I come to bûry Caesar, not to práise him.
“Inverting clauses:
I come not to praise Caesar. but I come to bury him.
I come to bûry Caesar.
“The same method of illustration may be extended ad libitum.”
There is one feature of circumflex inflection somewhat common but seldom treated, the understanding of which is very helpful to the teacher. This feature is observed when there are assertion and incompleteness in the same word. For instance, “John Brown,” being the important idea in the following sentence, would be uttered with a falling inflection; but since the mind is glancing forward from “Brown” the rising inflection would mark that fact. Hence, the two states of mind would be manifested in a combined inflection the psychology of which should now be clear.
John Brown was one of the most striking figures of the anti-slavery agitation.
We have the same phenomenon on the word “Sicily” in the following extract, except that the falling inflection is on the first two syllables and the rising on the third:
Robert of Sicily, brother of Pope Urbane