non-inite verb may be
part of a complement, for example: I heard him say so (9–10); Ive ofered to
pay (22).
• I’m coming to have lessons (13–14) seems to be a case of two clauses in one
piece of information, since the irst clause, I’m coming, contains no new
information, rather like the irst clause in 8.8 above. More on this in the
next chapter on tonicity.
• Vocatives that occur at the beginning, or in the middle, of a clause usually
have their own intonation unit, as a piece of interpersonal information; an
example occurs in line 19. But vocatives that occur at the end of a clause
may well be included within an intonation unit; an example occurs in
line 7.
• Subject disjuncts at ends of clauses usually have their own intonation units,
because of the signiicance of their interpersonal information. Examples:
He aint above giving lessons | not him (9); I’m coming to have lessons | I am
(13–14).

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 PART TWO . . . and Discourse

• Tags usually have their own intonation units, as separate pieces of

interpersonal information. Example: Now you know | don’t you? (13).
• Comment adjuncts at the end of clauses do not normally have their own
intonation unit even if they supericially constitute a clause. Example: I
think (17).

Each intonation unit carries one piece of information. When an intonation-

information unit matches a single clause, tonality is said to be neutral. his
typically happens when the clause is

• ‘simple’ – it has full complementation but nothing extra like adjuncts, tags,
apposition, etc.
• ‘straightforward’ – it has its usual (‘unmarked’) structure
• ‘short’ – it has no more than ive stressed syllables.

And in most informal conversation, each single clause is, in fact, simple,
straightforward and short, as the above real and scripted examples of discourse
illustrate.
here are, however, some regular cases of marked tonality.

‘Marked’ distribution of information. he most obvious regular case

of marked tonality is where the speaker adds to the main message some
information about the circumstances of a situation; for example

• his dad had some ammunition | from the war;

• we were up Prospect Road | near the scout hut | in a shed.

Listen to this exchange:

8.9 A: I haven’t heard anything from Jake for a bit

8.10 B: But I saw him yesterday in the library

B’s one-clause reply could be a single piece of information, spoken as a single

intonation unit (= neutral tonality):

Bi but I saw him yesterday in the library |

but he might have said it as two pieces of information:

Bii but I saw him yesterday | in the library |

or even three:

Biii but I saw him | yesterday | in the library |

or even four, since a conjunction like but can have its ‘meaning’ of contrast
highlighted:

Biv but | I saw him | yesterday | in the library |

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 CHAPTER 8 Intonation: tonality

he renderings Bii to Biv are all examples of marked tonality, since the intona-
tion unit boundaries do not coincide with the one clause. he speaker’s marked
distribution of information is the most obvious type of marked tonality.
Apposition is another regular case of marked tonality. Apposition refers
to a second reference to an item within a clause as in, for example, we were in
a shed, in Rick Holmans’s shed, where there is a second reference to the same
item shed. he phrase in Rick Holmans’s shed is said to ‘stand in apposition’ to
in a shed. It adds an extra piece of information and as such requires its own,
additional, unit of intonation. Consider the following examples:
8.11 i this is John | my neighbour
(my neighbour in apposition to John, adding an extra piece of information)
ii this is my neighbour | John
(John in apposition to my neighbour, adding an extra piece of information)
iii this is my neighbour | from across the road
(from across the road in apposition to my neighbour – extra information)
iv this is my neighbour | John | from across the road
(John and from across the road both stand in apposition to my neighbour)
An example occurred in Dangerous childhood pranks 1:
And Benny | . Brian Beddingields 4
(Brian Beddingields in apposition to Benny, presumably as his real name).
Listing is a further example of regular marked tonality. Each item in a list
constitutes an extra piece of information within a clause:
8.12 i I’d like you to meet John | Joe | and Jack
ii all three are tall | dark | and handsome
iii they’re all wearing smart suits | white shirts | and dark sunglasses
iv they are either neighbours | or friends |
Note, however, that coordinated items are not always treated as single items in
a list: e.g. black and white could either be a list or a single item, as in black and
white shirts; shirt and tie is oten treated as a single item, as in matching shirt
and tie.
v they never wear black and white shirts | nor matching shirt and tie |
Marked theme. When a clause element precedes the subject of a clause, the
clause structure is ‘marked’. he item that precedes the subject is referred to as
the ‘marked theme’ and is placed there for informational prominence, usually
to orientate the information of the clause to its context. Cases of marked theme
are regularly given their own intonation unit in recognition of their informa-
tional prominence as, for example, in then one day | we were up Prospect Road.
he marked theme may be an adjunct as in this case; then one day orientates
the coming new information to what has just been said. Marked theme may
also be the complement of a verb:
8.13 i Joe | you wouldn’t want to meet in a dark alley

