How Many Rise-Fall-Rise Contours? (NOT KNOWN IF PUBLISHED BECAUSE AUTHOR HAS LEFT AT&T)
This paper will report a study of the perception and production of the rise-fall-rise intonation pattern. The characterization of this pattern is controversial. Pierrehumbert (1980) asserts that English has two qualitatively distinctive patterns; in one, the peak falls on the stressed syllable with a low value immediately preceding, while in the other, the low value falls on the stressed syllable and the peak trails. Gussenhoven (1984) suggests a continuously variable feature of peak delay. Resolving this question is important not only from a descriptive but also from a theoretical point of view since it bears crucially on the status of tonal alignment with respect to the English intonational system.