"step away from the X"

[James Harbeck]

>Yes, this is a definite meme or snowclone or whatever we're calling
>them; crucial too is the intonation, which ideally approaches that of
>a police officer enunciating clearly and forcefully, possibly through
>a loudspeaker.  There's often a slight pause between "step" (with
>unreleased [p], rather than the usual elision with the following
>vowel) and a slight rise on "away"; someone with a better control of
>the descriptive terminology could  do a better job of narrowing down
>exactly what this intonation is.  This has been quite popular in
>commercials.

You're right about the intonation; it's always the same, at least to
the word "the" -- the "way" in "away" in particular is high and long,
and the "from the" is normally also on the same pitch, or
approximately so.

I really do think, now that you mention it, that there is a call for
noting the intonation with some of these cultural cliches, as it
invariably travels with certain of them. Ones popularized by TV in
particular seem to carry a specified intonation -- two that spring to
mind right away are "BUH-bye" and "NOT!", both from Saturday Night
Live, but I'm sure that many others are just waiting to be mentioned.

James Harbeck.

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