46 A Grammar of Spoken English Discourse
concur with the telling. In (64) the speaker tells but simultaneously invites
adjudication. The high termination expects a high-key evaluative response:
the hearer is invited to state whether in fact it is time to go. As neither (63)
nor (64) contain initial N V elements they do not satisfy the grammatical
chaining rules but (65) and (66) below are both, discourse conditions
permitting, increments.^24
(65) // p it’ s TIME to GO //
N V N V' #
(66) // p it’ s TIME to ↑GO //
N V N V'The mid-termination choice in (65) anticipates hearer concurrence that
the speaker has told that it is indeed time to go. Example (66), likewise, fulfi ls
both the grammatical and intonational criteria required to complete a
successful act of telling. Yet Brazil et al. (ibid. 77) state that (66) asks if it is
time to go; it seeks a contrastive yes/no response. Example (66) is therefore
an initiating increment. The speaker invites adjudication and the act of
telling is completed by the hearer’s response. Examples (65) and (66) show
that high termination may transform a telling increment into an initiating
increment requiring adjudication.
Many instances of high termination are not overtly adjudicated by
hearers. Example (67) originally from Halliday (1970: 127) illustrates.^25
In this extract, a male speaker is performing a pre-planned narrative about
a railway line.
(67) // p ↑BY the time the great CENtral // r+ was BUILT //
p d n d N v V'
// o the ↑TRAINS could manage the GRAdients // p much more
d N V V' d N A
↑EASily
#
// r and the GREAT CENtral line // p usually went a↑CROSS valleys
c d N+ N a V P d° N
// r instead of ROUND them // r like the EARlier railways //
P P N P d e N Ø #Example (67) contains two increments; however, the presence of the high
termination at the end of the fi rst increment complicates the picture. It is