Introducing English Linguistics

NIX
on  MOUthing about the DEATH penalty  and about the permissive
soCIety  I decided that I would talk inSTEAD  about something which
conCERNS me  in the THEatre 
(London-Lund S.12.7.2–10)
There are two instances of coordinated main clauses separated by a tone
unit boundary: the coordinator and in the early part of the excerpt (and
indeed I had) is preceded by a tone unit boundary, as is the coordinator but
(but hearing President 
NIXon). In contrast, the one instance of a nominal
that-clause is not set off by a boundary (I decided that I would talk).
If, however, a spontaneous dialogue is examined, there is less of a cor-
respondence between grammatical and tone unit boundaries, largely
because the spontaneous structure of such speech-types often results in
fewer grammatically well-formed structures. In addition, because the
speaker is planning what to say as he or she is speaking, there are more
hesitations, reformulations, and so forth that interrupt the flow of
speech. In the excerpt below from a spontaneous dialogue, one finds
boundaries before the two clauses introduced by so (...so I said