4. Intonation in statements

4.1 The definitive fall

Although simple independent statements can take any tone, they most often have a fall. A fall is the default (= neutral, unmarked) tone for a statement. We say statements with a fall unless there is a particular reason to use some other tone.

All the uses of the falling tone have some degree of meaning in common. As with other tone meanings, it is difficult to define this shared meaning precisely in words. But in general we can say that by using a fall we indicate that what we say is potentially complete and that we express it with confidence, definitely and unreservedly. That fall thus also tends to signal finality. We call this tone meaning the definitive fall.

• This is a pen.

• I’m delighted to meet you.

4.2 The implicational fall-rise

Sometimes statements are said with a tone other than a fall – namely, with a rise or fall-rise. One very typical meaning of a non-fall is non-finality. It shows that the speaker has not reached the end of what he or she wants to say:

• What did you do next?

• Well I opened the door, and…

• Well I opened the door, and…

The rise or fall-rise indicates that the clause phrase or word that bears it is part of a larger structure.

But what about non-fall tones on statements that are complete in themselves, i. e. independent non-falls? We analyse these tone meanings in the section that follow now.

The most typical meaning of fall-rise tone is that the speaker implies something without necessarily putting in into words. We call this tone meaning the implicational fall-rise.

By making a statement with the fall-rise, the speaker typically states one thing but implies something further. Something is left unsaid – perhaps some kind of reservation or implication:

• Who’s that?

• Well I know her face.

The fall-rise implies something further: a contrast between that is expressed and that has not, or not yet, been expressed. In this course it might be:

Well I know her face, but I can’t remember her name.

The speaker has the choice of making the contrast explicit, as in the second version, or leaving it implicit, as in the first. Whether explicit or implicit, the implication is still hinted at by the fall-rise intonation.

The unexpressed implication can usually be formulated in a clause beginning but…, which would make it explicit. The implication fall-rise can be thought of as the tone that signals a but… to come.

More than one implication may be possible:

• Can we fix an appointment?

• I could see you on Wednesday.

Making it explicit we might have:

• I could see you Wednesday, but not on Tuesday, or

• I could see you Wednesday, but that might not suit you.

Using a fall-rise but leaving the reservation on expressed may lead the other speaker to pick up on the implication and ask for the reservation to be spelt out:

A: What can we have for tea?

B: Well we’ve got some strawberries.

A: So what’s the problem?

B: We haven’t got any cream.

The American gun lobby has a slogan:

Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.

• where there is an explicit contrast between guns and people (as a subject of kill). The idea could be expressed more subtly (but still as tendentiously). By saying just:

Guns don’t kill people.

• leaving it to the fall-rise to imply the corollary without expressing it.

A speaker who uses a fall-rise has reservations about that is said. The speaker’s statement may be true under some conditions, but not under others. Again the reservation may or may not be made explicit. In the following example it is given in parentheses: the words in parentheses might or might not be spoken aloud.

• Can we fix a date for the meeting?

• Well we could try Monday (through not if that’s difficult for you).

The implicational fall-rise enables us to imply things without actually saying them. It makes it possible to be tactful and politely indirect; it also makes it possible to be hypocritical and devious.

• Are you free next week?

• Well on Monday I am (but later I may not be).

• What’s she like as a colleague?

• Well she works very hard.

In the last example the unspoken implication might be but she has no imagination or but she’s not a good teacher or but she doesn’t get on with her colleagues or something else uncomplimentary.

There is an English expression (with, by the way, difficult-to-explain tonicity in the second intonational phrase):

It’s not what she said, but the way that she said it.

This suggests that the word that is written might have been unexceptionable; but as spoken their intonation implied something different. They probably had a fall-rise.

The fall-rise can also be used to signal that the speaker is tentative about what he or she says. This is a special case of the implicational fall-rise: the speaker makes a statement but at the same time implies something like but I’m not sure or but I don’t want to commit myself to this.

• Is this the way to Holborn?

• I think so (but I’m not quite sure).

If we think someone has made a mistake, and we want to correct them, it is polite to do so in a tentative way. This explains the use of the fall-rise for polite corrections.

• She’s coming on Wednesday.

• On Thursday.

In contrast, to use a falling tone for a correction would be abrupt and perhaps rude:

• She’s coming on Wednesday.

• No, on Thursday.

The fall-rise is often used when we want to make a partial statement; that is, to say that something applies partly, to some extent, but not completely.

• So you both live in London?

• I do (but Mary lives in York).

Many corrections are like this: partly we agree with the other speaker, partly we disagree. Partial corrections, too, take a fall-rise:

• I hear you passed all your exams.

• Most of them.

• Well not all of them.

Partial statements can involve subtle implications. There is an interesting example discussed by O’Connor & Arnold:

(i) What a lovely voice!

Yes, she has a lovely voice (but she can’t act).

(ii) I don’t think much of her acting ability.

Well she has a lovely voice (even if she can’t act).

In (i) the second speaker concedes that the performer in question sings well, but implies by the use of the fall-rise that he has reservations about other aspects of her abilities. So he agrees by the words he uses, but disagrees by his choice of tone. In (ii), on the other hand, he asks the first speaker to concede that the performer in question does at least have vocal ability. In each case we have a kind of partial correction: in (i) a partial agreement, in (ii) a partial disagreement.

The fall-rise is often used in negative statements:

• She wasn’t very pleased.

• - She refused to pay.

- Oh, I don’t think that’s true.

The implication is that the corresponding positive statement is not true. There is a contrast, implicit or explicit, between a negative (something that we present as not true) and a positive (something we present as true). The negative part is said with a fall-rise tone. The positive part may either be left implicit (unexpressed), or else be made explicit by being put into words. If it is made explicit, it may come either before or after the negative part, and may have either a definitive fall or implicational (polite-correction) fall-rise:

• She didn’t say she would do it, (she said she wouldn’t).

• She said that she wouldn’t do it, (not that she would).

Let us return to one of our earlier examples of the implicational fall-rise. There are two ways in which the implication might be made explicit:

• Can we fix an appointment?

(i) Well I could see you on Wednesday but on Tuesday I’m busy.

(ii) Well I could see you on Wednesday but not on Tuesday.

In (i) the implication is spelt out positively, with a definitive fall on busy, but in (ii) it is expressed negatively, with a negative fall-rise on Thursday. Consider the likely tone choices in the following answers. The positive answer would probably have a fall, the negative one a fall-rise.

• How did it go?

(positive) Oh it was very successful.

(negative) Well I wouldn’t say it was successful.

The fall-rise tone has a special function in negative sentence. Namely, it indicates that the scope of negation includes the word bearing the nucleus, but not the main verb (unless the main verb itself bears the nucleus). A falling tone, on the other hand, does not restrict the scope of the negation in this way. In the following examples labeled (i), the fall means the scope is not limited; in those labeled (ii), the fall-rise it is limited. The one labeled (iii), which has a rise, is ambiguous.

(i) I won’t eat anything. (= I’ll eat nothing.)

(ii) I won’t eat anything. (= I’ll eat only certain things.) (iii) Will he eat anything?

(i) She didn’t do it because she was tired. (= She did it, but for some other reason.)

(ii) She didn’t do it because she was tired. (= She didn’t do it. Here’s why.)