A Phonological Model for Intonation without Low Tone (review)

A revised version of a University of London thesis, this is a study of pitch contours in English intonation using a highly restricted set of data. The three brief appendices contain a minimum of supporting phonetic evidence. According to Cabrera-Abreu, ‘the linguistic study of pitch contours is primarily concerned with the identity of the units it is composed of, and how these can be combined to build the structure which underlies such pitch patterns’ (11).

C-A rejects earlier models of intonation that require both a high (H) tone and a low (L) tone in favor of one that has only H, L being redundant. Since the phenomenon of tone-spreading would appear to be a major obstacle to such a view, C-A presents evidence that this should be regarded as a phonetic issue rather than a phonological one.

Ch. 4 is the key chapter. In it, C-A outlines certain principles of licensing to show that only a single tone (H) is necessary if the boundaries of domains such as intonation group, nucleus, and onset are recognized. A principle of gravitation effect, ‘the acoustic manifestation of the physical constraints imposed on the production of speech’ (10), would then allow for the generation of the correct phonetic representations.

Ch. 5 discusses the general phenomenon of downstepping in tone systems, and Ch. 6 shows how intonation contours can be accounted for by reference to H and by the presence of toneless boundaries, some of which can also belong to empty categories. While this book will have limited appeal because of its narrow focus, unpolished presentation, and poor production (e.g. an inserted extra page 13 from some earlier version), it is part of the ongoing reassessment of the use of tone in languages such as English for intonation purposes and, more generally, in so-called tone languages.