INTONATION OF IMPERATIVES

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 652.

Imperative sentences are used in speech for different communicative purposes: to express a command or an instruction, to ask for a favour or to give a warning. Accordingly, we can talk about different communicative subtypes of imperatives: commands and instructions, requests, warnings.

Commands and Instructions are usually pronounced with the Falling nuclear tone. In an Instruction it is typically a Mid Fall with the preceding High or Stepping Head:

e.g.: 'Open the 'books at page ‘nine.

In Commands the Falling nuclear tone is more frequently of a high variety which gives them an energetic and insistent note:

e.g.: 'Leave the 'room at ‘once.

Commands with a Low Falling nuclear tone preceded by a High or Stepping Head produce a calm, serious and categorical effect:

e.g.: 'Wait for the others.

It must be noted that Requests can also be pronounced with the Falling tone, but in this case the word “please” which is placed either at the beginning or at the end of an imperative shows that the speaker's intention is to ask and not to order:

e.g.: 'Stay a little ‘longer, please.

More typically Requests are pronounced with the Low Rising or the Falling-Rising nuclear tone:

e.g.: 'Try not to be ˇlate. 'Fetch me my ˇcoat. 'Wrap this 'vase ˇcarefully.

Requests with all these intonation patterns sound sincere and friendly. When Fall-Rise is used, especially of a divided variant there is an impression that the speaker is asking a greater favour. Such requests are often called polite.

Warnings have the same intonation pattern as polite Requests: they are normally pronounced with the Falling-Rising nuclear tone. The exact nature of the imperative — a warning or a request — is nearly always clear from the situation and the speaker's voice colouring.

When a Warning contains only one stressable word, Fall-Rise Undivided is used. When there are more than one stressable words, Fall-Rise Divided is preferable:

e.g.: Be ˇcareful. ‘Watch your ‚step.

Imperatives of all kinds can be pronounced with the Low Rising nuclear tone preceded by a Low Head or a Low Prehead. Such imperatives sound casual (in the case of a request), unimportant (in the case of a command):

e.g.: Steady ‚on. Fetch me a ‚chair.