Abstract
Recent experiments have demonstrated that the pitch movement on nuclear syllables in British English can be perceived catagorically. This phenomenon is used here to choose between two models of nuclear intonation. The first is the two tone model using a fall/rise opposition, with the possibility of repeated subdivision within each category. The second model closely resembles Halliday’s five simple tones of English. Identification results were obtained using synthetic stimuli and semantic labels from each model; the results were used to predict the number and location of maxima in the discrimination function for the corresponding stimuli. It was found that the five tone model more accurately predicts the obtained discrimination function. This suggests that the minimal classification of nuclear intonation is into five tones, rather than two, and that those five tones correspond closely to Halliday’s five simple tones.
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