72 A Grammar of Spoken English Discourse
According to Gussenhoven’s theory, A adds the fact that the house is on fi re to
B’s background. Whereupon B responds by signalling that he is leaving it
up to A to determine whether the variable the house is on fi re is part of the
shared background. The most obvious local meaning signalled by B’s reply
is one of incredulity. B requests A to determine if ‘the house is on fi re’ is part
of their shared background? Brazil (1997: 84) states that the rise (r+) tone
but not the fall-rise (r) realizes an extra communicative value.^23 Regardless
of whether the speaker employs r or r+ tone they project an assumption of
speaker/hearer convergence but selection of r+ tone also signals a projec-
tion of dominance by the speaker. Brazil’s theory explains B’s selection of
rising tone in (34) as referring back to the pyromaniac’s announcement
and asserting dominance. The local meaning is that of an echo which
demands clarifi cation, itself a manifestation of the temporary assumption
of dominance. It can be paraphrased as The house is on fi re is part of our shared
background. Tell me more. Without extensive corpus study it is impossible
to choose between Brazil’s and Gussenhoven’s claims. Yet for present
purposes, namely evaluating the premises Brazil’s grammar of increments
rests on, all that is important is that Gussenhoven’s theory supports Brazil’s
assertion that only the fall unambiguously signals an act of telling, rises and
fall-rises do not.
To conclude, there is support within the literature for the premise that
speakers frame their utterances with respect to the assumed state of speaker/
hearer convergence. The intonational theories discussed above, while by
no means identical to Brazil’s theory, provide support for his view that only
end-falling intonation realizes an act of telling. However, it will be shown
both in the following section and in Chapter 5 that Brazil’s view of the
meaning potential produced by tone selection is too restricted to fully
account for the meaning realized by increments.
3.4.2 The relationship between level tone and used speech
The term ‘used language’ necessarily implies the existence of what can
be labelled unused language that is, the production of language acts which
are neutral in speakers’ pursuit of the individual daily purposes necessary
for the management of human affairs. Chomsky (1975: 61) recounts a
personal anecdote which, he claims, demonstrates that speakers can use
language without an intention to communicate. He describes the curious
experience of making a speech against the Vietnam War to a group of
soldiers who were advancing in full combat gear, rifl es in hand to clear the
area where he was speaking. He states that he meant what he said and that