PHONETICS &

PHONOLOGY IV
MAIN CONCEPTS

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 PHONETICS & PHONOLOGY IV: THE PHONOLOGICAL UNITS

THE PHONOLOGICAL UNITS

The four phonological units are: the tone group, the foot, the syllable and the phoneme.
Each of them is the unit of:

 The tone group is the unit of intonation

 The foot1 is the unit of stress and rhythm
 The syllable is the unit of syllabicity
 The phoneme is the unit of sound

They are related to each other concerning form and function.

Form or structure
 The tone group is made up of one or more than one foot
 The foot is made up of one or more than one syllable
 The syllable is made up of one or more than one phoneme

Function
Each unit performs a function in the unit immediately above:

 A vocalic phoneme functions as the nucleus of a syllable, consonants being marginal

elements
 A stressed syllable functions as the ictus element2 in a foot
 A foot functions as the tonic segment in a tone group
 The tone group functions as the unit of intonation

HIERARCHY OF PHONOLOGICAL UNITS

There are four ranks of phonological structure:
 An intonation unit is made up of one or more rhythmic units or feet.
 Each foot has a structure of syllables.
 Each syllable has a structure of phonemes.

There is a relationship of function as well as structure:

 Certain phonemes have certain functions in the syllable: vowels, in the main, function
as the nuclei of syllables, consonants as the margins.
 Certain types of syllable have their functions in feet: stressed syllables function as the
nuclei of feet, unstressed syllables as margins.
 Certain types of feet have their function in intonation units: the foot containing the
tonic acts as the nucleus, the others contribute to the head and the tail.

1
The foot is a unit of stress and rhythm in English. Each foot starts with a stressed syllable.
2
The Ictus element is a rhythmical or metrical stress (an obligatory element).

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 PHONETICS & PHONOLOGY IV: INTONATION

The nucleus at each rank is obligatory; the rest of the structure may or may not be present.
Without the tonic we cannot identify a complete unit.

INTONATION

According to INTONATION

A. Cruttenden It involves the occurrence of repetitive pitch patterns, each of which is used to
convey consistent meanings, either on single or groups of words of changing length.

Paul Tench It is the linguistic use of pitch patterns in utterances.

J.C. Wells It is the melody of speech. It also entails the pitch of the voice rising and falling, to
which speakers use in order to convey linguistic and pragmatic meaning3.

Peter Roach It is the use of the pitch of the voice to convey linguistic information.

THE FEATURES OF INTONATION

Intonation is:

 Systematic: because it is organized into a number of sub-systems (choices), that is to

say, there are rules. This makes it possible for us to learn and teach intonation.
 Significant: because it conveys meaning.
 Conventional: because it is a system shared by the members of a certain speech
community.
 Characteristic: because each language has its own intonation patterns.
 Inevitable: because it is always present as each language will manifest tonality, tonicity
and tone.
 Integral: because it integrates grammar, pronunciation, and sounds of any language.
 Obligatory: because it is a feature central to spoken language.

Intonation is organized into three systems: tonality, tonicity, and tone. Tonality is the system
related to the division of spoken text into different units of intonation which correspond to the
speaker’s perception of pieces of information. The tonicity system involves the placement of the
focus of information found in the tonic syllable. Lastly, tone is the system of contrasting pitch
movements which indicate the status of information.

3
Pragmatic meaning involves how language users are able to overcome apparent ambiguity in speech since
meaning relies on the manner, place, time, etc. of an utterance.

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 PHONETICS & PHONOLOGY IV: TONALITY

TONALITY

According to TONALITY

Paul Tench It is the system in intonation that divides spoken discourse into its separate
individual intonation units.

J.C. Wells It is the division of spoken material into chunks.

Unit of Intonation

It is a semantic-phonological unit which handles not only of information but also markers of
style, expressions of attitudes and feelings, running repairs 4, phatic communication 5 and
politeness formulas6.

“A whole text is composed of many intonation units, each bearing a single piece of
information and representing the speaker’s management of the information.” (Tench, 1996).

The units of intonations also reflect the speaker’s decisions about focus. Each intonation unit
covers a single focus domain (culminating in the tonic syllable) and the associated out-of-
focus material. E.g.:

I think you’ve made good progress this year.

In this example, the focus domain might typically be good progress. The associated out-of-
focus material would be I think you’ve made and this year. The whole thing would be said as
a single intonation unit.

In an alternative spoken version of the same words, the speaker might decide to place an
additional focus on this year, perhaps wishing to imply that there is a difference between
this year and last year. Dividing it into two chunks, with an intonation break after progress,
gives:

I think you’ve made good progress / this year.

The speaker might also wish to place focus on I, perhaps to imply a contrast between what
he or she thinks and other people might think. To do this, the speaker would accent I and
might make I think into a separate chunk.

I think / you’ve made good progress / this year.

4
Repair is the process by which a speaker recognizes a speech error and repeats what has been said with some sort
of correction. It’s also called speech repair. A linguistic repair may be marked by a hesitation and an editing term
(such as, "I mean") and is sometimes regarded as a type of dysfluency.
5
Phatic communication is verbal or non-verbal communication that has a social function, such as to start a
conversa-tion, greet someone, or say goodbye, rather than an informative function.
6
Politeness formulas are expressions like please, thank you, don’t mention it.

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 PHONETICS & PHONOLOGY IV: TONALITY

The purpose of the intonation unit is to have a starting point for the analysis of information.
Different pitch movements can contrast with each other at each point of the structure, and
thus produce differences and changes in meaning. Therefore, the purpose of the IP7 is to
indicate the points or areas where intonation can vary and produce differences in meaning.

NEUTRAL TONALITY
Neutral tonality entails an intonation unit corresponding with one and only one clause.
Halliday drew attention to the observation that very often intonation units coincide with
clauses. The clause is the most obvious unit of grammar to handle a typical piece of informa-
tion: the subject represents the theme - what the message is about; the predicate represents
the rheme - what the message actually is.

For instance, the syntax of: A dog is a man’s best friend tells you about what the theme is, i.e.
the subject of the clause, a dog; and then tells you what the actual message is, i.e. the
predicate, is a man’s best friend (the rheme).

The concept of neutral tonality embraces a very important point: the functional equivalence
of intonation unit, clause and unit of information, linking up phonology with grammar and
semantics.

MARKED TONALITY
Marked tonality occurs either when two (or more) clauses fit into a single intonation unit, or
when two (or more) intonation units are needed two cover a single clause.

More than a clause

Two (or more) clauses fit into a single intonation unit. Examples:

 Reporting clause followed by a reported clause, e.g.: / but you said you loved me! //
He said he was sorry. /
 Conditioned clause followed by a conditional clause, e.g.: / I will cry if I want to /
 Embedded clauses, e.g.: / It doesn’t matter where you sit. // What they didn’t like / was
the noise. // Getting caught / is exactly what I’m trying to avoid. // What I’m looking for /
is a saucepan. /
 When “new information” is contained in the second clause whereas the first one only
bears “given information,” e.g.: / He did. I saw it. /
 When the subject of coordinate clauses is ellipted, e.g.: / She was sitting and thinking
// Peter likes him and trusts him. /
 When two verbs share the same complimenting object, e.g.: / I washed and ironed the
clothes. /

7
IP: intonation phrase

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 Clauses of projection, e.g.: / She thinks he’s wrong. // I hope you haven’t forgotten. // I
thought the food was excellent. /
 In cleft sentences one constituent of the sentence is fronted and introduced by it is (or it
was, etc.), e.g.: / It was Veronica that I chose. /

If there is further focused material to follow, then there must be an intonation break, e.g.:
/ It was Veronica / that I chose. / (with focus on I. This case would be appropriate if the
speaker was making a contrast between his own choice and someone else’s choice).

