More about the implicational fall-rise

The fall-rise can also be used to signal that the speaker is tentative about what he or she says. This is a special case of the implicational fall-rise: the speaker makes a statement but at the same time implies something like but I'm not sure or but I don't want to commit myself to this.

Polite corrections

If we think someone has made a mistake, and we want to correct them, it is polite to do so in a tentative way. This explains the use of the fall-rise for polite corrections.

In contrast, to use a falling tone for a correction would be abrupt and perhaps rude:

Partial statements

The fall-rise is often used when we want to make a partial statement; that is, to say that something applies partly, to some extent, but not completely:

Many corrections are like this: partly we agree with the other speaker, partly we disagree. Partial corrections, too, take a fall-rise:

Negative statements

The fall-rise is often used in negative statements:

The implication is that the corresponding positive statement is not true. There is a contrast, implicit or explicit, between a negative (something that we present as not true) and positive (something we present as true). The negative part is said with a fall-rise tone. The positive part may either left implicit (unexpressed), or else be made explicit by being put into words. If it is made explicit, it may come either before or after the negative part, and may have either a definitive fall or an implicational (polite-correction) fall-rise:

Scope of negation

Let us return to one of our earlier examples of the implicational fall-rise. There are two ways in which the implication might be made explicit:

In (i) the implication is spelt out positively , with a definitive fall on busy, but in (ii) it is expressed negatively, with a negative fall-rise on Thursday. Consider the likely tone choices in the following answers. The positive answer would probably have a fall, the negative one a fall-rise. The fall-rise has a special function in a negative sentence. Namely, it indicates that the scope of negation includes the word bearing the nucleus, but not the main verb (unless the main verb itself bears the nucleus). A falling tone, on the other hand, does not restrict the scope of the negation in this way. In the following examples labelled (i), the fall means the scope is not limited; in those labelled (ii), the fall-rise means it is limited. The on labelled (iii), which has a rise, is ambiguous.