Key and Termination

Speakers have the choice of placing prominent syllables low, mid, or high in relation to the previous prominence. These choices, on the onset prominence, comprise the system of key; on the tonic prominence, the system of termination. Low key adds an increment of meaning ‘This tone unit has an equative relationship with what has gone before’; high key adds ‘This tone unit has a denial of expectation relationship to what has preceeded’, or ‘This is discourse-initial’. Low termination adds an increment of meaning ‘This is discourse-final’; high termination adds ‘This is something I want you to give judgement on’.