【正文】
traveling is highlighted.) THEY flew to London.(A particular group of people is highlighted.) Tail of an Intonation Unit ? Any syllable or syllables that may follow the nucleus are called the “tail” . I am writing a letter to him. T An Example We are LEARNing a FOReign LANGuage. P H B N T P = Prehead 調冠 H = Head 調頭 B = Body 調身 N = Nucleus 調核 T = Tail 調尾 ? Structures of an intonation unit ? PH NT: We are learning a foreign language. ? PH N: I am afraid we can39。t go. ? P NT: We hope so. ? P N: It was at night. ? H NT: When are they ing? ? H N: Peter has arrived. ? NT: Look at him. ? N: Help! Features of an Intonation Unit ? Normally a low prehead. ? Normally a high head. ? In the body, the stressed syllables have mostly level tones and they all fall down gradually in pitch. ? The changes in the tail are determined by the nucleus. In a fall, the tail remains a low level tone。 in a Rise or Fallrise, the tail rises gradually. Stress Rules ? Stress tends to fall on content words within an utterance. ? Only a word’s stressed syllable carries the sentence stress. ? Within an intonation unit, there may be several words receiving stress but only one has the nucleus. ? New information tends to receive prominence and generally occurs towards the end of an utterance.