The Communicative Grammar of English Workbook - Edward Woods, Rudy Coppieters 2002

1.7. Nucleus and tone units
Unit one. Spoken and written English

Sections 36-37

Some stressed syllables have greater prominence than others and form the nucleus, or focal point, of an intonation pattern.

The basic unit of intonation is the tone unit, a stretch of speech which contains one such nucleus. A sentence contains one or more tone units, depending on its length and the degree of emphasis given to its various parts.

Task **

Mark any tone unit boundaries in the following sentences with vertical bars, underlining the syllables which would normally form the nucleus of the respective tone units.

1. My only sister is married to an accountant.

2. Would you give me the bottle opener, please.

3. Shirley was watching a film by Alfred Hitchcock, the master of suspense.

4. Hurricane Freddy swept across Indonesia last night and is now heading for Japan.

5. Although the war has been over for years, there are still occasional clashes along the border.

6. The new car model comes in four colours: red, dark blue, grey and white.

7. Driving on the left-hand side is something most people get used to in no time at all.

8. I haven’t got the faintest idea if the evidence given by Karen will prove her innocence.

9. Either your informant is completely ignorant of the facts or he is deliberately deceiving us, which is even worse.

10. In contrast with conventional wisdom, forests in northern countries are expanding rather than shrinking.

11. The politician said he wasn’t involved in the cover-up but he was, as appeared from an incriminating document found in the flat of his former mistress.

12. For Christ’s sake, why couldn’t you behave properly in the company of such distinguished guests, whose only fault was that their English sounded slightly pompous?