K Kinetic (dynamic) tones Kinetic (dynamic) tones are produced by varying the tension of the vocal cords thus producing a
tone of varying pitch. Kinetic tones are generally classified according to the following criteria: 1)
direction of the pitch change; 2) width of the pitch change, or its interval; 3) relative position of the
pitch change within the speaker’s voice-range.
Besides giving prominence to words, kinetic tones serve to covey the overall communicative
meaning of an utterance. In particular, they 1) indicate the communicative type of an utterance; 2)
express the speaker’s attitude towards the subject-matter, the listener and the situation; 3) single out
the centre of new information in an utterance, i.e. the point of greater semantic importance as
viewed by the speaker.
L Level heads There are no perceptible contrasts in the initial pitch-height of the successive stressed syllables in
level heads. According to the actual pitch of the syllables the Level head may be of a high, mid and
low varieties.
Low Irregular Prehead In the Low Irregular Prehead all the syllables are said on a very low pitch, i.e. lower even than
the syllables at the end of a falling tune. It is indicated by the pitch mark (
–
m).
N Non-nuclear stresses Non-nuclear stresses are subdivided into full and partial. This gradation reflects variations in the
degree and type of prosodic prominence.
The peculiarity of full stress is that it occurs only in the head of an intonation-group while partial stress occurs, besides the head, also in the prehead and tail. Fully stressed syllables generally
initiate a certain pitch figure (movement, change or contrast).
Partially stressed syllables, on the other hand, are not free in their pitch characteristics. They do not
have a pitch figure of their own: the pitch pattern of these syllables is determined by that of the
preceding fully stressed syllable.