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Or a connective:
ii however | Jack is very friendly
iii whatever your problem | Jack’ll help you
iv if necessary | Jack’ll lend you a bit of money
he marked theme may itself be a full clause like these examples from the
Pygmalion extract:
• and if my money’s not good enough | I can go elsewhere
• if you were a gentleman | you might ask me to sit down I think
or the main verb itself:

8.14 and go elsewhere | she did

Long clauses of ive stressed syllables or more are regularly split into two or
more intonation units at recognized syntactic boundaries – as we have seen in
the two discourses examined above. Here is another example:

8.15 the train now arriving at platform three | is the eleven twenty ive | from
Swansea to London Paddington
*
Now try another piece of real discourse. Mark the intonation units with | .

8.16 Dangerous childhood pranks 2

A: the other thing that we used to do that Bernard mentioned when I was 1
a little kid um . before um the sea front was all diferent it was just 2
open . we used to . cycle down . especially on foggy days was the best . 3
cycle straight down . Canute Road and straight of the prom into the 4
sea – because we um . we d make sure the tide was sort of in . but you 5
had to get rid of your bike in mid air 6
C: but didn’t you do that dreadful thing . to that boy 7
A: o yeah 8
C: where you were all kneeling down as (xx) 9
A: it s about an eight or ten foot dive . in and you can dive at high tide 10
. and Gus Hughes . came along one day . and we were always taking 11
the mickey out of him . he s . you know he s one of these . the lads 12
that . always got taken so we all . we all knelt down – with the water up 13
to about there . he stood on the top and said . is it o k to dive we said 14
yes – but of course it was only about knee deep – and he dived . and 15
he stuck – and he just went crunch 16

You might have noticed in Dangerous childhood pranks 2 at least a couple of

cases where the speaker seems to start a piece of information but then decides
to restart in a diferent way. In line 2, he hesitates ater a little kid and starts
the next piece of information with before, but abandons that beginning and
starts again with the sea front. hese hesitations, false starts and abandoned

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 CHAPTER 8 Intonation: tonality

intonation units are all typical of real, unprepared, spoken discourse; but we
still need to mark the beginning and end of each unit. An abandoned intona-
tion unit will be identiied as one without a tonic syllable, and this will become
apparent in the next chapter, on tonicity. Another example of a re-start occurs
in line 12: he’s you know; the speaker then decides to proceed as before. You
will also ind a couple of similar cases at the beginning of Dangerous childhood
pranks 1, but you are not likely to ind such cases in the Pygmalion extract
where the discourse is carefully worked out and then rehearsed by actors.
he speaker appears to ‘stumble’ intonationally in a couple of cases, which
is, of course, typical also of real, unprepared, spoken discourse – in the same
way as people hesitate over the selection of words, etc. In line 10, he seems to
add in as a separate intonation unit ater it’s about an eight or ten foot dive.
(With rehearsal, he would no doubt have done so.) He also seems to run but of
course, which is in marked theme position, in line 15, into the rest of the clause,
possibly because of the fast pace of delivery. If it was the script of a play, you
might have directed him to slow down and treat this case of marked theme in
the normal way, i.e. with its own intonation unit.

Tonality and grammatical contrasts

here are a number of cases where a change in tonality will signal a diference
in grammar. Here is a simple example:
8.17 i this is my neighbour | John
ii this is my neighbour John
As we have seen, i above will most likely be interpreted as a case of apposition,
where John will be interpreted as a second reference to my neighbour. In ii
John will probably be interpreted as a vocative; John is the person the speaker
is actually addressing. In the written language, the two possibilities may well
appear in identical form:
• his is my neighbour, John.
In this case, tonality has disambiguated an identical written form with the
potential of two distinct clause structures.
Restrictive (deining) and non-restrictive (non-deining) relative clauses. A
restrictive relative clause ‘restricts’ or ‘deines’ the reference to the particular
case, as in this is the girl I jotted down last night; the relative clause, I jotted
down last night, restricts the reference of the girl, in other words, deines which
girl the speaker is referring to. But a non-restrictive or non-deining relative
cause simply adds extra information which the speaker deems to be relevant
to the discourse – hence also the term that is sometimes used, ‘adding clause’.
Here is an example of the two possibilities:
8.18 i the girl he jotted down last night | has come back
ii the girl | who comes from Lisson Grove | has come back