Less than a clause

Two or more intonation units are needed to cover a single clause. Let us consider the follow-
ing cases:

 Afterthoughts
Utterances that are said or added later, often not carefully planned, e.g.: / I’m going to town /
tomorrow. /

 Vocatives and imprecations 8

Vocatives are treated differently depending on where they come. In initial or middle posi-
tion, they take a separate IU 9, e.g.: Peter, / do you know where I put the DVD? // Can you, /
Miss Smith / help me? // Ladies and gentlemen! / Please remain sitting. /

When not initial, they are usually attached to what precedes, forming part of the tail of the
IU, e.g.: / Have you got your passport, Mother? /

Imprecations usually have their own IU when initial, but otherwise are attached to the
preceding IU, e.g.: / In heaven’s name, / why not? // Why not, in heaven’s name? /

 Adjuncts10
Adjuncts or adverbials of time, place, linking, viewpoints, etc. have their own IU either at the
beginning or in the middle of a clause, e.g.: On Thursday evening / I’m having dinner at
Patsy’s. // Unfortunately, / we’re not going to be able to make it. // Only now / can we begin
to see a solution. // Upon arrival at the hotel, / the guests received dinner. // He ran the mile, /
however, / in four minutes. // The decision, / politically, / was a very clever one.

If these adjuncts appear at the end of the clause, they may either have an IU of their own or
be incorporated into the unit of the preceding clause, e.g.: / We could do something different
this year. / Or / We could do something different / this year.

Some adverbials are preceded by a comma in writing but have no intonation break in
speech: then, though, even, you know. E.g.: / We’ll see you on Tuesday, then. // It hasn’t

8
Imprecations are offensive words that are used to express extreme anger.
9
IU: intonation unit
10
Adjuncts are adverbials that comment on the information or relate to the addressee.

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stopped him smoking, though. // The bride looked beautiful and radiant, even. // Her health’s
pretty poor, you know. /

Adverbs at the end of a clause may be adverbs of manner that modify the verb and thus be
integrated closely into the clause structure. In keeping with the general rule that the nucleus goes
on the last in focus lexical item, such adverbs tend to bear the nucleus. E.g.: / She dances
beautifully. // I just can’t take him seriously. // She spoke very frankly. // I’ll pay you back soon. //
He spoke to her honestly. /

Sentence adverbials that modify the whole clause or sentence, typically have their own IU, e.g.: /
Apparently, / she’s getting divorced. // The officials, / surprisingly, / raised no objections. // I’m
rather disappointed, / frankly. // I’ve been talking to Robert, / as a matter of fact. // I’ll pay you
back, / obviously. // He spoke to her, / honestly. /

 Long subjects
A NP consisting of several words is particularly likely to have its own IU; that is, there is
often an intonation break between the subject and the rest of the clause, e.g.: / The head of a
large school / has a lot of responsibility. // The people I’ve been talking to / were quite definite
about it. // London and the south east / will have showers. // In the heart of the Lake District /
is Lake Windermere. /

Objects, too, are followed by an intonation break if they are heavy, e.g.: / I gave the book you
asked about / to the girl at the checkout. /

 Highlighted themes
“Topicalised subjects,” that is to say that the topical nature of the subject is emphasized, e.g.:
/ This landscape / is incredible varied. // The children / say they don’t like her. / But I / think
she’s wonderful. // Cats and dogs / can make wonderful companions. /

 Marked themes
A clause element preceding the subject with the effect that that element becomes the theme,
instead of the subject, e.g.: / This morning / I’m going into town. /

The theme - the starting point of the message - is no longer I, but this morning. This case is
known as marked theme as opposed to the more, neutral theme, in which the subject,
coming first, is the theme. Cases of such marked theme always have a separate IU, e.g.: /
These ideas / you must reject. // Not until then / will I even think about it. // Scarcely even
then / are you likely to find support. // Into my mind / came the thought of rejecting it. /

There are cases of marked theme in which a dependent clause precedes the main one, and is
thus an example of neutral tonality, e.g.: / If you go out in the evening / I want you in by
eleven. // Whatever your excuse / you should be in by eleven. /

 Tags

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A. Cruttenden does not see tags as a separate clause; he mentions this case as being “less
than a clause,” e.g.: You’re quite taken with him, / aren’t you? // That was a bit early, / wasn’t
it? // I’ll get in touch with Tom, / right? /

 Lists
When listing, each item is contained in a separate unit, e.g.: He could speak English, / French
/ and German. // She ate some soup, / some bread and butter, / and a piece of cake.

 Agentive By-phrases
In passive clauses, the agentive by phrase following the verb is commonly given a separate
group, especially if post-modified, e.g.: / Your bicycle was stolen / by an old woman wearing a
clown costume.” /

 Appositions
When the relationship between two or more items are either identical in reference, e.g.: /
Paris, / the capital of France, / is …. // The Government, / the prime minister and his cabinet, /
are pushing for a quick decision. /

 Parenthetical structures
Those clauses which give extra information, e.g.: / Some foods, / sugar for example, / are not
good for us. /

TONALITY CONTRASTS IN GRAMMAR

One of the functions of tonality is the “grammatical function”, that is to say, to disambiguate
parallel wordings that contrast in syntactic structure.

Defining and non-defining clauses

1. My brother who lives in Africa / is an economist.
2. My brother, /who lives in Africa, / is an economist.

In 1, the clause defines which brother is meant, i.e. not the one who lives anywhere else; it
restricts the reference. The relative clause in 2 does not define which brother is meant; it
adds extra information as it does not restrict the reference. Such non-defining clauses could
well be labeled “adding clauses.” In spoken discourse, it is the tonality system that
differentiates between the identical wording of the two cases. (Remember: any comma
belongs to writing.)

The distinction between defining and non-defining extends to phrases, too. E.g.:

1. The man dressed in black / then stood up.

2. The man / dressed in black / then stood up.

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The tonality break after man in 2 indicates that the following clause or phrase does not
define the man, but adds extra information - which might be incidental or highly relevant.

Defining relative clauses are much more frequent in conversation than non-defining ones. In
typical cases such as the following, there is no intonation break before the defining relative
clause:
Where’s that pen I was using?
That’s my coat you’ve taken.

There may well, however, be an intonation break after the relative clause, since the whole NP
is rather heavy:
This new car I’ve bought / has a special locking device.
The point you must remember / is that…

Apposition

1. Tom Jones the singer/ comes from the Valleys. (Defining apposition)
2. Tom Jones, / the singer, / comes from the Valleys. (Non-defining apposition)

In sentence 1, some clarification is needed. Therefore, the apposition performs a defining

role. The speaker and the listener are familiar with more than one person called Tom Jones,
while in sentence 2, it is taken for granted that the listener knows who Tom Jones is. The
apposition just adds information.
Let’s analyze these other examples:

1. This is my neighbour, / John.

2. This is my neighbour, John.
3. This is my neighbour John.

In sentence 1, neighbour and John are the same person. This is a case of open apposition. In
sentence 2, the person is talking to John, so John is a vocative in final position. In sentence 3,
the speaker is introducing ONE of his neighbours, his neighbour John. This is a case of close
apposition.

Negative domain
If a main clause has a negative and is followed by because and a reason, or by so (that) and a
result, then intonation - in the shape of tonality - performs the crucial role of differentiating
the syntactic structures and meanings. For instance: / I didn’t come / because he told me. /
Here, the meaning is quite clear: the person did not come, and a reason for not coming is
added. If, however, you run the two clauses together into a single IU, you get quite a
different meaning: the person did go, but not for the reason that is given - he/she went for
some other reason, e.g.: / I didn’t come because he told me. / (This would normally be spoken
with a fall-rise on told me, and implies: ‘I came for some other reason.’)

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1. He didn’t agree / because of the money.

2. He didn’t agree because of the money.

In these two examples, the domain of negation can be ambiguous. In sentence 1, the person
refused to accept because the money was not right. The negative (n’t) negates agree. In
sentence 2, the person did agree but it was not because of the money. The negative (n’t)
negates because of the money.

Report clauses

Report clauses take the form of indirect speech, that is, there is an initial verb of ‘reporting’
and a clause containing the content of what is ‘reported’, e.g.:

1. He said he would come.

2. They asked if he knew the decision.
3. He didn’t know whether they had already decided.
4. We very much hope they will think about it.

