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The cumuleme is delimited in the text by a finalizing intonation contour (cumuleme-contour) with a
prolonged pause (cumuleme-pause); the relative duration of this pause equals two and a half moras ("mora"-the
conventional duration of a short syllable), as different from the sentence-pause equalling only two moras.
The cumuleme, like a sentence, is a universal unit of language in so far as it is used in all the functional
varieties of speech. For instance, the following cumuleme is part of the author's speech of a work of fiction:
The boy winced at this. It made him feel hot and uncomfortable all over. He knew well how careful he ought
to be, and yet, do what he could, from time to time his forgetfulness of the part betrayed him into unreserve (S.
Butler).
Compare a cumuleme in a typical newspaper article:
We have come a long way since then, of course. Unemployment insurance is an accepted fact. Only the
most die-hard reactionaries, of the Goldwater type, dare to come out against it (from Canadian Press).
Here is a sample cumuleme of scientific-technical report prose:
To some engineers who apply to themselves the word "practical" as denoting the possession of a major
virtue, applied research is classed with pure research as something highbrow they can do without. To some
business men, applied research is something to have somewhere in the organisation to demonstrate modernity
and enlightenment. And people engaged in applied research are usually so satisfied in the belief that what they
are doing is of interest and value that they are not particularly concerned about the niceties of definition (from a
technical journal).
Poetical text is formed by cumulemes, too:
She is not fair to outward view, | As many maidens be; | Her loveliness I never knew | Until she smiled on
me. | Oh, then I saw her eye was bright, | A well of love, a spring of light (H. Coleridge).
But the most important factor showing the inalienable and universal status of the cumuleme in language is
the indispensable use of cumulemes in colloquial speech (which is reflected in plays, as well as in
conversational passages in works of various types of fiction).
The basic semantic types of cumulemes are "factual" (narrative and descriptive), "modal" (reasoning,
perceptive, etc.), and mixed. Here is an example of a narrative cumuleme:
Three years later, when Jane was an Army driver, she was sent one night to pick up a party of officers who
had been testing defences on the cliff. She found the place where the road ran between a cleft almost to the
beach, switched off her engine and waited, hunched in her great-coat, half asleep, in the cold black silence. She
waited for an hour and woke in a fright to a furious voice coming out of the night (M. Dickens).
Compare this with modal cumulemes of various topical standings:
She has not gone? I thought she gave a second performance at two? (S. Maugham) (A reasoning cumuleme
of perceptional variety)
Are you kidding? Don't underrate your influence, Mr. O'Keefe. Dodo's in. Besides, I've lined up Sandra
Straughan to work with her (A. Hailey). (A remonstrative cumuleme)
Don't worry. There will be a certain amount of unpleasantness but I will have some photographs taken that
will be very useful at the inquest. There's the testimony of the gunbearers and the driver too. You're perfectly all
right (E. Hemingway). (A reasoning cumuleme expressing reassurance) Etc.
§ 6. As we have stated above (see: Ch. I, §5) cumuleme (super-sentential construction) correlates with a
separate sentence which is placed in the text in a topically significant position. In printed text this correlation
leads to the formation of one-sentence paragraph that has the same topical function as a multi-sentence
paragraph from the point of view of the communicative content of the text. E.g.:
The fascists may spread over the land, blasting their way with weight of metal brought from other countries.
They may advance aided by traitors and by cowards. They may destroy cities and villages and try to hold the
people in slavery. But you cannot hold any people in slavery.
The Spanish people will rise again as they have always risen before against tyranny (E. Hemingway).
In the cited passage the sentence-paragraph marks a transition from the general to the particular, and by its
very isolation in the text expressively stresses the author's belief in the invincible will of the Spanish people
who are certain to smash their fascist oppressors in the long run.
Thus, from the point of view of style, the regular function of the one-sentence paragraph is expressive
emphasis.
And it is direct correlation between one-sentence paragraphs and multi-sentence paragraphs that enables us
to identify the general elementary unit-segment of text as being built either by a cumuleme or by a single
sentence. The communicative function of this unit is topical. We call this unit the "dicteme" (see p. 17).
It must be noted that though the dicteme in written (printed) text is normally represented by a paragraph,