The phonology of tone and intonation

Bibliographic Information

The phonology of tone and intonation

Carlos Gussenhoven

(Research surveys in linguistics)

Cambridge University Press, 2004

  • : pbk

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Note

Includes bibliographical references (p. 321-344) and indexes

Description and Table of Contents

Description

Tone and Intonation are two types of pitch variation, which are used by speakers of all languages in order to give shape to utterances. More specifically, tone encodes segments and morphemes, and intonation gives utterances a further discoursal meaning that is independent of the meanings of the words themselves. In this comprehensive survey, Carlos Gussenhoven provides an overview of research into tone and intonation, discussing why speakers vary their pitch, what pitch variations mean, and how they are integrated into our grammars. He also explains why intonation in part appears to be universally understood, while at other times it is language-specific and can lead to misunderstandings. After eight chapters on general topics relating to pitch modulation, the book's central arguments are illustrated with comprehensive phonological descriptions - partly in Optimality Theory - of the tonal and intonational systems of six languages, including Japanese, Dutch, and English.

Table of Contents

  • 1. Pitch in humans and machines
  • 2. Pitch in language I: stress and intonation
  • 3. Pitch in language II: tone
  • 4. Intonation and language
  • 5. Paralinguistics: three biological codes
  • 6. Downtrends
  • 7. Tonal structures
  • 8. Intonation in optimality theory
  • 9. Northern Biskaian Basque
  • 10. Tokyo Japanese
  • 11. Scandinavian
  • 12. The central Franconian tone
  • 13. French
  • 14. English I: phrasing and accent distribution
  • 15. English II: tonal structure.

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