The difference between report clauses and direct speech is matched by intonation. The
direct speech version of 1 might have been He said, ‘I will come’, which would be rendered in
speech as two intonation units: He said / I’ll come with a little pause after said. Notice that
the wording of reporting and direct speech might occasionally be identical:

1. And then he’ll say who’s coming (reporting)

2. And then he’ll say / who’s coming (direct: And then he will say, ‘Who is coming?’)

Clause complements

Verbs vary in the kind of complementation they require in the rest of the clause. Verbs may
be intransitive and require no further complementation; other verbs are transitive,
requiring a direct object as complement, e.g.:

1. She washed and brushed her hair.

2. She washed / and brushed her hair.

In 1, she washed her hair as well as brushed it; her hair is the direct object complementing
the verb wash, which is thus transitive. In 2, however, washed is intransitive, since the
boundary separates that verb from the following words. Thus, intonation is doing gramma-
tical work.

There is another situation where intonation is necessary to disambiguate parallel wordings

that involve complements. In colloquial speech, the real subject of a clause is sometimes left
to the end for effect, e.g.: They’ve left / the others in which the others is the ‘real’, but
displaced subject, with the meaning, ‘The others have left (actually)’. To leave is a verb that
can either be intransitive as the aforesaid example, or transitive as in: They’ve left the others.
In this case, the others is the direct object complementing left.

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Verb phrases

A verb phrase can be simple: with a single lexical verb; or complex: with more than one
lexical verb, e.g.: you must try to stop smoking. Some instances of complex verbal phrases
look very similar to a series of verbs, for instance:

1. He began smoking
2. He began to smoke
3. He stopped smoking
4. He stopped / to smoke

The verb phrases in 1, 2, and 3 are all complex, but they are each a single phrase in a single
clause. In 4, we have two simple verb phrases: the first belongs to a main clause, and the
second to the following ‘purpose’ clause, which could be rewarded as in order to smoke.
Because sentence 4 consists of two clauses, neutral tonality is expected: two clauses and two
intonation units.

1. She left him to think about it. (Predicate of only one clause)
2. She left him, / to think about it. (Main clause followed by a ‘purpose’ clause)

In sentence 1, the meaning is to leave someone to do something, so, she left him because he
had to think about it. In sentence 2, there is an adverbial clause of purpose: Why did she
leave him? She left him because she had to think about it.

FACTORS THAT DETERMINE THE DIVISION INTO TONE GROUPS

 The speaker’s perception of the organization of the information, e.g.: / Hans

Christian Andersen /… (A separate tone group for the subject for theme highlighting).
 Length constraint: no more than seven stresses, e.g.: / while many of these works are
almost known outside Denmark / his fairy tales… / (The sentence is very long. Therefore it
demands two groups).
 Speed of delivery (the slower the pace, the shorter the unit), e.g.: / a reason for
Andersen’s great appeal to both children and adults is… / (I can say it in one go if I speak
quickly).
 Probabilistic correlations with syntactic units, e.g.: / Andersen’s first book of fairy tales
/… (Long noun phrase subject).
 Intonation-groups are units of performance, planning and presentation made by
the speaker for the listener, e.g.: / born in Odense, Denmark / in 1805 / died in
Copenhagen / in 1875 / (I want to highlight the places and the years of his birth and
death).

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TONICITY

According to TONICITY

Paul Tench It is the system by which an individual, discrete, unit of information is shown to
have a prominent word which indicates the focus of information.

J.C. Wells It is the speaker’s uses of highlighted or accented words in order to convey
meaning.

According to Ortiz Lira, the tonic syllable or nucleus can be classified into three main
groups:

 Phonetic definition: the stressed syllable of the most prominent word and with major
pitch11 movement.
 Distributional definition: the last fully stressed syllable.
 Functional definition: the primary means of signaling the focus of information

According to P. Tench, there are seven features which appear to be significant for the identi-
fication of tonic syllables:

The role of pitch

1. Pitch peak: clearly refers to the highest pitched syllable within a given IU.
2. Maximum pitch range: just one syllable will exhibit greater pitch movement than the
others.
3. Kinetic tone: there is one syllable with a degree of movement, even if all the others are
fairly stable at a fixed pitch level.

The role of loudness

4. Loudness peak: clearly refers to the loudest syllable within a given IU.
5. Crescendo: refers to an observable decrease in perceived loudness in the succession of
syllables following a tonic syllable.

The role of timing or length

6. Tempo marking: refers to the relative speed of delivery in the syllable concerned; the
tonic syllable remains as relatively long compared to surrounding syllables.
7. Pause: the identification of the tonic syllable may be aided by a slight pause preceding it.

11
Pitch: how high or low a sound is.

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It can be seen that the three labeled ‘prosodic features’ - pitch, volume and length - togeth-
er provide the basis of the way in which speakers produce tonic syllables. The tonic syllable,
then, is that syllable in a given IU which is made most prominent by a combination of pitch,
volume and length.

THE FUNCTION OF THE TONIC SYLLABLE

The function of the nuclear syllable, according to Halliday, is to form the focus of
information: what the speaker decides to make the main point or burden of the message.
The tonic represents the focus of each unit of information.

The function of the tonic can be illustrated in the following question altering the tonic
syllable in quite a number of different ways:

Can you break an apple in two?

The intonation starts off quite high on the word Can, gradually descends through you break
an apple in, and then rises on two. Two is the tonic and is made prominent by the
combination of the aforementioned prosodic features. But what difference is made if you
shift the tonic to apple?

Can you break an apple in two?

This choice could really only make sense if people had already been talking about things in
two. Notice that by changing the tonic, you change the focus of information.

Can you break an apple in two? (Probably in contrast to some other action like cutting.)

Can you break an apple in two? (you becomes the focus of attention, probably in contrast to
somebody else.)

Can you break an apple in two? (The focus of information is now on the ability of the person
addressed, probably to suggest that breaking an apple in two presents no problem; but then
comes a query, or even a direct challenge.)

As the tonic is changed, so is the focus of information. In each rendering, we are

presented with only one IU, but with different focuses. Technically, we can say that whereas
the tonality has remained constant, the tonicity has been changed each time.

CONTENT AND FUNCTION WORDS

Content words are nouns, adjectives, most verbs and most adverbs. Function words, on the
other hand, are pronouns, articles, auxiliary verbs, modal verbs. Generally speaking, content
words are accented but not function words. Hence the nucleus is typically placed on the last
content word in the IP:

I can’t hear you.

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I’m very annoyed with her.

Ask her what that noise is.

If an IP ends with a function word, the nucleus goes earlier.

personal pronouns: I, me, you, he, him, she, her, it ,we, us, they, them, one
prepositions such as at, by, from, of, to, with, about, etc.
auxiliary verbs: be, have, do and their forms am, was, did, etc.
modal verbs: can, could, may, might, shall, will, would, must

Some IPs end in a combination of preposition(s) and pronoun(s). They must be both
disregarded:
I’ll be thinking of you.
He keeps worrying about it.

In the next examples we disregard final auxiliary verbs:

Chloe earns twice as much as Robert does.
He did better than I thought he would.
First Peter took a drink, / and then Mary did.

Compounds
Compounds are words composed, usually, of two independent words. When identifying the
‘last content word’ we have to bear in mind the existence of compounds. Most of them are
single-stressed, that is, the main lexical stress goes on the first element, e.g.: 'bedtime,
'grassland, 'wheelbarrow, 'newsgroup, 'keyboard, 'highlight, etc. If a compound is to bear the
nucleus, then - just as simple words - the accent is located on the lexically stressed syllable:

It’s well past your bedtime.

Put the grass in the wheelbarrow.
Don’t look at the keyboard!
Where’s your grandmother?
Here’s another highlight.

Many English compounds are written as two separate words, even though the main stress is
still on the first element of the compound. These are called open compounds (or two-word
compounds), e.g.: 'library book, 'credit card, 'bus ticket, 'running shoe, 'high school.

