Turning points, tonal targets, and the English L- phrase accent

Abstract

This study of the alignment of L- in the H* L- H% contour of American English finds the strongest predictor of the location of the retracted phrase-accent “elbow” to be the location of the accent-related F0 peak, rather than one of a set of metrical “attractors” investigated. A strong correlation between peak height and elbow sharpness suggests that the elbow may arise from interaction between peak height and perception-based constraints on the implementation of postnuclear deaccenting: F0 must become low immediately after the Nuclear-Pitch-Accented syllable, to prevent the percept of a pitch accent on a following accentable syllable. Relativised Area Under the Curve (R-AUC), a global measure for characterising F0 contours, distinguishes this H* L- from contrasting contours (e.g., H* L*) more reliably than a turning point-based approach focused on the location/scaling of an F0 elbow. The R-AUC measure is sensitive to perceptually significant, but difficult-to-quantify, changes in contour shape, while avoiding the pitfalls of purely shape-based theories.