A Grammar of Spoken English Discourse - The Intonation of Increments

A Review of A Grammar of Speech 27

could be either the fi rst speaker’s initiating increment^13 in an asking
increment or a telling increment. However, contra Brazil, strings of
elements with subject verb inversion such as Did she go to Paris with her
boyfriend, or with postposed WH like You were meeting her where do not seem
to have the potential to tell and are initiating increments unless preceded
or followed by a projected mental or reporting clause such as I wonder/
I said.
It is apparent that the chaining rules given for telling increments
are insuffi cient to account for all increments. Stereotypical initiating
increments such as

(42) Would you like coffee or tea

commence with a V element and not the expected N element. This
apparent breach of the order of the chain is not, according to Brazil,
problematic. He argues that:

We can restate the rule which applies to Initial state as ‘produce an N and

a V in whichever order present discourse conditions require’. (p. 196)

The discourse conditions in (42) require the speaker to produce an initial
V element which is then followed by the obligatory N element.

2.2.6 Summary

Brazil’s chaining rules are summarized below.

1. The speaker produces initial N and V elements in whichever order
   discourse conditions require.


2. The speaker is obliged to continue until, either alone or with the
   hearer’s contribution, a target state is achieved.


3. Elements prior to the initial N or V are suspensive.


4. When speakers produce suspensive elements they have an obligation to
   continue along the chain from the state reached prior to the suspensive
   elements.


5. When speakers run through the simple chaining rules without achieving
   target state they are obliged to produce one or more extensive subchains
   until target state is achieved.