It does not matter whether a single-stressed compound is written as one word, or hyphenated, or
as two words. As far as intonation is concerned, it makes no difference: all single-stressed
compounds behave as if they were single words. If we place the nucleus on one, it goes on the
stressed syllable of the first element:

Is that my library book?

Are you still at high school?
At ten we have a physics class.

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Therefore, a ‘lexical item’ is either a single word or a compound. Unless there is some reason
for it to go somewhere else, the nucleus goes on the last lexical item in the intonation unit. Thus, a
single-stressed compound has neutral tonicity, despite the spelling: What we need is a book case.

Double-stressed compounds
Their main lexical stress is on their second element. They are usually shown with a
secondary stress mark followed by a primary stress mark, e.g.: ˌChristmas 'Eve, ˌTown 'Hall,
ˌgold 'ring, ˌham 'sandwich. If a double-stressed compound bears the nuclear syllable, the
tonic goes on the second element. But the first element may also be accented, e.g. as the
onset: It was 'Christmas Eve or There are some 'ham sandwiches.

In order to locate the nucleus correctly it is important to identify which compounds are
double-stressed. Here are some guidelines. The following types of compounds tend to be
double-stressed:

 Proper names of people: ˌJames Mc'Gregor, Deˌnise 'Harris

 Proper names of roads and public places: Vicˌtoria 'Road, ˌOxford 'Avenue12
 Names of institutions: ˌJury’s 'Inn, the ˌMarlborough Ho'tel, ˌGoldsmith’s 'College
 Compounds in which the first element names the place or time: ˌTown 'Hall, ˌkitchen
'window, ˌsummer va'cation, ˌChristmas 'Day
 Compounds in which the first element names the material or ingredient 13: ˌleather 'jacket,
ˌcheese 'sandwich, ˌpork 'chop

Pronouns and demonstratives

Personal pronouns are not usually accented, e.g.: Are you going to tell him? However,
pronouns are accented if they are placed in contrastive focus. We frequently want to
emphasize a contrast between one person and another: I’m as surprised as you are. // I know
how she feels, / but how do you feel?

Although this change of person can be made explicit (=expressed openly), it is often left
implicit: If you ask me, / … // If you want to know I think … // As far as I’m concerned / …

Possessive adjectives (my, your, his, etc.) may be made nuclear for the same reason: In my
opinion / … // From his point of view / …

The complement of the verb to be regularly receives the nucleus, even if it is a pronoun.
This is another common reason to locate the tonic on a pronoun: Who’s that? - It’s me. //
Who took the milk? - It was him. The nucleus remains on the pronoun even when the verb is
ellipted: Who left the sugar on the table? - Not me.

12
Except those ending in street: 'Oxford Street
13
Except those ending in juice or cake: 'orange juice, 'carrot cake

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Alternatively, the same idea can be expressed with the pronoun as subject. It is still in focus,
and bears the nucleus: Who’s there? - I am. // Who left the sugar on the table? - Well I didn’t.

In clause-final position the possessive pronouns (mine, yours, his, hers, ours, theirs) tend to
convey new information and so attract the nucleus. They are usually in implicit contrast
with other possessive expressions: Which one is yours? // Give me hers / and take his.
However, this does not apply to the post modifier construction of mine, of yours, etc., where
the possessive is usually not accented: I’ve just been talking to a friend of mine.

Final demonstratives, too, namely this, that, these, those, tend to convey new information,
and attract the nucleus: Look at this! // Who’s that? // I’d like some of those, please.

Final there usually attracts the nucleus if it refers to a place that is new (= not previously
mentioned), but not if it refers to a place that is given (= already mentioned or obvious from
the context): Hold it right there! // Look at that parakeet there.

Reflexive, reciprocal and indefinite pronouns

The most frequent use of a reflexive pronoun (myself, yourselves, etc.) is for emphasis, in
which case, it is accented: I’ll write to her myself. // He did it all by himself. However, when
they are used as true reflexives - as the object of the verb or after a preposition - they are
not usually contrastive, and therefore not accented. They usually for part of the tail: She feels
rather pleased with herself. // Have you hurt yourself? - Yes I’ve cut myself.

The accented myself at the end of a comment is used to suggest that this is your opinion, but
that others may not share it: I’m not sure, / myself. // Do you know Paris? - No, / I’ve never
been there / myself.

The reciprocal pronouns each other and one another are usually not contrastive, and
therefore not accented: I think we all ought to help one another. // At least Phil and Sue are
talking to each other.

The same applies to the indefinite pronouns someone, somebody, something, anyone,
anybody, anything: Can you see anyone? // I’ve just read something / really funny. // Can I get
you anything? // I can’t keep it quiet any longer. / I’ve just got to tell someone.

Prepositions
General speaking, prepositions are not accented unless they are brought into contrastive
focus. However, there are two circumstances where in broad focus the nucleus is located on
a preposition. Both involve wh questions in which there is no lexical material (content
words).

The first is when the preposition functions as the complement of to be: Look at this button. /
What’s it for? // There’s a difference between these examples and the corresponding
sentences containing a lexical subject rather than a pronoun. If there is lexical material, the

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default is for the nucleus to be located on the last lexical item, following the usual rule:
What’s that button for? // Who’s Mary with?

The second involves a preposition immediately following a wh word: You know my essay? -
Yes, / what about it? Compare with lexical material: You know my essay? - What d’ you want
to say about it?

Wh + to be
A sentence such as How are you? consists of function words only. There are no lexical items.
Yet the nucleus must go somewhere. If a direct or indirect wh question has the pattern wh
word - be - pronoun, then the nucleus goes on the verb to be itself. This does not involve
narrow or contrastive focus of any kind: How are you? or Tell me how you are. // What is it?
or Tell me what it is. // Who is it? or I wonder who it is. // That man over there, / who is it? //
When was it / that you came back from Canada?

Again, the nucleus would change in these examples if the corresponding sentences
contained lexical material instead of pronouns. Here the nucleus follows the usual rule of
being located on the last lexical item: Which day was it / that you came back from Canada? //
How old are?

If a speaker answers the question How are you? by repeating the same words back, there is
normally a change of tonicity. The answer has contrastive focus on you: How are you? / -
Fine, thanks. / How are you?

If the verb to be consists of more than one word (e.g. has been, will be), the nucleus goes on
the second of them: Welcome back! / How’s it been? // We’re going to get married. / When’s it
to be? The same applies in the corresponding indirect questions: I asked her how she was. //
They told us who they were.

Other function words that attract the nucleus

When used in the meaning ‘also’, too is usually accented. In this meaning it often comes at
the end of a sentence or clause, and thus attracts the nucleus. Sometimes it is attached to the
same IU as the preceding words, but sometimes it has its own IU:

Mary wants some ice cream, / and Peter wants some, too. Or
Mary wants some ice cream, / and Peter wants some, / too.

Exactly the same rules apply to its synonym as well, and to the negative equivalent either:

We’re going to the beach. / Why don’t you come along / as well?
I don’t like Jim, / and I don’t like Tammy, / either.

The sentence adverb anyway and its synonym anyhow are almost always nuclear: This idea
may not work, / but let’s try it anyway or … but let’s try it, / anyway.

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Phrasal verbs: verb plus adverbial particle

A phrasal verb consists of a verb plus a particle, which may be an adverb (away, back,
together) or a preposition that can also function as an adverb (by, down, on, up). The general
rule is that phrasal verbs are lexically double-stressed, with the primary stress going on the
particle. Thus ˌstand 'up has the same pattern as unknown or quite good. If the nucleus comes
on a phrasal verb, the word on which this nucleus is located is therefore typically the
particle: How are you getting on? // I’ll leave you to carry on, then.

There are a few exceptions, such 'pour down (= rain hard): It was really pouring down.

Prepositional verbs
A prepositional verb consists of a verb plus a particle which is clearly a preposition: look at,
send for, rely on. These are mostly lexically single-stressed, with the primary stress going on
the verb. Thus 'look at has the same stress pattern as 'edit or 'borrow. The second element,
the preposition, being unstressed, does not get accented (unless for contrastive focus). If the
nucleus comes on a prepositional verb, the word on which this nucleus is located typically
the verb itself: Here are the photos. / - May I look at them?

