The site looks great, I'll look into it.
I think there are a number of issues we don't spend much time on in grammar 
that have to do with intonation.  This does not seem to relate to the 
sentence, as much as to the utterance.  Consider such words usually classed 
as exclamatives or interjections, that are sometimes not even covered by 
phonology.  There are usage problems: mispelling "O" as "Oh" and the British 
are forever spelling "uh" as "er"  Tsk, tsk! and oh uh! about that.  There 
is no syntax here to speak of, just prosody.  I suppose punctuation should 
be mentioned as well.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Edmond Wright" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, February 27, 2008 9:41 AM
Subject: Re: Right- and left-branching sentences and intonation


>> Herb,
>
> The Policeman sentence is an excellent example -- one that you can still
> just say with understanding.  Again one has to gabble 'the dog bit' at a
> very low level of pitch, and pause momentarily after 'called'.  The 'House
> that Jack built' example is made more difficult at every level when the
> repetition of 'ate' kicks in.
>
> Bruce is clearly right over the part played by intonation here.  I don't
> know of any studies -- they are obviously called for.  Whether intonation
> can be neatly quantified is another matter -- for one thing, consider how 
> to
> invest what you are saying with an ironic tone, or one of disbelief, or of
> boredom, etc. -- or perhaps you have to leave moods on one side and stick
> with grammatical effects.
>
> Edmond
>
>
> Dr. Edmond Wright
> 3 Boathouse Court
> Trafalgar Road
> Cambridge
> CB4 1DU
> England
>
> Email: [log in to unmask]
> Website: http://people.pwf.cam.ac.uk/elw33/
> Phone [00 44] (0)1223 350256
>
>
>
>
> I wish I were still teaching so I could use that one.  My favorite had
>> been "The policeman the boy the dog bit called came," but Jack's
>> left-branching house beats that one hands down.
>>
>> Herb
>>
>
>>
>>
>
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