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T
Tail
Unstressed or partially stressed syllables following the nucleus are called
the tail.
Tempo of speech
The tempo of speech is the speed with which utterances or their parts are pronounced. It is
determined by the rate at which speech sounds are uttered and by the number and length of pauses.
Terminal tone
The nuclear tone may be called
terminal, since it is always the last kinetic tone in an intonation-
group and serves as its boundary marker.
Three-unit pause
An important feature marking the boundary of a supraphrasal unity is a pause which is considerably
longer than any of the pauses separating the phrases within the unity. It is the so-called
three-unit
pause.
Timbre of the voice (voice quality)
The voice quality (timbre) is a special colouring of the voice in pronouncing utterances which is
superimposed on speech melody and shows the speaker’s emotions, such as joy, sadness, irony,
anger, indignation, etc.
Tonal reduplication
However free the use of nuclear tones in the adjacent intonation-groups may seem, there are certain
underlying tendencies in their choice. First of all, there is some evidence that the choice of a nuclear
tone in an intonation-group is to a considerable degree determined by the immediately preceding
nuclear tone. In other words, there is a high probability of
tonal reduplication, which means that if
there is a fall (or, let us say, a rise or a fall-rise) in the preceding group, there is a tendency to use
the same or a similar kind of nuclear tone in the following one. The purpose of such a repetition of
tones in adjacent groups seems to consist in keeping the same attitude throughout an utterance as a
means of linking its parts more closely together.
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