Referring tone

A referring tone is an intonation pattern which shows that the speaker is referring to something everybody already knows. A referring tone falls and rises, or just rises. It can be compared to a proclaiming tone, which shows that the speaker is giving new information.

Example
In the sentence ‘That guy we met at the party is my new teacher', there is a referring tone on ‘That guy we met at the party' because it is not new information.

Sources:

British Council. Referring Tone. Retrieved from https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/.