Parentheses express the speaker’s attitude towards the utterance. When the speaker doesn’t attach any importance to the parenthetical words at all they do not form a separate intonation-group and are often unstressed and are pronounced very quickly. e.g.: Well, I ˎdo. At the beginning of a sentence parentheses are frequently arranged by the low rising tone into a separate intonation group, eg.: To →crown it ˏall | I had an ˎaccident the other day. To attach more importance to the parentheses they can be pronounced with Low Fall, Low Rise or Fall Rise. e.g.: ˎWell, | I ˎdo. ˏWell, | I →don’t ˎknow. ˎPersonaˏlly, | I’m ↓not ʹfond of ˎhiking. In the middle or at the end of the sentence parenthetical words and phrases are generally pronounced as the unstressed of half stressed tail of the preceding intonation-group. e.g.: I’m ↓not ʹgood at ˎlanguages, you know.
