Circumflex
The circumflex is a union of the rising and falling inflections. Properly speaking, there are two of these, the one called the rising circumflex, in which the voice slides down and then up; and the other, the falling circumflex, in which the voice slides upward and then downward on the same vowel. They may both be denoted by the same mark, thus, (^). The circumflex is used chiefly to indicate the emphasis of irony, of contrast, or of hypothesis.
Examples
1. Queen. Hamlet, you have your father much offended. Hamlet. Madam, you have my father much offended.
2. They offer us their protec’tion. Yes’, such protection as vultures give to lambs, covering and devouring them.
3. I knew when seven justices could not make up a quarrel; but when the parties met themselves, one of them thought but of an if; as, If you said so, then I said so; O ho! did you say so! So they shook hands and were sworn brothers.
REMARKS.—In the first example, the emphasis is that of contrast. The queen had poisoned her husband, of which she incorrectly supposed her son ignorant, and she blames him for treating his father-in-law with disrespect. In his reply, Hamlet contrasts her deep crime with his own slight offense, and the circumflex upon “you” becomes proper.
In the second example the emphasis is ironical. The Spaniards pretended that they would protect the Peruvians if they would submit to them, whereas it was evident that they merely desired to plunder and destroy them. Thus their protection is ironically called “such protection as vultures give to lambs,” etc.
In the third example, the word “so” is used hypothetically; that is, it implies a condition or supposition. It will be observed that the rising circumflex is used in the first “so,” and the falling, in the second, because the first “so” must end with the rising inflection and the second with the falling inflection, according to previous rules.