A Grammar of Spoken English Discourse - The Intonation of Increments

The Corpus and its Coding 125

Both examples (6) and (7) contain instances of dysfl uency and the addition
of the bracketing conventions in both allows an analyst to reconstruct the
unfolding of an increment from initial state through intermediate states
until target state is reached. Example (8) minus the intonation coding
illustrates:

(8) because they know that the value of terrorism to them is not

w N V w d N P+ N p n V a+

INT1 INT2 INT3 INT4

simply the act of terror

a d N P N #

INT5 TS

Example (9) illustrates a further type of dysfl uency, namely where a
speaker abandons an increment in progress.

(9) NOW what HAPpened after sep\/TEMber the eleventh // and this

a w v p n... c N

INT1

ex–PLAINS // i THINK the \PREsidents policy // [T2-RF-23]

V phr d e N #

INT2 TS

RF starts to read the increment but abandons it after the three dots and
then recommences increment 23. Her choice of level tone is of signifi cance
in that it shows her momentary disengagement from the communicative
act of reading (see Chapter 6 for further discussion. Other readers, e.g.
SN’s reading of this stretch of text construed a different meaning.

(10) ↑NOW what HAPpened after september the e/\↑LEVenth //

a W V P N Ø #

and this exPLAINS i \THINK // the ↑PREsidents \/POlicy //

c N V phr d e N #

[T2-Sn-27-28]

The stretch of speech read in (10) comprises two increments with the
target state in increment 27 referred to by the anaphoric element this
functioning as the initial state of increment 28.