ABSTRACT

So-called ‘stylised’ intonation became a renewed talking point when Robert Ladd (1978, 1980) suggested that from each ‘plain tone’ of English intonation (the fall, the low rise and the high rise) a corresponding ‘stylised tone’ could be derived and that the meaning of stylisation was ‘routine’. Basically similar views have also been expressed by Gussenhoven (1983, 1985), Bolinger (1986 ,1989), and others. The contour which Ladd calls the stylised fall is probably the best-known stylised tone of English: it is the intonation used for calling children home, e.g.:

(1)

John–

Din–

  ny–

  ner–

(Ladd 1980: 169)