27. The Gradually Descending Stepping Head. The High Head. The Broken Stepping Head.

St. Head.

Each fully stressed syllable beginning with the 2^nd lower in pitch than the preceding one. Unstressed and partially stressed syllables are said on the same pitch as the preceding fully stressed.

The GrDesSrepHead is sometimes called the most typical, or normal, kind of head in English. It is certainly the most frequently occurring single category jf head.

GrDesSrepHead is characteristic of only some kind of English: reading aloud, formal conversation, lecturing or some other kind of didactic monologue, although it may be heard in any other variety of spoken English.

High Head.

In the High Head all the syllables are said on the same rather high pitch. There is only one fully stressed syllable, ie one peak of prominence. This is the stressed syllable of the 1^st important word: the onset. The other semantic items in the prenuclear part are given a smaller degree of prominence indicated by a high partial stress.

When the head of an utterance contains only one notional word, ie it cannot be expanded, the difference between the Stepping and the High Head is neutralized.

The High Head is commonly used in conversation, where it occurs more frequently than the Stepping Head.

Sound: lovely, energetic, informal.

The Broken Descending Stepping Head.

The Gradually Desc St Head may have a monotonous effect especially when the intonation group contains more than three stressed syllables. The pattern is described in this case as the Broken Descending Stepping Head, and a tune containing such a head may be called A BROKEN TUNE.

The break generally occurs on any fully stressed syllable beginning with the third. The upward is usually made on words of sufficient semantic importance: nouns, adverbs, adj, verbs.

The syllable on which a special rise is made can be indicated in different ways:

1. By a high static tone mark;

2. By a straight upward arrow beside the high static tone;

3. By an emphatic high static tone mark.

28. The Ascending Stepping Head. The Low Head.

Each of the stressed syllables of the Ascending Head takes a static tone pitched higher than the preceding one.

Intervening unstressed syllables are said on the same pitch as the stressed syllables.

The Ascending Head is typically combined with the nuclear high falling and high rising tones. The last syllable of the head doesn’t reach the high pitch zone, where the nuclear tone starts from.

*As a result of the increased weught of the nuclear word, utterances pronounced with the Ascending Head cause the listener to anticipate the main point of information at the end.

There is often a feeling of impatience, surprise, protest, disbelief or, vice verse, a note of enthusiastic approval and support.

In the Low Head all the syllables – stressed and unstressed – are pronounced in the low pitch zone og the speaker’s voice – range.

The Low Head is used in combination with low nuclear tones which are often of a narrow variety. The most frequent nuclear tones after the Low Head are the Low Narrow Fall and the Low Narrow Rise.

Such utterances often convey a cool, detached, phlegmatic, disinterested or disapproving attitude.