2015-08-21
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A: There’s a very good fish restaurant where we could have dinner tonight.
B: I had fish / for lunch.
A: We won’t have time to eat later. So I hope you’ve had something already.
B: I had fish / for lunch.
Now go on. Use the same words to make the suitable responses in the two different contexts.
1) A: My cousin’s coming to stay in April. I’d like you to meet him.
A: So – you’re going to France and Italy for your holidays next year.
B: I’m going to France / in April.
2) A: I always meet John when I go to the swimming pool. He must go there every day I think.
A: I don’t know how Alan is going to keep in shape, working such long hours at the office.
B: He’s taken up swimming / to keep fit.
3) A: I think I should write to the managing director but I don’t know where to send the letter.
A: I complained to the shop in the high Street but the letter I got in reply came from London.
B: The firm’s head office / is in London.
4) A: His exam results were good. What did he do when he got them?
A: So, he’s hoping to go to university. Has he applied yet?
B: He applied for university / when he knew he had passed.
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conversation: Lisa: Hello, Tony. Did you go for your interview yesterday?
Tony: Hi, Lisa. Yes, I did.
Lisa: How did it go?
Tony: All right, I think.
Lisa: All right? You don’t sound very sure.
Speakers choose falling tones () when they think that what they say will increase their hearer’s knowledge.
Earlier it was said that speakers choose the fall-rise when they are referring to something already stated or implied in the conversation. Besides what speakers say in this tone refers to something they know or assume is already known to both the hearers and themselves, i.e. to something which is part of the background knowledge or experience they share with their hearers.
In the conversation you can find three ways in which the fall-rise functions:
1) To refer to something already stated: Lisa: All right?
2) To check something is as it is assumed: Did you go for your interview yesterday?
3) to refer to something which is or has become part of their common background knowledge (experience).
Practice activities
You have already practiced this part of the conversation in which Lisa checks what she presumes is true.
Lisa: Did you go for your interview yesterday?
Tony: Hi, Lisa. Yes, I did.
Lisa: How did it go?
