textbooks, but it’s becoming much more common in
American English recently.
I wanted to buy a new car, but I couldn’t a"ord it.
If you think of a good idea, tell me right away.
If you want to get rich, don’t become a teacher
Intonation in context
Another way of looking at intonation is to think about the
role it can play in discourse, that is, in longer
conversations, stories, speeches, or other types of connected
language. rather than just in single sentences. This view looks
at the whole context in which intonation occurs.
Old information and new information
By listening to intonation, we can tell which information the
speaker and listener both already know (old information)
and which information the speaker wants to tell the listener
for the !rst time (new information).
In Chapter 10, we learned that new information usually has
prominence, while old information does not. The di"erence
in intonation is related to this di"erence in prominence. New
information, which most often comes near the end of a
thought group, has a “bump up” in pitch on the prominent
word, followed by falling intonation. Some authors refer to
this pitch pattern as a proclaiming tone; the speaker is
proclaiming, or announcing some new and important
information. (Brazil 1997)Old information within a thought group does not have
prominence. In a similar way, thought groups that give old,
shared information have intonation that shows that their
information is not new—it’s just there to remind the listener
of the topic the speaker is talking about, as if the speaker is
saying, “You’re with me on this; you know what I’m talking
about; we have something in common.”Thought groups that give old, shared information are often
spoken with a rising intonation or a partial fall. This is
sometimes called a referring tone. The speaker isn’t telling
something new; he/she is simply referring to something that
is already known. (Brazil 1997) In the following example,
old information is in blue letters and new information is in
red.My brother Tom— He’s coming to visit.
You know my brother. This is news.Oh, good! When he’s here, let’s take him to the beach.
New opinion. I know this now. This is my new suggestion.141\\