Key and Termination – Increments 161
\↓HOWever // that the MEEting should conTINue in my
c W+ d M V V' P d
AB\↓sence // [Bs-10]N
In example (3) the increment initial high key is contained in a tone unit
coterminous with a string of elements which do not form a complete syntactic
category. Bs’ selection of the high key projects that something contrary to
the discourse expectations is to be read. The initial state shared by Bs and
his hearers prior to example (3) includes the information that the reader
will leave the G8 meeting temporarily to come to London. This creates the
expectation that the business of the meeting will be suspended in his
absence but as example (3) tells us this is not in fact the case. Eight out of
the ten readers chose a high key on will but their readings differed from
Bs’s in that they read the fi rst clause of example (3) as a single tone unit.
Example (4) differs from the three examples above in that the increment
initial high key is in a tone unit which itself contains information that is
contrary to the expectations realized in the previous co-texts. Only three of
the eleven readers did not select a high key to signal that the information
in example (4) was contrary to expectations.
(4) it s ↑MY intention to LEAVE the g\EIGHT //
N V d N+ V' d N
withIN the NEXT COUple of \HOURS // [Jt-8]
P+ d e e P dº NJt added the information contained in the second tone unit to the informa-
tion contained in the fi rst tone unit in order to achieve target state. It is not in
other words the fact that he will leave the meeting which is projected to be con-
trary to discourse expectations but rather the fact that his leaving will be within
the next couple of hours which he projects as being contrary to expectations.
In Text 2, 16 of the 77 increment initial high keys which projected that
the content of the increment as being contrary to the previously generated
expectations were in minimal increments. Of the remainder, 36 were
located in tone units which contained suffi cient information to realize a
putative act of telling, e.g. example (5).
(5) and we re ↑NOT going to deFEAT this ide\OLogy //
c N V' a V' V' d N+