Intonational Phonology

Overview of current autosegmental-metrical ideas on intonational phonology, including extensive new cross-linguistic material.

Intonation is a subject of increasing importance in fields from syntax to speech recognition. D. Robert Ladd provides an exceptionally clear presentation of the key ideas of the influential autosegmental-metrical theory of intonational phonology associated with the work of Janet Pierrehumbert. He outlines the evidence for the theory''s basic tenets and relates them to the ideas of competing approaches in a way that will allow sceptics to reach an informed opinion and he presents a wealth of new material on the cross-language comparison of intonation couched in autosegmental-metrical terms. He also draws attention to problems in Pierrehumbert''s version of the autosegmental-metrical theory, and offers some theoretical proposals of his own. This book will appeal to phonologists and phoneticians as an original contribution to the debates it discusses, and will be welcomed by a wide range of students and researchers as an ideal overview of recent work.