[title]Family quotes[/title] [description]Welcome to our family quotes section! Here you'll find some of the funniest (and wisest) quotes on the subject of family life![/description]
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Latest post Sat, Oct 22 2005 5:54 PM by Anonymous. 4 replies.
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Joey_five  +  150178 Fri, 21 Oct 05 10:55 AM

(I have post this same question on theaudio: ... forum but get not much response there. Hope someone here can help me.)

 

Hi, hope this is the right forum for this post.

The words "I remember" appeared 5 times below and they don't have the same meaning. I feel that no. 2,3,4 are kind of meaningless (Is "filler" the right term?) and should read with a rising tone. No. 1 certainly has meaning and read with a flat tone. But how about no.5 ? I heard someone read it with a flat tone (or falling tone) but I feel that it is meaningless as well. Any comments.

(the same person read 2,3,4 with rising tone and 1 with flat tone, which I agree)

 

It Was Long Ago

I'll tell you, shall I, something I remember (1)?

Something that still means a great deal to me.

It was long ago.

 

A dusty road in summer I remember (2),

A mountain and an old house, and a tree

That stood, you know,

 

Behind the house. An old woman I remember (3)

In a red shawl with a grey cat on her knee ...........

 

And that is almost all I can remember,

The house, the mountain, the grey cat on her knee,

Her red shawl, and the tree,

And the taste of the berries, the feel of the sun I remember (4),

And the smell of everything that used to be

So long ago,

 

Till the heat on the road outside again I remember (5),

And how the long dusty road seemed to have for me

No end, you know.

.....

Joined on Mon, Oct 10 2005
Full Member 105
pieanne  +  150207 Fri, 21 Oct 05 11:48 AM

This is not an answer to you question, sorry, but I wonder how one can use a falling tone in a question: the first "remember" is immediately followed by a question mark, so the voice should be rising...

 

Joined on Thu, Jan 20 2005
South of France ...But I'm Belgian!
Veteran Member 7,517
I'm glad to help, but I'm not a native! And please excuse my typos...
Joey_five  +  150430 Sat, 22 Oct 05 02:31 AM
 Pieanne wrote:

This is not an answer to you question, sorry, but I wonder how one can use a falling tone in a question: the first "remember" is immediately followed by a question mark, so the voice should be rising...

 

ummm.... you could be right. I am not sure about that one too. Although it has a question mark, it's not really a question, I think. I thought it's like those question tags (e.g. The weather is nice today, isn't it?) , they are not really question.

ANy comment on the (5)??

 

davkett  +  150447 Sat, 22 Oct 05 04:23 AM

It seems to me you have two kinds of questions about the repeated phrase:  1) its intonation , and 2) the meaning/meaninglessness of its repetition. 

1) There is no intonation on the page, so I cannot judge whether it has been vocalized in the best way. I don't really have an apriori idea about how it should sound.

2) I do, however, think the repetition of the phrase is important, if for no other simple reason than poetry's love for rhythm; the poem is not simply a list of five memories.  The meaning of the phrase doesn't  seem to me to change in its repetition.

 

 

Joined on Tue, Jun 7 2005
Pennsylvania, USA
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"The rose stays fresh in its name..." -Bernard of Morlay
Anonymous, 4 yr 36 days ago
 Davkett wrote:

It seems to me you have two kinds of questions about the repeated phrase:  1) its intonation , and 2) the meaning/meaninglessness of its repetition. 

1) There is no intonation on the page, so I cannot judge whether it has been vocalized in the best way. I don't really have an apriori idea about how it should sound.

2) I do, however, think the repetition of the phrase is important, if for no other simple reason than poetry's love for rhythm; the poem is not simply a list of five memories.  The meaning of the phrase doesn't  seem to me to change in its repetition.

 

well, I do agree that repetition in spoken language is important (at least much more important than in written language) and someimes can make a speech more natural.

But the 5 "I remember" that I have highlighted are quite different grammartically. Some of them are not as important. My main concern is the fifth one. I am wodering if one should use a rising tone or flat tone on that one. I need to help a students with her speech festival.

ANy comments will be appreciated.

 

 

 

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