192 A Grammar of Spoken English Discourse
Brazil (1997: 49–53) notes the communicative value of low key is to set up
an existential equivalence between a tonic segment and a previous one. He
claims that speakers’ select low key either to intentionally project an equival-
ence which is unknown to their hearers or to acknowledge a self-evident
equivalence. Thus we could expect that increment initial low key would
signal that the target state reached after the achievement of the increment
was an elaboration (Halliday 1994: 220) of the previous target state which
itself contains all prior target states achieved in the text. Increment medial
and fi nal low key would signal an elaboration of the previous tonic segment
within the increment.
Three of the increment initial low keys are in increments which elaborate
on the prior co-text e.g. (43):
(43) now it s a ↓GLObal \MOVEment // it s a ↑GLObal i\/deOLogy //
a N V d e N N V d e N #
TS38 INT1 INT2 INT3 INT4 INT5 TS39 [T2-Bc-39]
In (43) Bc’s selection of increment initial low termination projects a context
where the target state achieved after increment 39 is, as the double headed
arrow indicates, equivalent to the target/initial state which immediately pre-
ceded his production of the increment. Prior to (43) Bc has described a
world where the terrorist enemy has been presented as a global threat.
Example (43) elaborates but does not extend the target state by stating
what Bc expects his hearer to accept as self evident.
In (44), it is not clear to me as an analyst that Bc’s production of
increment 50 elaborates on the previously reached target state.
(44) ↑LOOK what we’ve... // ↑LOOK weve GOT a \PROblem // Even in our OWN
MUslim /\COUNTries in europe // who will HALF –BUY in // in to –SOME of
the // propa\GANda // thats \PUSHED at it //
Ts 49 #
that a↓MERicas PURpose is to supPRESS is\/LAM // you /KNOW //
britain JOINED with a\MERica // in the supPRESsion of is\/LAM // [T2-Bc-49-50]
Ts50 #
Bc projects a context where the content of the propaganda told in incre-
ment 49 is presented as being equivalent to the content of increment 50.
Thus, in the pursuit of his own communicative reading Bc projected the
target state achieved after increment 50 as equivalent to the target state
achieved after increment 49.