Parts of it are fairly interesting.
I’ll give him a good piece of my mind.
That won’t get us very far.
What do you do on Sunday?
Usually, I spend it out of town.
He knows English and French.
German and French you mean.
I don’t think he’s worse now.
When I saw him, he was much better.
Can you speak English?
Once I could.
You have four lessons today.
Five.
It’s nearly five, isn’t it?
Six.
May I keep this book a bit longer?
Well, yes.
It won’t take you long.
It will.
2. Read the joke. Find the main phrase in the text. Split up each sentence into intonation-
groups, mark the stresses and tunes. Underline the communicative center and the nuclear
word of each intonation-group.
Peggy, aged five, said she had a stomachache.
“It’s because you haven’t had lunch yet,” said her mother. “You would feel better if you had
something in it.”
That afternoon their neighbour called and remarked while speaking to the mother that he had a bad
headache. “That’s because it’s empty,” said Peggy. “You’d feel better if you had something in it.”
Sequence of Tones. Complex Sentences If
an
adverbial
clause
precedes
the
principal
one
and makes a
separate
intonation-group
it
is
usually
pronounced
with
the
Low
Rise
or
Mid-level
as
it
implies continuation.
e.g. If you →
want to have a >rest | →
go to the ˎ
country. If you →
want to have a ˏ
rest | →
go to the ˎ
country. If the complex sentence begins with the principal clause and contains more than one
intonation-group both the clauses are usually pronounced with the Low-Falling nuclear
tone.
e.g. →
Go to the ˎ
country | if you →
want to have a ˎ
rest. If the principal clause implies continuation and makes a separate intonation group it is
pronounced with the Low-Rising or Fall-Rising nuclear tone.
97
e.g. I’ll →
tell him at ˏ
once | you →
want to ˎ
see him.
