Moon7296 Posted 16 years ago
Grammar
Intonation in wh- questions.
Information wh- questions have up-fall intonation, as shown in (44a), (44b), and (44c) or down-rise intonation, as shown in (44d) and (44e).
(44) a. How can they do it?
b. What did she want?
c. How long did the meeting last?
(I can't copy the book so I explain it, not drawing intonation contours)
=> a,b,c has up-fall intonation: 'do it' in a, 'want' in b, and last in c.
d. Where did John go?
e. What has Julia done now?
=> d,e has down-rise intonation: 'go' in d, and 'now' in e
reference) Ron Cowan, The Teacher's Grammar of English, 2008, Cambridge
Question) What makes the intonation differ between a,b,c and d,e?
(44) a. How can they do it?
b. What did she want?
c. How long did the meeting last?
(I can't copy the book so I explain it, not drawing intonation contours)
=> a,b,c has up-fall intonation: 'do it' in a, 'want' in b, and last in c.
d. Where did John go?
e. What has Julia done now?
=> d,e has down-rise intonation: 'go' in d, and 'now' in e
reference) Ron Cowan, The Teacher's Grammar of English, 2008, Cambridge
Question) What makes the intonation differ between a,b,c and d,e?
Top answer
I can't agree with D and E. 'Go' and 'now' also have rise-fall intonation. All 5W questions do (unless they are rhetorical).
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I can't agree with D and E. 'Go' and 'now' also have rise-fall intonation. All 5W questions do (unless they are rhetorical). I cannot imagine why your book says otherwise.
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