This happens particularly in certain constructions which leave the preposition stranded (=
without any following phrase). Typical cases are passivization, relative clauses and wh
questions. The preposition then goes in the tail, although phonetically it retains its strong
form:
It needs to be thoroughly looked at (passive)
Are these the books I sent for? (relative)
I haven’t got anyone to go with, though (relative)
Which of them can you really rely on? (wh question)

Again, there are a few exceptions. In particular, prepositions of more than one syllable tend
to be stressed: ˌlook 'after is double-stressed, and so is ˌdo with'out. So we say:

Is there anyone you want me to look after?

What can you do without?
Guess who I bumped into the other day.

In any case, when there is contrastive focus, implicit or explicit, the nucleus can readily go
on the preposition:

We can’t leave Mary behind. / Let’s ask her to come with us.
What shall I do with my umbrella? / - Oh bring it with you.

Phrasal prepositional verbs

Phrasal prepositional verbs are verbs that include an adverbial particle and a preposition,
e.g.: go along with, look down on.

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These are double stressed, e.g.: ˌgo a'long with. When one of these is the last lexical item in
focus, the nucleus goes on the adverbial particle, as expected:

That argument / is one I really can’t go along with.

She felt that her mother-in-law / always looked down on her.
The maze / was quite difficult to get out of.
That is something I need to find out about.

Verbs of belief and verbs of saying

The prosodic behaviour of certain verbs of belief and saying sometimes depends on whether
the proposition was accomplished or not. If the subject happens to be right, the main accent
goes on the introductory verb and the predicate is taken to be given information; if the
subject is wrong, the predicate becomes new information and gets the nuclear accent:

A: Manchester United two, / Leeds United two.

B: I knew it would be a draw.

A: Manchester United two, / Leeds United one.

B: I thought it would be a draw.

A: That was Fiona on the phone.

B: Ah yes. / She said she’d get in touch with me.

NEUTRAL TONICITY
The neutral form of the tonicity system is to have the tonic syllable within the last lexical
item (the last content word) in the IU.

The lexical item has semantic significance and may often contain more than a single word:
compounds, e.g. station master, railway track, signal failure, etc., or phrasal verbs, e.g. to take
off, to get in, to come across, etc., or idioms. Grammatical items (function words) are usually
described as having structural significance, but Halliday includes all items that belong to
closed systems, like here/there, now/then, yesterday/today/tonight, together, again, etc.

 Lexical items: nouns, most verbs, adjectives and most adverbs.

 Non-lexical items tend to “reject” the tonic: pronouns, articles, prepositions,
determiners, auxiliaries, modal verbs.
 The LLIR (last lexical item rule): this is the default tonicity rule. Unless there is good
reason for the tonic to be otherwise, English speakers place the nucleus on the last lexical
item in each intonation unit. This is “neutral” or “unmarked” tonicity.

Halliday pointed out that the normal structure of given and new information in a clause is to
present the given first and the new last, and that is why the tonic syllable usually comes at
the end.

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Given information: shared and common knowledge between a speaker and the addressee,
that is, information that the speaker decides to treat as already known or assumed. Given
information is recoverable either from the linguistic context, the physical situation or gene-
ral knowledge.

New information: ‘that part of the information unit (…) which the speaker has decided to
present as not being already available to the hearer’ (Halliday).

MARKED TONICITY
It is the choice of tonicity that is not neutral. Marked tonicity typically takes two forms: the
tonic accompanying a non-final lexical item or accompanying a grammatical item.

The main function of marked tonicity is to carry those cases of narrow focus that do not
coincide with final lexical items. Contrast is an obvious case of marked tonicity (narrow
or contrastive focus). It should not be too difficult to think of contrasts involving gramma-
tical items, for instance pronouns: It’s not what I think / but what you think and prepositions:
Think of what you can put into it / not what you get out of it and conjunctions: Remember / I
said if and even morphemes: She’s an ex-girlfriend as opposed to the normal She’s an ex-
girlfriend.

Marked tonicity also emerges to avoid a tonic on a repeated item: Do you like dancing? I
just love dancing. // Please welcome David Crystal / and his son Ben Crystal.

FOCUS

Another way of analyzing the linguistic function of tonicity involves the notion of focus: the
concentration of attention on a particular part of the message.

When we utter an IU, we can either bring everything into focus (broad focus) or we can
focus selectively one part of it (narrow focus). The part of the IU that is placed in focus is
called the focus domain. The nucleus or tonic marks the end of a focus domain.

Broad focus

Broad focus means that the focus domain is the whole IU, that is, the information conveyed
by the intonation group is completely new (‘all-new’). In utterances in broad focus, the
general tendency is for the nuclear accent to go on the last lexical item (neutral tonicity).
The tonic indicates the end of new information: Everyone burst out laughing. // Selena’s had
a heart attack.

Narrow focus

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Narrow focus implies that only part of what we say is brought into focus, i.e. when it
contains new and given information. Again, the tonic indicates the end of the new
information, that is, where the focus domain ends.

For example, if we are asked a question, and in our answer we repeat part of the material
from the question, then that old information will usually not be brought into focus. That is,
the lexical items in the old information will not be accented.

Who brought the wine? -Mary.

-Mary did.
-Mary brought the wine.
-I think it was Mary.
-I think it was Mary that brought the wine.
All five versions of the answer have narrow focus. The focus domain is just the item Mary.
The intonation indicates that we are concentrating attention on the relevant part (Mary),
and not on the old, given, repeated material that follows Mary in the longer versions.

The focus itself involves new information which might be found either at the end of the IU,
or anywhere else. For example:

A- Let’s go grab a coffee.

B- That’s a good idea.
A- Coffee is always a good idea.

The last intonation unit is clearly in narrow focus, and the nuclear accent is NOT on the last
lexical item.

In cases of narrow focus, the speaker may focus the listener on a non-final lexical item or on
a grammatical item. For instance, imagine that two people in a conversation, one asks the
following question: Where are you going on holidays? After handling the response to that
question, he or she may well return with the same question: And where are you going on
your holidays? The only new item is your; where, going and holidays belong to the context
given. The focus is narrow; the tonic falls again at the end of the new information, in this
case, a grammatical item which is also non-final.

This phenomenon of placing the tonic on words like your and you is typical in situations
where the second person asks the same question of the first person, e.g.:

Good morning / how are you?

Very well / thank you / and how are you?

The answer to Did you have a nice time? might possibly be: We had an awful time.

Something that is crucial for focus is the influence of context. Context guides speakers
and listeners to identify information that is presented as new or as given.

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When narrow focus is located at the end of the IU as in Who brought the wine? - I think it was
Mary, it happens to conform to neutral tonicity - the tonic accompanying the last lexical item.
When narrow focus occurs elsewhere, it conforms to marked tonicity since the tonic
accompanies either a non-lexical item, as in And where are you going on your holidays?, or a
non-final lexical item, as in We had an awful time.

Thus, whereas broad focus will require neutral tonicity, narrow focus may happen to use
neutral tonicity but is more frequently to involve marked tonicity.

Contrastive focus
A particular kind of narrow focus is contrastive focus. Here the nuclear accent draws
attention to a contrast the speaker is making. Any following material within the same IU is
unaccented and forms part of the tail of the IU:

You may have started your essay, / but have you finished your essay?

In this example the contrast is between started and finished. In such cases the repeated, non-
contrastive material (here, the second your essay) is often replaced by a pronoun, or entirely
omitted:
You may have started your essay, / but have you finished it?
You may have started your essay, / but have you finished?

Any word can be accented for contrast, including a function word. A pronoun, a preposition,
virtually any word, can bear the nucleus if it is contrastive:

I’m / writing a letter. / What are you doing?

I know what Peter wants, / but what do you want?
It wasn’t under the table, / but actually on it.
I can send a fax to him, / but I can’t receive one from him.

Contrastive focus on polarity or tense

Sometimes the speaker wants to emphasize the polarity (= the quality of being either
positive or negative) of a verb, or its tense.