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he irst, i, has a relative clause which deines which girl is being referred to
(restrictive, deining); the second, ii, has a relative clause that is not meant to
deine, but to add relevant information (non-restrictive, non-deining), and
because it is a clause that adds extra information, it is spoken as a separate
unit of intonation. Now, of course, it would be perfectly possible to have two
identically worded sentences with relative clauses that are either restrictive or
non-restrictive, but it would be the tonality that, again, disambiguates the two
grammatical categories:
iii the girl who comes from Lisson Grove | has come back
Which girl? he one from Lisson Grove, not the one from somewhere else!
Now, compare these two instances:

8.19 i my brother who lives in Africa | is an economist

ii my sister | who lives in Weston | is a care worker
How many brothers, and how many sisters does the speaker have? he tonal-
ity of the irst, i, suggests a restrictive relative clause; so this suggests that the
speaker has more than one brother and needs to deine which one is being
referred to. he tonality of ii suggests a non-restrictive relative clause; so this
suggests only one sister, who is described further by where she lives. Again,
compare these two possibilities:

8.20 i the girl who came in a taxi | wants some lessons

(‘Which girl?’ ‘he one who came in a taxi – not any other girl!’)
ii the girl | who came in a taxi | wants some lessons
(We know already which girl. he extra information that she came in a taxi
tells us something relevant – that she can probably aford the lessons!)
his diference can also be maintained in instances with less than a full relative
clause. Compare:

8.21 i the girl wearing a hat with three ostrich feathers | came in
ii the girl | wearing a hat with three ostrich feathers | came in
and

8.22 i the man with sunglasses | is Joe

ii the man | with sunglasses | is Joe
A similar distinction can also be made in cases of apposition. Below, i deines
which Tom Jones is being referred to, whereas ii does not:

8.23 i Tom Jones the singer | comes from the Valleys

ii Tom Jones | the singer | comes from the Valleys
In Dangerous childhood pranks 1, speaker A refers to his cousin Mervyn,
identifying which of his cousins he means. With a tonality boundary between
cousin and Mervyn, it would be understood that he only had one cousin, who
he then decided to name.

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 CHAPTER 8 Intonation: tonality

Compare:
8.24 i my cousin Mervyn | got me a gun |
ii my cousin | Mervyn | got me a gun |
Notice he has only one cousin Mervyn, but he decides to add some relevant
information through a non-restrictive (non-deining) relative clause, that was
in the REME, which is spoken as a separate intonation unit.
In Dangerous childhood pranks 2, speaker A begins with a restrictive rela-
tive clause, that we used to do, which is contained within the intonation unit
that begins the other thing; and then he proceeds with a non-restrictive rela-
tive clause, that Bernard mentioned, which adds further, relevant, information
which is accorded its own intonation unit. Also: that always got taken (line13),
a restrictive relative clause that is contained within an intonation unit and
deines which kind of lad that the boy was.
Apposition and complements. Some verbs can require more than one com-
plement. his sets up the possibility of a sequence of nominal groups that can
be interpreted as either a sequence of complements or a single complement
and a case of apposition. Listen to these identically worded clauses:
8.25 i she considered Mr Higgins a gentleman | (‘assessed as a gentleman’; a
gentleman is a second complement)
ii she considered Mr Higgins | a gentleman | (‘gave due thought to him,
especially in view of his status’; a gentleman is in apposition to Mr Higgins)
and
8.26 i the girl called Mr Higgins a teacher (a teacher is a second complement; that
is what she said of him)
ii the girl called Mr Higgins | a teacher (a teacher is in apposition; she called
him, presumably because he was a teacher)
Complements, and intransitive verbs. Some verbs, like wash, can function
either transitively (i.e. with complements) or intransitively (i.e. without a com-
plement): she washed her hair; she washed (i.e. herself). Now compare these
pairs:
8.27 i she washed and brushed her hair | (i.e. she washed her hair and brushed it –
one event; wash is transitive; her hair is complement to both verbs)
ii she washed | and brushed her hair | (i.e. she washed herself and then brushed
her hair – two events; wash is intransitive; her hair is complement only to
brush)
and
8.28 i she dressed and fed the baby | (dressed is transitive; the baby is complement
to both verbs)
ii she dressed | and fed the baby | (dressed is intransitive; the baby is complement
only to fed)

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 PART TWO . . . and Discourse

also

8.29 i she looked and felt uncertain | (uncertain is complement to both verbs)
ii she looked | and felt uncertain | (look = ‘glanced around’ – intransitive;
uncertain is complement only to felt)
and

8.30 i he forgot the visitor | (forgot is transitive; the visitor is complement)

ii he forgot | the visitor | (forgot is intransitive; the visitor a gloss on the subject,
‘subject disjunct’)
and

