A Review of A Grammar of Speech 43
Brazil’s system of termination with its tripartite division into high, mid and
low is less supported when we turn to a discussion of the extra communic-
ative value added to end-rising tones by the factors ‘high’ and ‘low’. Halliday
(1967; 1970), like Brazil, recognizes two types of end-rising tones: rises and
fall-rises but, unlike Brazil, he recognizes only two variants of the rise, high
and low, and two variants of the fall-rise, mid and low. Halliday does not
ascribe one unitary value to all instances of end-rising tone. He claims that a
high rise in a wh-question indicates a mild or deferential speaker attitude; in
a polar question it indicates a neutral speaker attitude, although, O’Connor
and Arnold (1973: 46), Crystal (1975: 39) and Cruttenden (1997: section
3.4.1.3) argue that the low rise is the neutral tone for polar questions. In a
statement it signals that the speaker seeks confi rmation or contradicts or
denies an expectation. A high rise with a low pre-tonic^20 – O’Connor and
Arnold’s (1973: 202) pattern 7 high bounce – signals speaker intensity such as
showing surprise, concern or disapproval. Low rises with low pre-tonics –
O’Connor and Arnold’s (1973: 143) pattern 3 take off – express a speaker
attitude of unconcern or uncertainty. With high or mid pre-tonics, low rises in
statements express unexpected speaker expectation or indicate reassurance.
In commands they express a polite attitude.
Tench (1996: 77) like Brazil, recognizes high, mid and low rises but like
Halliday, he does not ascribe a single abstract value to all realizations of
rising tone. He argues that the mid rise is the neutral rise and that that low
and high rises realize extra communicative value. Rising tone in declaratives
in non-fi nal position indicates incomplete information; in fi nal position it
indicates minor information (ibid. 80–1). The high rise is associated ‘with
a stronger sense of querying, suggesting surprise or even disbelief’ while
the low rise ‘suggests a non-committal or even grumbling attitude’. Crystal
(1975: 38), who recognizes only high rises and non-high rises, similarly,
argues that high rises in any position are indications of defi nite emotional
commitment while pre-fi nal non-high rises are attitudinally neutral. Both
Tench and Halliday recognize two variants of the fall-rise and they both
agree that a mid fall-rise is neutral. Non-fi nal fall-rises serve to highlight the
theme while in utterance fi nal position they express speaker reservation. A
low fall-rise expresses a stronger reservation (Halliday 1967: 41) or in Tench’s
(1996: 128) terms it is labelled as ‘strongly contrastive/implicational’.
It is diffi cult to abstract a common value for ‘high’ and ‘low’ from the
claims presented above. However, it seems that when confl ated with the rise,
the factor ‘high’ is employed to convey something unexpected, such as sur-
prise, disapproval or uncertainty. These local meanings do not necessarily
confl ict with Brazil’s claim that high termination invites adjudication: the