In both cases this may cause the nucleus to go on an auxiliary or modal verb. When we deny
the truth of an assertion made by the other speaker, we can focus on the negative word. This
is a marked negative. The tonic goes either on the word not or on the word containing the
negation, e.g. a contracted negative such as won’t:

I think they’ll just surrender. / - They won’t surrender!

You took my plate. / - I didn’t take you plate!
Oops, / sorry, / you’re busy. / - I’m not busy.

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To deny the truth of a negative proposition, we focus on the word that indicates positive
polarity. This is marked positive. The nucleus usually goes on a form of the verb to be or on
a modal or auxiliary verb:

You’re not involved. / - Oh but I am involved!

If you can’t see her now, / when can you see her?
You thought I hadn’t finished, / but I had finished.

The pro-form do receives the nucleus when it signals a change of polarity (positive to
negative or negative to positive):

He promised he would finish it, / but actually he didn’t.

She said she wouldn’t tell them, / but actually she did tell them.

Or there may just be the restatement of an existing polarity: He promised he would finish it, /
and he actually did finish it.

There is also another possible reason for placing the nucleus on the word that carries the
indication of polarity: namely, as a device for adding emphasis to an exclamation. This is a
kind of contrastive focus, though the contrast is implicit:

You have done well! / Daddy will be pleased.

Oh no! / That was not a good idea.
That is a nice hat you’re wearing!

As with polarity, so with tense. We focus on an auxiliary or modal verb to emphasize that
we are talking about the past not the present, or the future not the past:

Are you a vegetarian? / - Well I used to be a vegetarian... (but now I eat meat).
Do you play tennis? / - I did play tennis... (before my operation).
Have you written back? / No but I’m going to write back.
This machine / runs more slowly than it used to.
I haven’t done the washing yet, / but I will (do it).

Contrastive focus is the commonest reason for a function word to receive the nucleus... but
not the only one.

Contrastive focus on a given item

We sometimes put the nucleus on a ‘given’ item because we need to place the item in
contrastive focus. This happens particularly when we correct another speaker. Because it is
in contrast, the repeated material nevertheless receives the nuclear accent (a fall-rise tone):

He’s a famous actor. / - Well not exactly an actor, / more a singer.

She had on a green dress. / - Oh not green. / It was blue.

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It’s awfully hard to get up at five. / - Well if you’re so late to bed, / you won’t be able to
get up early. (In this example, early counts as given information since 5 a.m. is early in
the day).

Occasionally we may even focus on part of a word only. This may mean that the contrastive
accent goes on a syllable different from the one bearing the main lexical stress:

How many were there? / - Fifteen. (normal pattern). // Did you say fifteen / or sixteen?
/ - Fifteen! (contrastive pattern)

I’d say it was not so much democratic, / more autocratic.

They’re not Chinese, / they’re Japanese.
It wasn’t really red, / just red dish.
She’ll talk to anybody / and anything.

Prefixes and suffixes may receive contrastive focus:

I thought the villagers were pretty friendly. / - Surely not! / I thought / they were rather
unfriendly.
This stress is post-primary. / - No, / it isn’t. / It’s pre-primary.

EXCEPTIONS TO THE LLI RULE

In utterances in broad focus, the nuclear accent will very likely go on the last lexical item.
This traditional rule implies that if the accent falls on a previous lexical item, or on a
grammatical item, then the utterance is in narrow focus. Nonetheless, there are several
cases in which final lexical items reject the nuclear accent despite being in broad focus.

Exceptions to the LLI Rule do not contrast, emphasize, and avoid focusing on repeated
information because the utterances are in broad focus (the information conveyed by the
intonation group is completely new).

Nucleus on last noun

 Final nouns + infinitives: I’ve still got an essay to write.

In this type of construction, the noun is the object of the verb as it was I’ve got to write an
essay. There is a tendency in English language to place the tonic on a noun where possible, in
preference to other word classes. In this case, a final verb is deaccented and the nucleus goes
on a preceding noun: I don’t know which bus to take. // Put the plates to warm.

 Final nouns + verbs: Onions make my eyes water.

This is seen in various constructions which involve having a verb of motion or happening at
the end of a sentence or clause. Again, the final verb is deaccented and the nucleus goes on a

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preceding noun: I wonder where Mary went. // Along the sides of the road, / there were
several cars parked. // Keep your fingers crossed. // The doctor is coming. // (Don’t worry)
John’s going.

 Final nouns + adjectives/participles: Don’t let the dog loose.

Constructions containing predicative adjectival adjuncts tend to reject the nucleus when
preceded by a noun: He left the door open. // Keep your eyes shut. Utterances indicating
causation are clear examples as well: Get the fire going. // We’ve got to get the car fixed. //
How often do you have your house painted? // Your going to get your fingers burnt.

 Wh questions ending with a verb: How’s the homework going?

In this type of utterances, the tonic accent normally goes on the noun representing the
object of the verb, rather than on the verb: Which book did you choose? // How much sugar
do you add? // Whose advice did you follow? // Whose umbrella have I taken?

 Final transitive verbs + object + particle: Keep your head down.

This type of structure consists of a transitive phrasal verb followed by a direct object - a
non-pronominal noun phrase - and an adverbial particle, all of which are in focus. This
exception to the LLIR occurs whenever the adverbial particle follows the direct object as in:
Are you going to bring the packages in? // Don’t forget to put the clock back.

 Subject + passive verb: The government was overthrown.

Structures made up of subjects and passive verbs are taken as responses to a question such
as What happened?, e.g.: Classes have been cancelled. // The missing link has been found! //
The entrepreneur has been kidnapped!

 Event sentences: The car broke down.

These are sentences describing an event, particularly with human subjects or cases of
misfortune (very often with non-human subjects). These relatively short types of utterances
consist of a non-pronominal subject followed by an intransitive verb. The nucleus tends to
be located on the subject, provided it is lexically filled, even if the verb contains apparently
new information:

The phone’s ringing. // The baby’s crying.

The car won’t start. // My head aches.
There’s a train coming. // An accident has happened.
The handle’s fallen off. // The brakes have failed.
Discussions took place. // The postman called.

Compare the corresponding sentences with a non-lexical (pronoun) subject: It’s ringing. // It
won’t start. // It’s fallen off. // There’s one just coming.

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Some event sentences involve an adjective as well as a verb, and again the noun receives the
nuclear accent, rather than the verb or the adjective: Your zip’s come undone. // The door’s
open. Compare the equivalent sentences with a pronominal subject: It’s come undone. // It’s
open.

Descriptions of the weather count as event sentences of this type: It’s a funny day: / the sun
is shining, / but there’s a wind springing up. So do statements relating to unpleasant bodily
sensations: My arms’ hurting. // My nose is bleeding.

Event sentences can involve very broad focus, being uttered for example as a response to
What’s happened? or What’s the matter? Yet their nucleus is not located on the last lexical
item adding new information. One possible explanation is that the verb (or adjective) in an
event sentence is predictable from the context, so does not need to be in focus. In the case of
The phone’s ringing, we know that what telephones typically do is ring.

We say that the use of these verbs in such cases is semantically empty because they do not
add extra information; these verbs simply fill the obligatory space of predicators.

 Final defining relative clauses14: Where’s that salad I was eating?

In English relative clauses, the nuclear accent normally goes on the antecedent (the noun),
irrespective of the condition of new or given information in the clause, and the length of it:
Just look at the tie he’s wearing. // Pam, / have you got any old magazines you wouldn’t mind
giving away? // What about that story you were telling me? // I’m putting away some of the
junk that’s been lying around since last Christmas.

 Indirect questions: I wonder what’s in that box she’s holding.

In this type of construction the nuclear accent goes on the objects of the verbs, provided
they are full noun phrases and not pronominal ones, while the verbs themselves are left
unaccented: You can’t imagine how much effort Mark put into it. // I forgot on which floor she
lives. // I wonder how long the video lasts.

 Fossilized expressions: at the best of times.

