PITCH RANGE VARIATION IN ENGLISH TONAL CONTRASTS: CONTINUOUS OR CATEGORICAL?

Laura Dilley
Department of Communication Disorders and Department of Psychology, Bowling Green State University

ID 1122
[full paper]

The importance of pitch range variation for theories of intonation is well-known, but whether pitch range variation gives rise to distinctive linguistic categories in English is unclear. To test this possibility, three intonation continua were constructed for use in an imitation experiment; all had endpoints with distinct tonal representations under autosegmental-metrical (AM) theory [1]. Responses to all three stimulus sets showed continuous variation in pitch range. The results suggest that pitch range is a dimension which is gradient in English.

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