Intonation groups and sentences can be made to sound more lively, more emotional and more emphatic by means of pitch, i.e. various sections of pitch-and-stress patterns. The use of the High Pre-Head in the second case intensifies the meaning of the whole intonation group, makes the utterance more exclamatory, more emphatic. The more the high pitch of the High Pre-Head contrasts with what follows, the more emphasis is given to the phrase. If the low falling nuclear tone is changed for the High Fall the intonation group sounds much more emphatic.
Another way of adding emphasis is by modifying the shape of the head. For instance, the Falling Head can be modified for emphasis by pronouncing the unstressed syllables on the same level as the stressed ones.
The same utterance pronounced with the Stepping Head sounds more weighty and ponderous.
Both Falling and Stepping Heads broken by an accidental rise sound more lively, express personal concern of the speaker by intensifying some particular word in the phrase.
The Sliding Head is another emphatic variant of the Falling Head because it always expresses the speaker's personal involvement or concern.
Even greater emphasis can be added by having a High Fall on each stressed syllable in the head.
The emphatic variant of the Rising Head is called climbing because there is a series of rises in it on each stressed syllable.
The Low Level Head gives a very detached, cool, unsatisfied and disapproving shade of meaning to the utterance normally pronounced with the Medium Level Head.
The same utterance pronounced on a high level note will sound very angry and even indignant.
It is quite certain that the emphasis is often achieved not only by modifying one section of the pitch-and-stress pattern, but also by combining the modifications in pre-heads, heads and nuclear tones.
The pitch-and-stress sections of intonation can be roughly divided into non-emphatic and emphatic.
