190 A Grammar of Spoken English Discourse
nominal or adverbial elements; projecting clauses; extensions and suspen-
sions. The readers did not select low termination in an internal position
within a series of elements such as an extension which may indicate that the
readers were momentarily focusing on the syntax to the expense of the
communication. Example (41) provides some illustrative examples:
(41a) and ALL the \↓LEAders // as they will \/INdicate a little bit later //
SHARE our comPLETE resoLUtion to deFEAT \TERrorism //
[T1-Rf-14] Subject/Theme reduplication
(41b) because ↑THEY \KNOW // that the VAlue of \TERrorism // to
\/↑THEM // /↑IS // as i was SAying a MOment or \/↓TWO ago
// its ↑NOT SIMply the ACT of \/TERror // [T2-Dmc-19]
Suspension
(41c) the REAson WHY they are DOing what they are \DOing // in
iRAQ at the \MOment // and /↑YES // it IS REAlly \TOUGH //
as a reSULT of... it IS because they –↓KNOW that // if RIGHT
in the CENtre of the \↓MIDdle east // in an ARab MUSlim
\COUNtry // you got a \NONsectarian // de/MOcracy //
[T2-Jt-27] Projection.
In (41a) Rf’s selection of low termination releases the hearers from all
expectations. However, as the hearer has not been told it is not clear what
expectations have been released. Dmc in (41b) may have used the low
termination to signal the end of the suspension and to signal that she has
resumed producing words which modify the existing intermediate state
created immediately prior to the suspension. Jt in (41c) chose a low
termination on know which coincides with the end of the projecting part of
his increment. The remainder of his increment fulfi ls the expectation and
projects what it is that they know. However, the value of the low termination
is diffi cult to account for as is the following one, in that it releases the hearer
from all expectations by closing a pitch sequence before the expectations
have been satisfi ed.
Example (42) illustrates an increment medial low termination which is
apparently the result of Gc’s momentary processing problems.
(42) beCAUSE they –KNOW that // the ↓VAlue of –↓TERrorism //
that the value of \TERorism // to –THEM // \IS //... its not
↑SIMply the ACT of \TERror // its the CHAIN re\ACtion // that
TERror brings \WITH it //