144 A Grammar of Spoken English Discourse
texts the readers construed their intended projected meaning by choosing
from the systemic resources of the meaning making potential of the
language. Figure 6.1 illustrates some of the relevant choices which led to
the 156 increment fi nal fall-rises presented in Table 6.5.
A reader when reading a stretch of text chooses if the tone unit she/he is
about to read will be increment fi nal or not. In Figure 6.1 the reader chooses
to make the tone unit the fi nal one in the increment. Increment closure is
the entry condition for the choice of tone which in this example is fall-rise.
It will be noted that the system is recursive in that the next tone unit
produced by the reader is the entry condition for the system Increment
open/Increment closure. Examples (11) and (12) illustrate.
Table 6.5 Elements which coincided with increment fi nal fall-rises
Text 1
earlier today x3 what has happened x 2
I can give you x 3 at the moment x 2
in London x4 people seriously injured x 2
and their families x2 within the next couple of hours
to return later this evening x7 we were going to discuss
which we were going to reach x4 of the effects of terrorism x4
to defeat this terrorism x4 in the environment x 2
to talk later about this x3 to impose extremism on the world x2
thank you x3
Text 2
at all what changed policy x2
in the past few years x3 was September the 11th
that changed policy x2 they wanted to do x2
were truly in error x2 in different countries x3
lost their lives x3 and hatred x2
in Palestine now x2 based upon a perversion of Islam x2
but particularly terrorism to do that a moment or two ago x3
it’s not simply the act of terror x2 with it x2
and so on x3 over many many decades
I think the President’s policy x2 in fi ghting this battle
they are going to fi ght hard x2 as a result of it
or secular dictators x2 you got a non-sectarian democracy x2
in such circumstances you got a genuine democracy of the people x3
to boost it that there was a problem in Gaza
it’s a global ideology it’s tough to fi ght x2
at all what is happening x3
and Palestine x2 at the loss of innocent lives
no matter how tough it is larger and larger numbers of people x2
that’s pushed at it x2 is to suppress Islam
but stay the course with it x2 Muslims in Britain are free to worship
and we will x4 it’s wrong in every single reactionary thing about it