Several idiomatic or fossilized expressions have a fixed tonicity that can be explained by the
tendency to place the nucleus on a noun rather than a verb. Here there are some examples:

 to get on like a house on fire (establish a good  to get one’s fingers burnt (suffer unpleasant
relationship) consequences)
 to have a screw loose (be crazy)  till the cows come home (forever)
 to see which way the wind is blowing (see  to wait for the dust to settle (till things calm
what’s going to happen) down)
 to my way of thinking  as far as I’m concerned
 in one way  in other words

14
Final defining relative clauses functioning as object, not as subject

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 on second thoughts  in my opinion

 What’s that supposed to mean?  You can say that again! (I do agree with you)
 What of it? (I don’t care)  to be at it (be busy; be arguing; be having
sex)

How do we explain nucleus placement in the exceptions mentioned before?

Alan Cruttenden states that there is a hierarchy of accentability within syntactic classes.
Lexical items are more likely to be accented that grammatical items. And within lexical
items, nouns are certainly more accentable than the other classes, known as ‘NOUN
PREFERENCE.’

More exceptions to the LLIR

 Objects of general reference and empty words: Let’s go to my place.

There are various categories of word and phrase that tend not to receive the nucleus, even
though they may be the last lexical item in an IU. Some nouns, for example, are colourless
substantives practically equivalent to pronouns, that is, vague general nouns such as things,
people. Such empty words are usually not accented: I must believe in things. // What are you
going to tell people? // She heard something. // I must explain matters.

Sometimes expressions such as the man, that woman, etc. mean little more than he, she. Like
pronouns, therefore, they are not accented when used in this way: Have a word with the guy.
(= Have a word with him.) // I can’t stand that woman. (= I can’t stand her.)

There are several idiomatic expressions in which some is accented (often bearing a fall-rise
nuclear tone), while the following noun is not. (The same pattern is lexicalized in the word
'sometimes and various other words beginning with some-): For some reason, / I keep
forgetting to do it. // In some cases / the answer is obvious. // Some days / she feels very
depressed. 15

The word so is normally not accented when it is used as a pro-form (= to refer back to an
idea, situation, etc. that has been just mentioned): If you’re feeling unwell, / just say so. //
The band is popular, / and likely to become more so. // Is he still going to college? - I think so.

When the verb do is used as a pro-form (= as a substitute for another verb), it is not
accented: Martin got better marks than David did. // Peter smokes, / and his sister does, / too.
// Will you go to Brighton tomorrow? / - I may do.

 Final one: I haven’t got one vs. she’s the only one

15
This represents a kind of fossilized implication, namely a contrast with other cases, days, times, etc.

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Numerals (one, two, three...) tend to be accented, since they have considerable semantic
content. However, when one is used as a pronoun, it is not accented and so does not take the
nucleus: Can I borrow your ruler? - I haven’t got one. // I’ll take this one. // The train was
crowded, / so we caught a later one. When one is used after an adjective, it is also not
accented: Would you like a green one / or a red one?

Against this general principle, one is usually accented in expressions like the one, the
right/wrong/first/last/only one, which one: You took the last one! // Have you got the right
one?

With a plural or a mass noun, the pro-form corresponding to one is some or any. When used
in this way, some and any are not accented: Could I borrow some sugar? / - I haven’t got any.
// We need some cards. / Can you see any? // I’ve got lots of milk left. / - Would you like some?

 Final vocatives: Good morning, doctor.

Final vocatives - when calling the name of the person(s) you are talking to - are usually not
accented but attached to the preceding IU as part of the tail: Your taxi’s waiting, love. // Hi,
Peter! // I’ll do it right away, dear. // Here’s my essay, professor.

Even if a final vocative appears to include new information directed towards the unknown
addressee, it remains unaccented: You missed it, you fool. // Stop, you idiot!

A vocative at the beginning of an utterance is accented, and normally has its own IU, thus
becoming nuclear: Miss Scott, / lovely to see you again. // Mark, / are you going to be there?

 Final reporting clauses: I don’t want to go out, he said.

When reporting clauses (= words such as he said, she asked) follow quoted words, they are
usually out of focus. The tonic goes on the appropriate item among the quoted words, and
the reporting clause forms a tail to the IU: ‘How are you doing?’ he asked. // ‘I don’t believe it,’
she exclaimed. // ‘Where are you from, Bill?’ asked Jim.

In those cases where the reporting clause is modified by an adverbial requiring further pitch
movement, the adverbial may be assigned a separate IU, e.g.: ‘She’s crazy,’ Peter insisted, /
with a bitter sound to his voice. // ‘Are you sure?’ she asked, / looking at him strangely.

 Any- in negative statements: You don’t have to see anybody.

Negative statements with any may have broad focus version with an accent on the preceding
verb; the accent on anything is a narrow focus accent, e.g.:

A: Shall we get into the car now?

B: Yes. / I don’t think I’m forgetting anything. (Narrow focus would be: How many
times do I have to tell you! / I’m not forgetting anything!)

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 Final reflexive & emphatic pronouns: He asked himself vs. He asked himself

In these cases, tonicity realizes a syntactic contrast in parallel wording, in the same way as
tonality does. Reflexive pronouns are unaccented, whereas emphatic ones are accented:

1. I have never taught myself (reflexive16 pronoun, leaving the verb as transitive)
2. I have never taught myself (emphatic17 pronoun, leaving the verb as intransitive)

In 1, the tonicity is neutral because the tonic accompanies the last lexical item, whereas in
sentence 2, it is a marked version.

The tonicity of final adjuncts

When adjuncts occur in initial position of the clause, they gain semantic prominence, and
like other classes of words become the (marked) theme of the clause. But when they occur at
the end, they are often least prominent - but not always, and not all kinds either.

 Final adverbials of time and place

The first point to be made is that certain verbs require adjuncts of place as their
complements; verbs like put, send require a locative adjunct to complete their sense, e.g. you
cannot just say Put the books, you have to add a locative element like here or down, etc. Thus
a distinction needs to be kept between locatives as essential complements to verbs - they
have to be there - and locatives that add circumstantial information:

1. The books are here.

2. Put the books here.
3. We’ve got some books here.

In 1 and 2, here is complement to are and put, but in 3 it merely provides circumstantial
information.

Circumstantial information is what adjuncts of place and time provide most of the time.
Adjuncts like here/there; now/then; yesterday/today/tomorrow, are often not accented
when at the end of an IU, even if they contain new information (unless contrast is intended):

Let’s go now
Let’s go now (as opposed to a time in the future)
That’s all for today
That’s all for today (‘you get more tomorrow’)
I saw John yesterday
I saw John yesterday (as opposed to some other time)
Let’s go there
Let’s go there (as opposed to some other place)

16
The action of the verb affects the person who does the action as in He cut himself.
17
On one’s own, without help.

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Naturally, there are also many cases in which final adverbs and adverbial phrases of time
and place are important to the message, and are therefore brought into focus and receive a
nuclear accent:

He’s got a tattoo on his arm (/ not his leg).

Ok, / that’s agreed: / we’ll come round tomorrow.

 Final comment adjuncts

Comment adjuncts in final position behave in a similar ‘non-tonic’ way:

 I’ve never read it though  You must read it, of course

 She was rather annoyed, in fact  He’s not going to study you know
 He’ll be off soon, I imagine  They’ve already done it however
 How about dinner at home for a change?  I’ve begun to start it at least

The adverb enough is usually unaccented when it follows an adjective. As an adjective or

noun, though, it attracts the nucleus in the usual way:

These shoes are not big enough.

It’s just not good enough.
You haven’t promised enough.

In general, the adverb indeed is accented: Thank very much indeed. However, there is one
spoken idiom in which it is not accented, namely when it is used in a short response
question to show that you are surprised or annoyed by something someone has just told
you: Kevin’s won a prize. / - Has he, indeed?

The word again, when at the end of the clause, is usually accented if used in its basic sense of
‘one more time’, since in that sense it is often contrastive. However, it is not accented when
it means ‘back to a previous state’, nor in other more or less idiomatic uses:

Could you say that again?

