Increments and Tone 149
is one that the hearer in the speaker’s judgement was not only incapable
of inferring but one that the speaker overtly indicates his/her full com-
mitment to.
There were 27 increment fi nal rise-falls in the corpus. Examples (14a)
and (14b)^9 provide representative examples.
(14a) you can SEE it in PAlestine/
N V V' N P N
INT1 INT2 INT2 INT3 INT4
\NOW // [T2-Tr-17]A
TS
(14b) you can see it in \PAlestine //
N V V' N P N #
INT1 INT2 INT2 INT3 TS
[Tc-Dmc-15]Of the eleven readers seven produced an increment fi nal falling tone; two,
Jt and Rf, produced an increment fi nal fall-rise. The remaining reader Bs,
like Tr, produced an increment fi nal rise-fall. In (14a) and (14b) both
Tr and Dmc have realized a target state: in the pursuit of their individual
communicative needs they have modifi ed their hearer’s cognitive environ-
ment by asserting that the effects of terror and hatred can be seen in Palestine.
However, Tr alone has shown that he is fully committed to the proposition
asserted by the achievement of target state. In order words, unlike Dmc, he
overtly states his belief that the achieved target state is true and by so doing
he positions himself within the discourse as a voice which is not prepared to
listen to any contradictory opinion. The presence of the increment fi nal
rise-fall means that the hearer is informed that any attempt to argue against
the truth realized by the achieved target state is likely to be perceived as
face threatening and lead to a rift in the speaker/hearer social harmony.
(15a) it s the CHAIN reACtion that terror brings
N V d N w N V
INT1 INT2 INT3 INT4 INT5
/\WITH it // [T2-Jt-19]
P N #
TS