In Brit. Trad. Some scientists say Melody has no meaning and its meaning is totally depended on context. However there is evidence to the contrary. The independ. Character of tonal meanings is borne out by the existence of sent-s in which a free variation of tones is impossible. We can conclude that tones have a n indep.meaning but this meaning is nebulous. We may refer to it as an abstract meaning. Within a context the combination of grammar, lex and situation brings out the local meaning of a tone.
The attitude to the structure of tone is also differ.now. these days tone is seen as a combination of relatively independ.tonal features. Each tone has 2 cardinal points: its end point, its onset point.(1) is responsible for definitness/indefin., complitness/incomplet. The lower the end-the more complete and categoric the tone sounds.(2) signals the degree of the speaker’s involvement. The higher this point- the higher the speaker’s interest. What is said about the tones is true about the scales. No definite meaning can be assigned to scales but high scales signal more involvement which can situationally into a number of attitudinal meanings.
What brings about local meanings? In present we can only summarize the factors which seem to be relevant . We can single out the following types of context which interact with context: preceeding(1) or co-occuring(2).
| 1)Intonation | lexis | grammar(2) |
| Immediate situation |
All the meanings that was described can be defined as attitudinal. There is a differ.discription which has a discoursal character.(Brazil, Gussenhover) These discriptions make basic distinctions b/2 or 3 tones.
Brazil distinguishes between: 1) a proclaiming tone(fall) 2)reffering tone(fall-rise). This dist. Is related to that of given and new info. The tones have variants. Rise and rise-fall are variants of fall-rise and fall. Their use is conditioned by the attitude of the speaker. In his system the additional term ”termination” is used to refer to initial pitch of the tone. A mid termination anticipates a passive agreement. A high termination invites an active response. A fall termination –closes matters. This system correlates with key which is the pitch range of asense group. Key is import. For linking together successive intonation groups. Mid key presents the action as separate pieces of info. High K-surprise, Low K –expected info.
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