The use of the falling and rising tones

Standard unemphatic falling intonation is the most common type of intonation in English. It is used in statements (declarative sentences), special questions, commands (imperative sentences), exclamatory sentences, in the first part of disjunctive questions and in the last part of alternative questions. (Different types of sentences are described in Basic Word Order in the section Grammar.) The final fall in English is used on the last stressed syllable of a sentence. Falling intonation is used for asking and giving information in normal, quiet, unemphatic style. At the same time, falling intonation conveys certain emotions, such as completion, finality, confidence. Falling intonation sounds more categorical, confident, and convincing than rising intonation. Compare the use of the falling tone and the rising tone in the second part of tag questions.

English rising intonation is a rather complicated phenomenon. It can express various emotions, such as non-finality, incompleteness, question, surprise, doubt, hesitation, interest, request and suggestion, politeness, readiness to continue the conversation, lack of confidence, and even insecurity. Rising intonation in English is very different from rising intonation in Russian. For example, the final rise in English general questions first goes down a little and then up, but not as high as the rise in Russian questions. Rising intonation is quite difficult to describe in words. When we speak, our voices do much more than rise or fall. The sentence may start higher or lower; stressed syllables may be stronger or weaker, higher or lower, louder or quieter, quicker or slower; the unstressed syllables may remain at the same level as the stressed syllable before them or go higher or lower. And the voices are different too. All these factors interact in intonation. rising intonation is used for the emotions mentioned above, but you should understand that rising intonation in different situations may sound differently. For example, a rise expressing surprise may sound a little different from a rise expressing polite interest or a rise asking to repeat. This material will help you understand what rising intonation means and where it is used, but you will need a lot of listening practice in order to master rising intonation. ising intonation is used in general questions, in introductory phrases (at the beginning of the sentence), in the first part of alternative questions (before "or"), in the second part of tag questions (see explanation below), in direct address, and in enumerating items in a list.

Мы поможем в написании ваших работ!