154 A Grammar of Spoken English Discourse
Within the corpus as detailed by Table 6.6, 45 level tone units were found
which were classifi ed as engaged. Of these, the majority 27, while not
instances of routine listing because they were not part of a list, functioned
to project the information contained in the tone unit as self evident.
Examples (21) and (22) illustrate:
(21) // i am just going to ↑MAKE a SHORT –STATEment // to \YOU
N V a V' V’ d e N P N
// on the TERrible e\VENTS // that have HAPpened in
P d e N W V V' p
\/ LONdon // EARlier to \/↓DAY // [T1-Rf-1]N A+ A
(22) i ↑THINK we ve GOT to go \BACK // and /ASK // what
phr N V V' V' A c V' W
CHANGED –POlicy //^12 because POlicy has CHANGED in the
V N w N V V' P d
PAST few \YEARS // [T2-Mh-2]e+ e N #
In example (21) by not selecting an end-rising or end-falling tone Rf
projects the information that the speaker was just about to make a short statement
as neither information told or information which the hearers did not need
to be told. Rf (and also Tr) projected a context where they did not have to
choose between a telling and a non-telling; the information is projected by
them as being so self evident that they do not need to concern themselves
with whether or not their hearers are already aware of it.^13 Similarly in (22)
Mh does not project a context where he needs to concern himself with the
issue of whether or not policy had changed. The choice of an end-falling tone
would have told his hearers that the policy had changed while the choice of
an end-rising tone would have projected his presumption that the fact that
the policy had changed was not news to his hearers.
Five further level tones were located which signal a retrospective sum-
marizing: the speaker projects the information as having been previously
introduced in the discourse but chooses not to project an assumption that
the information has or has not been added to the state of speaker/hearer
convergence.