TOBI, continued

January 29, 2008

The Outlook1. Return course project reports.

2. New course schedule.

3. Today:

• Continue the discussion of English Intonation

• And the nuts and bolts of TOBI transcription.

4. Afterwards:

• A discussion of respiration and pulmonic airflow.

5. For Thursday:

• Work on new TOBI exercise files in the computer lab.

Course Project LanguagesMandarin

Cantonese

Farsi (3)

Welsh

Urdu

Hindi

Dutch (Flemish)

Tamil

Hungarian

TOBI, so far• English has pitch accents, which align with stressed

syllables in an utterance.

• We’ve seen two pitch accents:

1. H* : peak in F0

2. L* : trough in F0

• English also has boundary tones, which align with the ends of intonational phrases.

• There are also two of these:

1. H%

2. L%

• Boundary tones are not associated with a particular syllable.

For Example

L* H%

For Example #2

H* L%

Information• Note that there’s a tendency to accent new information in the discourse.

• 4 different patterns for 4 different contexts:

H*

H*: Manny came with Anna.

H*

H*: Manny came with Anna.

L*

L*: Manny came with Anna?

L*

L*: Manny came with Anna?

Question Formation• Note that not all questions end in L* H%.

• What’s the intonational difference between these two?

Did you see Bob?

L*H%

Where did you go?

H* L%

• The upsloping intonation only applies to yes/no questions.

• Also note: “Uptalk”

• = application of L* H% pattern to declarative sentences.

Break Indices• Intonation organizes utterances into phrases

• “chunks”

• Boundary tones mark the end of intonational phrases

• Intonational phrases are the largest phrases

• In the transcription of intonation, phrase boundaries are marked with Break Indices

• Hence, TOBI = Tones and Break Indices

• Break Indices are denoted by numbers

• 1 = break between words

• 4 = break between intonational phrases

Break Index Transcription

Tones: L* H%

Breaks: 1 1 1 4

0 Level Boundaries• 0 level boundaries are marked wherever there is clear coarticulation across a word boundary

• Also for flaps across word boundaries, as in “got it”

0 1 1 4

Downstepping• There can be more than one pitch accent within an intonational phrase.

• Successive H* accents tend to drift downward in F0 within an intonational phrase.

• = downdrift, or downstepping

• This provides further evidence for phrasal organization.

• Downstepped H* accents are denoted with a !H*

• Anna gave Manny a mango.

H* !H* !H* L%

• There’s a lovely, yellowish, old one.

H* !H* !H* L%

Downstepping Pitch Track

H* !H* !H* L%

=271 Hz =238 Hz =200 Hz

Intermediate Phrases• A downstepping pattern can be reset by the presence of an intermediate phrase boundary.

• Example:

It’s lovely, and yellowish, and it’s an old one.

H* !H* L- H* L-L%

• Intermediate phrase boundaries are marked with a break index of 3.

• At the end of each intermediate phrase is an phrase accent

• Either Low (L-) or High (H-)

Intermediate Phrase Transcription

H* !H* L- H* L-L%

1 1 1 3 1 1 0 1 4

One Phrase vs. Two Phrases• No intermediate phrase boundary:

“I” means insert.

H* H*L-L%

1 1 4

• An intermediate phrase boundary, with a L- phrase accent:

“I” means insert.

H* L- H*L-L%

3 1 4

• Note: intermediate sense of disjuncture, between word and intonational phrase.

One Phrase vs. Two Phrases• No intermediate phrase boundary:

Marianna made the marmalade.

L* L* H-H%

1 1 1 4

• An intermediate phrase boundary, with a H- phrase accent:

Marianna made the marmalade.

L* H- L* H-H%

3 1 1 4

Filling the Gap• Another feature of phrase accents is that they fill in the gap between the nuclear accent and the boundary of the intermediate phrase.

L* + H L- H%

1 0 1 1 4

Combinations• Different combinations of phrase accents and boundary

tones have different connotations.

1. L-L% Declarative sentences

2. H-H% Yes/No questions (usually)

3. L-H% Continuations

4. H-L% A “plateau” pattern

• Upstep: boundary tones after H- are higher than normal.

Upstepping

• H-H%

• H-L%

“My name is Marianna.”

A Chunking Reviewutterance

intonational phrase (intonational phrase) ...

intermediate phrase (intermediate phrase) ...

(pitch accent) nuclear accent

(stressed syllable) stressed syllable

Break Indices• 4 marks boundaries between intonational phrases

• associated with a boundary tone (H% or L%)

• sense of complete disjuncture

• 3 marks boundaries between intermediate phrases

• associated with a phrase accent (H- or L-)

• lesser sense of disjuncture

• 1 marks boundaries between words

• 0 marks non-boundaries between words

• (2 marks uncertainties or apparent mismatches)

• rarely used

Bitonal Pitch Accents• In addition to H* and L*, there are two bitonal pitch accents

• L + H*

• L* + H

• The starred element denotes the tone which is associated with the stressed syllable

• L + H* = high peak on stressed syllable, preceded by a sharp rise in pitch

• L* + H = low pitch target on stressed syllable, followed by a sharp rise in pitch

H* vs. L + H*• Marianna won it.

H*

L + H*

Note: informative vs. contrastive function

L* vs. L* + H• Only a millionaire.

• Marianna made the marmalade.

H* L* + H L- H%

L* L* H-H%

L + H* vs. L* + H• There’s a lovely one at Bloomingdale’s.

L* + H

L + H*

More Downstepping• Bitonal pitch accents can also undergo downstepping.

L + H* L + !H* L + !H* L-L%

1 1 1 1 1 4

Pitch-Accents Round-up• There are four pitch accents:

• H*

• L*

• L + H*

• L* + H

• They attach to stressed syllables

• The final pitch accent in an intonational phrase is the nuclear accent.

• Generally perceived as more prominent.

Practice Time…