This is how to close it, / and this is how to open it again.
What did you say your name was again?

Etcetera and its synonyms (and so on, and so forth, and stuff, and things, and the like, and such
like) are usually kept out of focus: They sell cards, calendars, etcetera.

 Final adverbials of courtesy, degree and proper functioning

The courtesy adjuncts please and thanks (and other related forms), when final in the
utterance, are non-nuclear, e.g.:

I’d like four tickets, please.

I have really had enough, thank you.

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Degree adjuncts fall into two groups: ‘down-toners’, which reject the nuclear accent, and
‘intensifiers’, which are usually accented, e.g.:

Your rucksack weighs a ton, practically.

I’m just going out for a bit.
She lost her head completely.
I’m sure she won’t mind in the slightest.

Informal intensifiers this and that can premodify other adjectives and adverbs representing
given information and therefore attract the tonic themselves, e.g.:

A: I suppose he has a very negative approach to his work.

B: Well, it isn’t all that bad, / actually.

A: How can he spend such a fortune on cigarettes, I wonder?

B: He doesn’t smoke that heavily.

Adjuncts of ‘proper functioning’ like O.K. or properly tend to reject the nuclear accent:

A: Shall we reconsider the arrangement about the cleaning and the cooking?
B: Do you think it’ll work O.K.?

A: What’s wrong with Granny?

B: She can’t hear properly.

 Final sentence vs. non-sentence adverbials

Some adjuncts can have two different functions, and the different functions follow different
tonicity patterns. Final sentence adverbials (i.e. adverbs of manner) that modify the verb do
tend to bear the nucleus if they are at the end of the clause:

You’ve answered the questions very well!

She expressed her views honestly.
He performed brilliantly.

However, this kind of adjuncts can also behave as comment adjuncts (non-sentence
adverbials), and as is typical of comment adjuncts, they do not take the tonic:

He drives normally (= it is normal for him to drive).

I couldn’t speak to him frankly (= ‘I have to be frank, I ...’)
He speaks English naturally (= as expected).

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GIVENESS & NUCLEUS PLACEMENT

As a general rule when considering tonic/nucleus placement in English: new information

merits accenting and old or given information merits deaccenting. The structure of
information in the IU seems to reflect this concept in that given information comes first
and new information comes at the end.

If all the information in the utterance is new, then we accent all the lexical items. So the
nucleus is placed (as expected) on the last lexical item:

A: 'Yes, madam?
B: I’d 'like a 'gin and tonic.

As long as the last lexical item contains new information, that lexical item is accented, and thus
bears the nucleus. However, if the last lexical item contains old information (something already
mentioned), then is not accented. So, the nucleus goes earlier, namely on the last item that does
contain new information:

A: 'How about a 'gin and tonic? A: Do you object to dogs? A: 'Who 'doesn’t 'want to dance?
B: Oh I’d pre'fer a vodka and ˌtonic. B: No, I adore ˌdogs. B: Bill ˌdoesn’t ˌwant to ˌdance.

Thus, the place of the tonic normally signals the end of the new information in an intonation unit.

Synonyms

When one refers to a piece of information as old or given, one does not always
mean repetition (the same word or words being uttered again). One can also
consider synonyms as old information, as the same concept is being referred to using
different words:

A: Shall we wash the ˎclothes?

B: Oh, I hate ˌdoing the ˌlaundry.

In the example above the question is asked using a low rise tone and the nuclear accent,
carrying the main pitch movement, falls on clothes (last lexical new item).

The answer is produced with a falling tone and the nuclear accent falls on “hate.” In spite of
laundry being the last lexical item, it (laundry) has the same meaning as the sequence “wash
the clothes.” Therefore, the speaker avoids accenting old information:

A: Shall we ˎwalk there?

B: Yes, I `like ˌgoing on ˌfoot.

If a word or phrase is a hypernym of a word or phrase already mentioned (of a broader

meaning), then it counts as given, and the nucleus goes elsewhere, e.g.:

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malaria / and other ˌtropical diˌseases

This is because the idea of ‘tropical disease’ (a hypernym) was already present in the word
malaria, just mentioned.

But if a word or phrase is a hyponym of a word or phrase already mentioned (= with a

narrower meaning), then it counts as new. In consequence, it is accented and attracts the
tonic, e.g.:

A: Do you 'like ball games?

B: Well I’m 'quite 'fond of football.

Counterpresupossitionals
An addressee can reject the supposed common knowledge that has been implied to him or
her by other speaker. The hearer feels the need to deny such presupposition, e.g.:

A: What kind of `whisky do you like best? (The tonic accent is on “whisky”. The tone is
a falling one).
B: I don’t `like whisky. In fact, I don’t like `any kind of whisky. (Speaker “B” denies “A’s”
presupposition).

In the examples above, “whisky” takes the nuclear accent in speaker “A’s” utterance. In
speaker “B's” utterance the tonic accent is placed on “like” to focus on the denial of implied
knowledge on “A’s” part. Speaker “B” goes on to reinforce his/her denial by producing
another tone group where the tonic accent is on “any.”

RE-ACCENTING OLD INFORMATION

Under some special circumstances, the speaker may decide to re-accent given or old
information.

Echoes
These are typical cases of re-accenting old material. One person in a conversation
echoes back words that another speaker has just used. Since the second speaker wishes to
comment on this information, or to query it, naturally he accents it, e.g.:

 When expressing surprise or disbelief:

A: I 'can’t 'stand `whisky (Nuclear accent on “whisky”). (Falling tone)

B: You 'can’t 'stand ˊwhisky? (Nuclear accent on “whisky”). (Rising tone)
Well, we are in ˇScotland, now! (The nuclear accent accompanies “Scotland”, which is
famous for its whisky. The tone used is the fall-rise to convey implications).

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In the example above, speaker “A” states how he feels about whisky. Speaker “B”, in
turn, echoes “A’s” words to show some surprise or disbelief. He adds a statement using an
implying tone.

 When replying to an offer:

1) A: Would you like tea or ˎcoffee? (The nuclear accent falls on “coffee” and a rising
tone is used to utter an offer).
B: `Coffee, please. (The nuclear accent falls on “coffee” again and a falling tone is
used).

 When confirming a statement:

2) A: Was the thief tall or ˎshort?

B: Oh, he was definitely `short.

When analyzing the above examples, one can say that sometimes the echoed word,
although repeated, clearly conveys new information. Therefore, it has to be brought into
focus.

Emphasis
Under some circumstances, the speaker may choose to repeat himself for emphasis:

1) I `love you, / I `adore you!

The tonic falls on “love” and “adore” respectively. A falling tone is used in both cases.

2) When I say ˎstop, / `stop!

There are two groups in this example. In the first group the speaker places the tonic
accent on “stop.” In the following group, he/she again accents “stop.” In the first
group a rising tone is used and in the second group a falling one is used.

In examples 1 and 2 the speakers reinforce the meaning of what they are saying by re-
accenting old information.

Idiomatic Expressions
In some idiomatic expressions such as “again and again” or “face to face” are other
examples of re-accenting old information, e.g.:

The 'noise got 'louder and `louder.

It’s 'getting 'worse and `worse.
I am going to 'speak to her 'face to `face.

Some instances of re-accentuation that do not seem to have a logical explanation must be
considered as idiomatic, e.g.:

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1) It’s not what he ˎsaid / but the way he `said it.

In both tone groups the speaker places the nucleus on “said.” One might expect
him/her to contrast what to way. This case must be considered an intonational
idiom.

2) ˎSee you / when I ˎsee you! (Again, an idiomatic expression and an intonational
idiom are rendered).

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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Cruttenden, Alan (1997). Intonation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Halliday, M.A.K. & William S. Greaves (2008). Intonation in the Grammar of English. London:
Equinox Publishing Ltd.

Ortiz Lira, Héctor (1998). Word Stress and Sentence Accent. Santiago de Chile: Universidad
Metropolitana de Ciencias de la Educación.

Tench, Paul (1996). The Intonation Systems of English. London: Cassell.

Wells, J.C. (2006). English Intonation: An Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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