Linguistics Encyclopedia.pdf

A-Z 317
Within each of the options, referring and proclaiming, there is a further choice of tone.
A referring tone may be realized as either a fall-rise or a rise; a proclaiming tone as
either a fall or a rise-fall. Choice in these secondary systems depends upon the speaker’s
decision with respect to another aspect of the here-and-now state of the relationship. At
any point in the progress of an interaction, it is possible to ascribe a dominant role to one
of the participants. That is to say, one party or the other can be said to be exercising some
kind of control over the way the interaction develops. On some occasions, like lessons,
dominant status is assumed to be assigned by common consent for the duration of the
interaction. On others, for instance during most social conversation, it is subject to
constant negotiation and renegotiation. The second version of each of the pairs of tones
serves to underline the speaker’s pro tem occupancy of dominant role. So the rising tone
has the dual significance referring + dominance, and the rise-fall signifies proclaiming
+ dominance.
The set of meaningful variables associated with each consecutive tone unit is
completed by two three-way choices, the most readily perceived phonetic correlate of
which is pitch level. (Note that this is not to be confused with the pitch movements, or
glides, which correlate with tone choice.) The reference points for the identification of
these variables are the prominent syllables, and the significance of each is once more
explicated by reference to the immediate state of speaker-hearer understanding.
The first prominent syllable of each tone unit selects high, mid or low key. By
selecting high key, the speaker can be said to attribute a certain expectation to the hearer
and simultaneously to indicate that the content of the tone unit is contrary to that
expectation. With low key, the expectation projected can be paraphrased roughly as that,
in the light of what has gone before, the content of this tone unit will naturally follow.
The mid-key choice attributes expectations of neither kind to the hearer.
The relevant pitch levels are recognized, not by reference to any absolute standard, but
on a relative basis within the immediately surrounding discourse. The same is true of
those which correlate with the other choice, termination. Provided there are two
prominent syllables in the tone unit, pitch level at the second realizes high, mid, or low
termination. If there is only one prominent syllable in the tone unit, key and termination
are selected simultaneously. Termination is the means whereby a speaker indicates
certain expectations of her/his own about how the hearer will react to the content of the
tone unit. Its function is closely related to that of key in that the responses expected are
distinguished by the respondent’s choice of key. Thus high termination anticipates high
key, mid termination anticipates mid key, while with low termination the speaker signals
no particular expectation of this sort.
This last consideration provides a basis for recognizing a further phonological unit, of
potentially greater extent than the tone unit, the pitch sequence. A pitch sequence is a
concatenation of one or more tone units which ends in low termination. Both on its own,
and in conjunction with special applications of the significance of key, the pitch sequence
plays an important part in the larger-scale structuring of the discourse.
It will be noticed that the Discourse Model stops short of attempting to provide
detailed phonetic prescriptions for the various meaningful features it postulates. This
follows from the priority given to the meaning system. Useful investigation of just what
hearers depend upon in their perception of one or other of those features is taken to be
dependent upon prior recognition of how each fits into that system. It is to be expected