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The unstressed syllables may gradually descend in pitch too.
In this case the head is called a falling head.

A fall in pitch may not be gradual but rather jumpy which is
achieved by a considerable lowering of the pitch inside the

stressed syllables or by pronouncing unstressed syllables at a
much lower level than the preceding stressed ones. Such a head is

called the sliding head. It usually reflects an excited state of mind

and, sometimes, a highly emotional attitude to the situation.
I don’t want to go to the cinema.

Ascending heads are the opposite of the descending heads:
their stressed syllables move up by steps with the intervening

unstressed ones continuing the rise and in this case it is a rising
head.

I don’t want to go to the cinema.

If the voice moves up jumpy the head is called climbing.

Unstressed syllables glide up too.

In level heads all the syllables are pronounced on the same
level (or gradually ascends towards the nucleus) either high or

medium or low. So there are three level heads correspondingly. It
is shown by the tone mark before the first stressed syllable.

Low head conveys an impression ranging from cool and

indifferent to sulky and hostile.

14.3 Types of pre-head

There are two types of pre-head: the low pre-head and the

high pre-head. The low pre-head is pronounced at a low pitch and
may occur in all unemphatic and many emphatic utterances. Its

main semantic function is to mark the comparative unimportance
of initial unstressed syllables.

The high pre-head is pronounced at a high pitch level. It

has a clearly emphatic function. Before a rising tone it usually

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