Session Nine - Thought Groups

Tips for identifying thought group divisions

1. Falling pitches mark the end of thought group.
2. Pauses also indicate the end, it gives listeners time to think about what's been said.
3. The use of punctuation can help identify the thought groups; in spoken format speakers use a falling pitch or a pause to indicate the marks.
4. The mastery of employing thought groups can improve clarity of both speech and listening.
5. The alteration between syllables that are stressed and pronounced clearly and syllable that are unstressed and spoken quickly forms the prosody of English language.
6. Sentence emphasis and de-emphasis act as the discourse navigational guides to distinguish the new and old (shared) information in speaking.
7. Words carried old information are said with relatively weaker stress and lower pitch.
8. Words that are focus of thought (with new information) are highlighted by a lengthening of the stressed syllable and a change in the pitch.