The rising inflection is used in cases of doubt and uncertainty, or when
the sense is incomplete or dependent on something following. The falling
inflection is used when the sense is finished and completed, or is
independent of anything that follows.
Indirect questions usually require the falling inflection.
Falling inflections give power and emphasis to words. Rising inflections
give beauty and variety. Rising inflections may also be emphatic, but their
effect is not so great as that of falling inflections.
1.
I _am_`.
Life is _short_`.
Eternity is _long_`.
If they _return_`.
Forgive us our _sins_`.
Depart _thou_`.
2.
What' though the field be lost`?
All` is not` lost`: the unconquerable will`,
And stud`y of revenge`, immor`tal hate`,
And cour`age nev`er to submit` or yield`.
3.
And be thou instruc`ted, oh, Jeru`salem', lest my soul depart` from thee;
lest I make thee' des`olate, a land not' inhab`ited.
If the members of a concluding series are not emphatic, they all take the
rising inflection except the _last_, which takes the falling
inflection; but if emphatic, they all take the falling inflection except
the _last_ but _one_, which takes the rising inflection.
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