EXAMPLES.
They are the offspring of restlessness', vanity', and idleness'.
Love', hope', and joy' took possession of his breast.
5. When words which naturally take the rising inflection become emphatic by repetition or any other cause, they often take the falling inflection.
Exception to the Rule.—While the tendency of emphasis is decidedly to the use of the falling inflection, sometimes a word to which the falling inflection naturally belongs changes this, when it is emphatic, for the rising inflection.
EXAMPLES.
Three thousand ducats': 't is a good round sum'.
It is useless to point out the beauties of nature to one who is blind'.
Here sum and blind, according to Rule VI, would take the falling inflection, but as they are emphatic, and the object of emphasis is to draw attention to the word emphasized, this is here accomplished in part by giving an unusual inflection. Some speakers would give these words the circumflex, but it would he the rising circumflex, so that the sound would still terminate with the rising inflection.
RULE VIII.—Questions which can not be answered by yes or no, together with their answers, generally require the falling inflection.
EXAMPLES.
Where has he gone'? Ans. To New York'.
What has he done'? Ans. Nothing'.
Who did this'? Ans. I know not'.
When did he go'? Ans. Yesterday'.