Tone Marking

Abstract

For an accurate and complete representation of the intonation of a sentence the tones of all the syllables should be indicated in dots or lines under each line of text, as is done, i.a. by Daniel Jones in his Outline of English Phonetics. This leaves the text itself free for the indication of stress and pauses. Any system of tone-indication in the text of the transcription, by means of diacritical marks, would require a highly complicated set of signs to be complete. Emphatic high and low, rising and falling tones, for instance, would have to be distinguished from unemphatic ones — there would be such an accumulation of diacritical marks as to make the transcription difficult to read. Any system using a limited set of diacritical marks for the indication, in the text, of stress and intonation and pauses, must needs be selective and schematic; it cannot render all the cases. Such a system may be serviceable for teaching purposes, however, and the teacher will see that he does not go beyond what can be indicated.