The ministry of higher and secondary special education of the republic of uzbekistan

 
 
 
 
Rather Late 
It was a dark night. A man was riding a bicycle without a lamp. He came to a crossroad and didn’t 
know which way to turn. He noticed a pole with something white which looked like a sign. Climbing to 
the top of the pole he lit a match and read. “Wet Paint”. 
 
 
 
 
 
Intonation of Parentheses 
Model :

Well,
I 
→
don’t 
ˎ
know 

---

98 
What do you think of Nick? >
Well,
 | I 
→
don’t 
ˎ
know 

ˏ
Well,
| I 
→
don’t
ˎ
know 

ˎ
Well, 
 | I don’t 
ˎ
know 
He is a 
ˎ
nice chap, 
I 

 
think.
Parentheses express the speaker’s attitude towards the utterance. 
 
 
 
Parentheses at the Beginning of the Sentence 
When the speaker doesn’t attach any importance to the parenthetical words at all they 
don’t form a separate intonation-group and are often unstressed and are pronounced very 
quickly. 
 
e.g.

→
Well,
I 
 
ˎ
do.
 Well, 
 I 
 
ˎ
do.
 
If the speaker attaches more importance to parentheses, they form an intonation-group. 
In this case they are stressed and are pronounced with any nuclear tone: Low Fall, Low 
Rise, Mid Level or Fall Rise. 
 
e.g.
ˎ
Well, | I 

do.