NOTE. If the answers of questions, whether direct or indirect, are given in a careless and indifferent manner, they take the rising inflection. EXAMPLES. Are you desirous to return? Not véry. How are you pleased with the country? Tolerably well. RULE 9. Language of authority, surprise, denunciation, exclamation and terror, generally requires the falling inflection. EXAMPLES. Charge, Chester! Charge! On, Stanly, on! Awake, ye sons of Spain! - awake,· Surprise. advance. What a piece of work is màn ! How noble in reason! How infi nite in faculties! In form and moving, how express and admirable! In action, how like an àngel! In apprehension, how like a Gòd! Denunciation. Woe unto you, Pharisees! Woe unto you, scribes! Paul said unto Elymas, O full of all sùbtlety, and all mìschief! Thou child of the Devil, thou enemy of all righteousness! Exclamation and Terror. A month! Oh for a single wèek! I ask not for years! though an age were too little for the much I have to do! They come ! they come! the Greek! the Greek! Cæsar cried, help me, Cassius, or I sink! EXCEPTION. When exclamatory sentences become questions, or are expressive of tender emotions, they usually require the rising slide. EXAMPLES. They planted by your care! Nò, your oppressions planted them in Amèrica. They nourished by your indulgence! They grew by your neglect. They protected by your arms! They have nobly taken up arms in your defence. O my son Ábsalom! - my són, my son Absalom! RULE 10. Emphatic succession of particulars, and emphatic repetition, require the falling inflection. QUESTIONS. What is the note? What is Rule Ninth? Give an example. Are there any exceptions to Rule Ninth? What is Rule Tenth? EXAMPLES. Thrice was I beaten with ròds; once was I stoned; thrice I suf fered shipwreck; a night and a day have I been in the deep. Go and tell John what things ye have seen and heard; the blind sèe, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hèar, the dead are ráised, to the poor the gospel is preached.-Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity ènvieth not; charity vaùnteth not itself; is not puffed up; doth not behave itself unseèmly; seeketh not her own; is not easily provoked; thinketh no evil. The sentence is passed; you are condèmned to die. You wrong me every way; you wrong me, Brutus ! The war is inevitable; and, let it come! I repeat it, sir, LET IT COME!! EXCEPTION. The penultimate pause has the rising inflection, according to rule Seventh. NOTE. When the principle of emphatic succession of particulars interferes with the pause of suspension, the former requiring the falling slide and the latter the rising, it is frequently difficult for the learner to determine which to employ. In such cases he must be guided by the emphasis, giving the falling inflection when it is intense, and the rising when it is slight. RULE 11. Whenever the sense is complete, whether at the close, or any other part of the sentence, the falling inflection should be employed. EXAMPLE. He that receiveth you, receiveth mè; and he that receiveth me, receiveth him that sènt me. EXCEPTION. When strong emphasis with the falling slide comes near the end of the sentence, it turns the voice upward at the close. EXAMPLE. If we have no regard for religion in youth, we ought to have some respect for it in age. Circumflex. The CIRCUMFLEX is the union of the falling and rising *This union commonly begins with the falling slide, and ends with the rising. This order, however, is sometines reversed, QUESTIONS. Give an example. What is the exception to this rule? What is Rule Eleventh? Give an example. What is the exception? What is Circumflex? inflections on the same syllable or word, producing a slight undulation or wave of the voice. RULE. 12. The circumflex is used in language of irony, sarcasm, hypothesis, and contrast. EXAMPLES. Yet Brutus says he was ambitious; Sarcasm. Hear him, my lord; he's wondrous condescênding. Hume said he would go twenty miles, to hear Whitefield preach. We are accounted poor citizens, the patricians good. What authority surfeits on, would relieve us. NOTE. In some instances it may be difficult to determine, whether circumflex, or rising inflection should be employed. Care must be taken not to mistake the one for the other. Monotone. MONOTONE is a protracted sameness of sound on successive syllables or words. RULE 13. Language that is grave, grand, or sublime, generally requires the monotone. EXAMPLES. For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhābīteth eternity, whose name is Hōly; I dwell in the high and hōly place. And one cried unto another, and said, "Hōly, hōly, hōly, is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. Blessing, honor, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth on the throne, and to the Lamb forever and ever. The seas shall waste, the skies in smōke decay, QUESTIONS. What is the rule? Give an example where the circumflex arises from irony. From sarcasm. From condition. From contrast. What is monotone? What is Rule Thirteenth? Give an example. But fixed his wōrd-hīs saving power remains, Resounded, and, had earth been then, all earth As some tall cliff, that lifts its awful form, Swells from the vale, and midway leaves the storm, Soft as the slumbers of a saint fōrgīvēn, And mild as ōpening gleams of promised heaven. Thōu shalt not take the name of the Lord thy Gōd in vain. Socrates died like a philosopher, but Jesus Christ like a Göd. NOTE. MONOTONE is not literally an inflection, but a sameness of sound on the same note. It is not, however, a perfect monotony, but has certain slight variations, peculiar to itself; and is usually numbered among the inflections. EXERCISES ON INFLECTION. Exercise 1.-To Illustrate Rule 1, Page 28. What, then, what was Cæsar's òbject? Do we select extortioners, to inforce the laws of équity? Do we make choice of profligates, to guard the morals of society? Do we depute atheists, to preside over the rites of religion? I will not prèss the answer; I need not press the answer; the premises of my argument render it unnècessary. What would contènt you? Tálent? No! Enterprise? No! Courage? No! Reputation? No! Virtue? No! The men whom you would select, should possess, not one, but àll, of these. He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? He that formed the eye, shall he not sée? He that chastiseth the hea QUESTIONS. What rule is the first of the miscellanecus exercises designed to illus. trate? What is the rule? The Rising and Falling Inflections. THE RISING INFLECTION is an upward turn or slide of the voice; as, Will you go to-day ? THE FALLING INFLECTION is a downward turn or slide of the voice; as, Where has he gone'? The falling slide is sometimes mistaken for the rising, when it is attended with strong emphasis. If the learner is in doubt which has been employed, let him use the doubtful word in the form of a question, thus; Did I say home or home? In the rising slide, it must be remembered, that the voice rises from the general pitch gradually to its highest note; in the falling, it commences above the general pitch and falls down to it, but not below, as in a cadence. RULE 1. Direct questions, or those that can be answered by yes, or no, generally require the rising inflection, and the answers the falling. EXAMPLES. Will you go to Baltimore? Nò. Have you been to New York? Yès. Are we to interfere in the Greek cause? Cèrtainly not. Did Clodius waylay Milo? He did. Do temptations surround you? Trust in God. Think you they will come to-day? No, to-morrow.' Was that man George Washington? It wàs. Does he pronounce correctly? He does not. EXCEPTION 1. Direct questions, when attended with earnestness and strong emphasis, the answers being anticipated, take the falling inflection. QUESTIONS. What is the rising inflection? Give the example. How does the falling inflection affect the voice? Will you give one example? What effect has strong emphasis on this inflection? When the learner is in doubt how can he determine the inflection? In the falling inflection at what pitch or note does the voice start and where end? What is Rule First? Will you give an example? How does the voice end in a cadence? What is Exception First? |