8.31 i he’s trying to help the professor | (e.g. Pickering is helping Higgins)
ii he’s trying to help | the professor | (e.g. Higgins is trying to help)
Manner and sentence adverbs. Some adverbs, e.g. honestly, may function some-
times as an adverb of manner and sometimes as a comment on the message:

8.32 i he spoke to her honestly | (honestly = manner)

ii he spoke to her | honestly | (honestly = ‘I’m being honest when I tell you that
he did speak to her, even though you may doubt it!’)
and

8.33 i he doesn’t talk to lower girls normally | (normally = ‘in a normal manner’)
ii he doesn’t talk to lower girls | normally | (normally = ‘it is not normal for
him to talk to lower girls’)
also

8.34 i she sings happily to herself | (happily = manner)

ii she sings | happily | to herself | (happily = ‘I am happy to say’)
he comment is treated as a separate piece of interpersonal information.
Negative domain. Tonality plays a dramatic efect in cases where the domain
of negation may be ambiguous. he following written form may have two quite
opposite meanings:
• He didn’t agree because of the money.
Either the person refused because the money was not right; or he did agree, but
it was not on account of the money. Listen to the two possibilities in spoken
form:

8.35 i he didn’t agree | because of the money |

ii he didn’t agree because of the money |
In the irst case, n’t negates agree; in the second, n’t negates because of the
money (i.e. ‘it was not because of the money that he agreed, but it was because
of the challenge’). he domain of the negative is tied to the information within

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 CHAPTER 8 Intonation: tonality

the intonation unit. Notice that in i above, the person did not agree, but in ii he
did agree! (Examples like 8.35ii are very likely to have a falling-rising tone to
indicate a point of contrast.)

8.36 i I didn’t go | so that I could get promotion | (i.e. ‘I got promotion by staying’)
ii I didn’t go so that I could get promotion | (i.e. ‘I did go, but not with the
intention of getting promotion’; with a falling-rising tone)
also
8.37 i he won’t take notes | like last night | (i.e. ‘he didn’t take notes last night, and
he won’t now!’)
ii he won’t take notes like last night | (i.e. ‘he took notes last night, but he won’t
do it in the same way now’; with a falling-rising tone)
Complex verbal groups and clauses of purpose. Sometimes a complex verbal
group contains a second verb in the ininitive form, e.g. come to hear means
‘happen, by chance, to hear’; and clauses of purpose oten begin with the inini-
tive form of the verb, meaning ‘in order to’. Consider the following pair: the
irst, i below, contains the complex verbal group and is therefore, basically,
a single main clause, whereas ii below contains a clause of purpose as expla-
nation of why she came. he written form might be identical, but intonation
disambiguates conforming, in fact, to neutral tonality.
8.38 i she came to hear about the lessons |
ii she came | to hear about the lessons |
Similarly, leave someone to do something has the same potential ambiguity.
Consider this next pair:
8.39 i she let him to think about it |
ii she let him | to think about it |
he irst, i, has leave someone to do something as a complex group, meaning
‘Higgins had to think about it’; the second, ii, has a clause of purpose, as an
explanation why she let him, so that she could think about it!
A similar contrast can occur with reporting verbs with a complement that
takes the form of an ininitive verb. Consider:
8.40 i tell him to settle the issue |
ii tell him | to settle the issue |
he irst, i, has a report structure, with to settle the issue as the ‘reported’ com-
plement: ‘You must tell him that he must settle the issue.’ he second, ii, has
a clause of purpose: ‘If you tell him rather than keep silent, that will settle the
issue.’ Also:
8.41 i shall we ask this baggage to save us the trouble | (‘Please save us the trouble’)
ii shall we ask this baggage | to save us the trouble | (‘Shall we ask? She might
go, and that would save us the trouble of throwing her out.’)
*

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Finally, mark the tonality boundaries in this (scripted) monologue.

8.42 Come on, Gus

now then Gus don’t be a fool like you were last time 1
next time check the tide seriously 2
the boys who tricked you will try again won’t they 3
that was a dreadful thing they did pretending like that 4
I wouldn’t trust them to be honest 5
my goodness me you could have injured yourself seriously 6
make sure they are standing up on their feet 7
tell them to be honest 8
call Bernard your friend well he wasn’t much of one was he Gus 9
nor that other lad Joe 10
call Jack my friend to go with you next time 11
he’ll deal with them frankly 12
he won’t leave you to look ater yourself he’s too good a bloke frankly 13
*
Further information on tonality will be found in Halliday (1967, 1970), Tench
(1996a, 1996b), Brazil (1997) and Wells (2006). Further exercises on tonality
will be found in Beer (2005), Bradford (1988), Brazil (1994), Gilbert (1993:
‘thought groups’), Hancock (2003) and Hewings (2004).

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