Practising tones: proclaiming and referring

In the transcript below try to identify the tones which are not marked.

Lisa:. . . HELLO TONY //

DID you go for your INterview yesterday //

Tony: // HI Lisa // YES // I DID //

Lisa: // HOW did it GO //

Tony: // all RIGHT // I THINK //

Lisa: // all RIGHT // you DON'T sound very SURE /

Tony: // I MEAN // I MANaged to answer all the QUESTions //

and I THINK I said the right THINGS // butt I DON'T think //

I wore the right CLOTHES//

Lisa: // WELL // there's NO point in WORRying about it // what's DONE //

is DONE //

Tony:// YES Lisa // I KNOW // there's NOTHing I can DO about it // of COURSE //

I CAN'T CHANGE anything // but I CAN'T help THINKing about it //

Lisa: // I'm SURE // you needn't WORRY // what DID you wear // ANyway//

Tony: // I HAD to put my JEANS on //

Lisa: // your JEANS // oh I SEE//

Tony: // but I wore a TIE //

Lisa : // NEVer MIND // you SAID the right things // ANyway//

 The conversation between Lisa and Tony could have taken another path . Listen and
mark the tones you hear

Lisa: //but TOny // surely you REALised //

everybody would be wearing SUITS//

a job like THAT // SUCH a good SALary//

with SO much responsiBILity//

you OUGHT to have known BETTer than to wear jeans//

Tony: // don't re MIND me// I KNOW it was STUpid //

Lisa: // well WHAT was the PROBlem // I KNOW // you’ve GOT a suit//

Tone: //oh, YES // I’ve GOT one // it was at the CLEANer’s//

Lisa: //It was WHERE //

Tony: // at the CLEANer’s// it still IS //

Audios: unit 3 1.2

Unit 4 3.2
Unit 4 3.3
Unit 5 1.2
Intonation explained

In Discourse intonation much of the significance of the interaction between speakers relates
to common ground. The idea can be explained as the knowledge and experience that the
participants think they share about the world, the topic and each other in terms of ideas,
emotions, attitudes, viewpoints, etc. at any given point in the interaction.
Discourse proceeds and intonation choices are made on the basis of the speaker’s
assessment of what he and his listener or listeners share as common ground – or how he
wishes that state of shared experience to appear since common ground is exploitable by the
speaker to his advantage.
Speakers have a choice of five tones: two with final downward glides (fall & rise-fall) two
with final rising glides (rise & fall-rise) and a non-glide, the level tone.
Tone descriptions in DI follow from the idea of common ground.
Information which is additional to the common ground is marked by a pitch that finishes with
a falling movement, and is given the name proclaiming tone .The fall and rise-fall are
'proclaiming' tones which add the increment of meaning 'I am telling you this' to the tone-
units in which they occur.
Information which is given as already shared and part of the common ground is marked by a
pitch that finishes with a rising movement and is given the name referring tone, since it
refers back to something already shared or negotiated . The rise and fall-rise tones are
'referring' tones which add the increment of meaning 'I assume that this is part of our shared
experience'.
The level tone opts out of the proclaiming/referring choice, and signifies that the speaker has
a focus on the wording which he/she is compiling, rather than on interpersonal interactivity.
The so- called referring + or rising tone and the proclaiming + or rise-fall tone are more
marked versions of the referring and proclaiming tones respectively, and speakers can
signify a dominant position in the discourse by using them.
Dominance and control
There are conversational events in which there are well recognised rules governing the
allocation of roles to different parties. Such events include the conventional school lesson and
the doctor-patient consultation. It is fairly easy to recognise the teacher and the doctor are
occupants of what we shall call the dominant role. In these non-symmetrical verbal
encounters, the dominant speaker has a choice of two courses of action, but in otherwise
similar circumstances, the non-dominant speakers has no such choice. The dominant speaker
has the choice of either the proclaiming or proclaiming + when he/she wishes to proclaim,
and of either referring or referring + when he/she wishes to refer; but the non-dominant
speaker must use proclaiming or referring tones.
Where there is not prior distribution of roles (e.g.,in informal conversation) , the choice of a +
tone at any time serves to project a context of interaction in which the speaker is dominant
and/or externalizes his/her claim to that role. Even though the assumption of dominance may
seem to have implications of rudeness or aggressiveness, we must think of this particular part
of the intonation system as serving primarily to facilitate the smooth exchange of control of
the discourse.
Consider the following examples:

// r AFter the ROUNDabout // p we TURNED LEFT//

People placed in the position of having to give such instructions commonly adopt the
intonation that marks the dominant speaker, the other party is expected to hear him/her out
until he/she has finished. It is the speaker’s expectation of being allowed to continue that is
underlined.

// r+ WHEN you SEE him//p ASK him// or

// p ASK him // r+ WHEN you SEE him //

A: what time does the heating come on?

B: // pThere isn´t any heating // on Saturdays//it´s part of the economy drive//

Another manifestation of overt control, however, is the underlining of an expectation that the
other party will speak. It is the expectation of a response we hear as being reinforced .
Consider:

A: What time does the heating come on?

B: // p there ISN´T any heating // r+ on SATurdays//

Where A is expected to say something by way of explanation for his/her inappropriate

question.
The telling of stories exemplifies clearly, and often in extenso, what we have called the
continuative implication:

// r+ a GREAT while aGo// r+ while there were STILL GIants on earth//..

// r+ THIS chap i KNEW// p he´d JUST got a new JOB// r+ and the VERY first

DAY//…
For most of the time hearers are asked to recall an already shared tradition. Moreover, the
teller must not only establish his /her position as teller at the beginning, but continuously
reiterate his/her claim to dominant status- repeatedly insist on his/her expectation to be
allowed to go on uninterrupted.
One other effect of the referring+ tone is for common-ground matter which the speakers
assume they need to reactivate:

a: // p i WONder who’ll COME//

B: // r well TOM will// r and MARy // r+ and JANE//

In the above example , there is an implication that A may have forgotten about Jane.

Discourse control includes the ability of the speaker to modify his/her own world view as
external events impinge upon him/her. The choice of the dominant tone in

//p+ it´s RAINing//

makes manifest the speaker’s intention of controlling the discourse : he/she registers his/her
own observation that it is raining and simultaneously indicates that he/she expects no
feedback of either an adjudicating or concurring kind. The same is even more transparently
true of expostulations like:

//p+ REALly//, //p+GRACious//, //p+ my DEAR FELlow//

The continuative implication is exemplified by:

A: He´s clever, isn’t he?

B: //p+ YES //p he IS// or //p+YES// p but DOESn’t he Know it//

Comparing

// p WHY don’t you ASK him//

and

// p+ WHY don’t you ASK him//

we can say that both invite a response , but the addition of something we might perhaps
characterise locally as “forcefulness” or “insistence” can be attributed to the fact that the
speaker overtly assumes dominant-speaker status.

Reference books
Brazil D.(1997).The communicative value of intonation in English.UK.CUP
Bradford,B.( 1988) Intonation in Context.Cambridge.CUP.