一般疑问句通常用升调,特殊疑问句一般用降调,这是英语中比较常见的语调形式。但这并非是说一般疑问句只能用升调或特殊疑问句只能用降调。事实上,在现代英语口语中,一般疑问句用降调,特殊疑问句用升调的现象已不再罕见了。不少语言学家,如琼斯(D.Jones)在他在《英语语音学纲要》(An Outline of English Phonetics)以及沃德(I.C.Ward)在《英语语音学》(The Phonetics of Eng- The general question is usually raised and the special question is generally used to reduce the tone. This is the most common form of intonation in English. However, this is not to say that the general question can only be used for ascending or special questions. As a matter of fact, in modern spoken English, the use of downgrading of common question sentences and upgrading of special questions is no longer a rare phenomenon. Many linguists, such as D. Jones, in his “An Outline of English Phonetics” and I.C. Ward in “The Phonetics of Eng-”