1.

Choosing a falling tone indicates that the info in the speech unit add some “news” and choosing a rising
tone indicates the information in the speech unit is not “news”.
2. We use a falling tone for question tags when we expect the hearer to acknowledge that what we have
just said is correct: GREAT FILM// WASn’t it? We also use falling tone when the statement is obviously
correct: HOT// ISn’t it?
3. Finding out questions usually end with a falling tone: HOW much ARE they?
Making sure questions usually end with a rising or fall-rising tone: was BRIAN there?
In informal English we can also use positive yes-no questions, particularly to express criticism,
these often have a rising tone: are you CRAzy?
When we show surprise or pleasure when commonly use falling tone: AREN’T they BEAUtiful?
4. When we are contrasting two words or phrases, we emphasize the parts we want to contrast by making
them prominent: Can I have some of this cake now? The pudding’s for toMORrow, not for toDAY.
Typically, the word or phrase that is “news” has a falling tone. This contrasts with information that the hearer
and the speaker already share, which has a rising or a fall-rising tone.

 Using a comparative form of an adjective: watching FOOTBAL is much better that

watching CRICKet.
 Using either: you can either catch the EARlier train or the LATer one.
 Using not: he’s got bronCHItis, not just a COUGH.
 Using other contrasting phrases: rather than catch the BUS, maybe we could WALK
home.
5. When we contradict something we emphasize the word that focuses on the difference between the other
speaker’s view and our own: You were asleep in the class? I WASn’t asleep.
6. When we want to get someone to do something for us, we often express this in a polite way by using
a fall-rising tone: You couldn’t carry it upSTAIRS for me?
If we offer to do something for someone, it often sounds more sincere if we use a falling rather that a rising
or a fall-rising tone: do you want a HAND?
7. Intonation refers to the variations in the pitch of a speaker's voice used to convey or alter meaning. We
study English intonation for making some attempt to acquire a command, both active and passive, of its
intonation.
8. Tone refers to an identifiable movement or level of pitch that is used in a linguistically contrastive way.
9. The 3 Ts: Tonality, tonicity and tone
Tonality: deciding the intonation pattern for each intonation phrase.
Tonicity: highlighting important words for the meaning to be conveyed (location for the nucleus).
Tone: choosing pitch movement (tone) the speaker is going to associate.
10. Intonation phrase (IP) The division of the spoken material into chunks, each chunk is known as
intonation phrase and in an utterance has its own intonation pattern.
11. Learners of English will tend to star by assuming that English is like their own first language and will
transfer the intonation habits of the L1 to the L2. The assumption that English is like L1 leads to
interference from L1 as inappropriate elements are transferred.
12. The default tone is an unmarked tone, neutral tone. For example: a fall for statements and a rise for yes-
no questions.
13. A falling tone is produced when the pitch of the voice starts high and then moves down.
A rising tone is produced when the pitch of the voice is down and then it takes off.
14. The default tone for statements is a fall tone.
15. The implicational fall-rise
The most typical meaning of a fall-rise tone is that the speaker implies something without putting
any words. Then, the fall-rise is used to contrast between what is expressed and what is not.
Lastly, a speaker uses a fall-rise tone because has reservations about what is said.
16. The answer to a yes-no question is usually not a complete statement. The tone for these answers are
typically a definitive fall but other tones can be used.
17. The default tone for wh questions is a fall. But a wh question can also be said with a non-fall: a rise or,
less commonly, a fall-rise. This has the effect of making it more gentle, encouraging or kindly.
18. The default tone for yes-no questions is a rise, often called the yes-no rise.