9. The falling-rising & the rising-falling tones.

The falling-rising tone is a bi-directional tone which means that there is a change in the direction of the pitch movement associated with one stressed syllable.

The fall and the rise may be combined within one syllable, the pitch-change begin­ning about the high level (or slightly above or below it) and ending about the mid-low level, with an intermediate low pitch point which is a boundary between the two elements of the glide.

When the nuclear syllable is not the last syllable of the intonation-group the Fall-Rise is split in form, the fall being carried by the nucleus and the rise - by the tail.

According to the latter feature it is useful to distinguish between high and low

varieties of the falling-rising tone.

From the semantic point of view the falling-rising nuclear tone has an implicatory meaning: utterances with this nuclear tone give the impression that the speaker intends the hearer to understand more than the words themselves convey. The implication expressed in an utterance may be that of emphasis, contrast, contradiction, correction, hesitation, doubt, uncertainty, warning, apology, etc. In each case the exact implication is prompted by the contest.

The falling-rising tone has an important modification: the so-called Fall-Rise Divided. The two elements of the Fall-Rise in this case are realized on two different words, which both acquire nuclear prominence.

It must be emphasized that functionally the divided variant of the Fall-Rise is very j similar to the undivided falling-rising tone: it also imparts an implicatory meaning to the utterance. Fall-Rise Divided makes two ideas prominent instead of one.

The rising-falling tone is a bidirectional, or complex, tone (like the Fall-Rise), because it comprises two elements - a rise and a fall - which can be combined within one syllable: the voice first rises from a fairly low (or mid) to a high pitch and then quickly falls to the bottom of the voice-range.

According to the number of syllables involved in the pitch change three structured variants of the nuclear rising-falling tone are distinguished: one-syllable tvne, two-syllable type, three-syllable type.

Three-syllable type. It's natural that this type of the rising-falling tone may occur only when the last stressed (nuclear) syllable of an utterance is followed by no less than two unstressed syllables. The stressed syllable is uttered on a steady mid-low pitch while the first of the unstressed syllables is pitched high and the second is pitched at the bottom of the normal voice-range.

Two-syllable type. In this type the Rise-Fall is spread over two syllables, the first of which is stressed and pronounced on a steady mid-low pitch, while the second starts at the top of the normal voice-range and falls without stress to the bottom.

One-syllable type. In this type the entire Rise-Fall is concentrated on one syllable which carries both the rise and the fall.

The rising-falling nuclear tone can be compared with the falling-rising nuclear tone both in form and in function. The complex nature of their form leads to a specific functional characteristic, which might be called implicatory. The implications of the two tones, however, are of a different kind: in the Fall-Rise it is basically a continuation of the information already contained in the utterance, it is so-to-speak lexically predicted. In the Rise-Fall the implication is basically of a modal attitudinal kind: the Rise-Fall often gives the impression that what the speaker admits or denies is conflict with his own or his previous opinion.