Unit 60. 'Politicians are the Same All Over ...'

Level Tone in Quoting and Building Suspense
Unit 60; Part A
Quotation When we include a quotation of someone else's words in what we say,we ofen choose to use level tones and then a falling tone for the finalspeech unit in the quotation. This shows that we are simply reportingthe words as they were spoken, and not giving a paraphrase of what wassaid: At this point it is worth remembering the words of Nikita Khrushchev: '// poliTICians →// are the SAME →// ALL Over ↓//. They PROMise →// // to BUILD a BRIDGE →// where there is NO RIVer ↓//.' |
Unit 60; Part B
Preparing for quotation Level tone is also commonly used on a reporting verb (e.g. say, claim, argue)which comes before a quotation. Typically, there is also a step up to arelatively high pitch on this verb, a pause, and then the first word ofthe quotation is also said relatively high. This marks clearly thatwhat comes next is a quotation rather than a paraphrase: A headline in today's paper ⇑ SAYS → ... : '⇑ TEAcher thrown out of classroom by students '. Just before the war began, a goverment minister ⇑ CLAIMED →... : '⇑ ONly by attacking now can we defend our country'. A leading group of economists have ⇑ ARGUED → ... : '⇑ EURopean development aid should double in the next fve years'. |
Unit 60; Part C
Building suspense We can also use a step-up, level tone and a pause in order to buildanticipation or suspense, so that listeners focus particular attentionon what comes next (see also Unit 55C). Notice that what comes afer the pause may start high, mid or low: And the term we use for this phenomenon ⇑ IS → ... entropy. ('entropy' is high) Much to our surprise, our research⇑ SHOWED → ... a sharp fall in average sea temperatures. ('sharp' is mid) If the radio signals are not from the ⇑ EARTH → ... where do they come from? ('where' is low) ![]() |
Exercises
![]() | Unit 59 Unit 60 | ![]() |