Identifying the tonic syllable

It is often said that the tonic syllable can be identified because it is the only syllable in the tone-unit that carries a movement in pitch; this is in fact not always true. We have seen how when the tonic syllable is followed by a tail the tone is carried by the tonic plus tail together in such a way that in some cases practically no pitch movement is detectable on the tonic syllable itself. In addition, it has been claimed that one of the tones is the level tone, which by definition may not have any pitch movement. It is therefore necessary to say in this particular case that the tonic syllable is identified simply as the most prominent syllable.

In addition, it sometimes seems as if some tone-units (though only a small number, known as compound tone-units) contain not one but two tonic syllables, almost always with the first syllable having a fall on it and the other a rise. An example is:

Ive seen /him

In this example there seems to be equal prominence on 'seen' and 'him'. It could be claimed that this is the same thing as:

Ive       vseen      him

ii)

It has, however, been pointed out that the two versions are different in several ways. Since 'him' has greater prominence in (i), it cannot occur in its weak form Im, but must be pronounced hIm, whereas in (ii) the pronunciation is likely to be aIv vsi:n Im. The two versions are said to convey different meanings, too. Version (i) might be said in conversation on hearing someone's name, as in this example:

A: 'John 'Cleese is a 'very 'funnyactor

B: 'Oh yes | Ive seen /him

In version (ii), on the other hand, the word 'seen' is given the greatest prominence, and it is likely to sound as though the speaker has some reservation, or has something further to say:

A: 'Have you 'seen my /father -yet

B: Ive vseen him I but I 'havent had 'time to alk to him

The same is found with 'her', as in:

Ive seen /her

aɪv si:n /hз:

compared with:

Ive vseen her

aɪv vsi:n  ə  

This is a difficult problem, since it weakens the general claim made earlier that each tone- unit contains only one tonic syllable.