The phonetics and phonology of tonal systems

Pitch variations are used in different languages in a variety of communicative ways, from cueing lexical item identity to conveying meaning through phrasing and accentuation. Previously, linguistic theories of intonation and tone which have sought a unifying account for tonal phenomena have not defined a clear and systematic relation between phonological representations and phonetic output in terms of acoustically observable fundamental frequency (FO) variations. This is problematic, because meaningful pitch patterns cannot be related to underlying phonological primitives in any clear way, so that it is difficult to empirically verify or falsify the theory. This thesis addresses this problem by proposing a phonological description of intonation and tone for which there is a clear and systematic relationship between observed FO variations and underlying phonological primitives. The theory is based on a construct called the tone interval, which represents an abstraction of a ratio of two fundamental frequencies. A syntagmatic tone interval relates two sequentially-ordered tones, while a paradigmatic tone interval relates a tone and a speaker-specific referent level. Tone intervals define one of three relations: a tone may be higher, lower, or the same level as its referent. Additional language-specific categories may be formed which restrict the pitch distance between a tone and its referent. Tones in syntagmatic tone intervals are assumed to be arranged at the phrasal level with respect to a metrical grid, which represents the relative prominence and timing of syllables.

Department dc:contributor.department

Harvard University--MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2005

Author dc:creator

• Dilley, Laura Christine, 1974-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Kenneth N. Stevens.

• Harvard University--MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/30274
• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Identifier URI

http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/30274

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/30274