Intonation theories and models

The majority of this chapter focuses on the synthesis of intonation. The main acoustic representation of intonation is fundamental frequency (FO), such that intonation is often defined as the manipulation of FO for commimicative or linguistic purposes. As we shall see, techniques for S5mthesizing FO contours are inherently linked to the model of intonation used, and so the whole topic of intonation, including theories, models and FO synthesis is dealt with here. In addition, we cover the topic of predicting intonation form from text, which was deferred from Chapter 6 as we first require an understanding of intonational phenomena theories and models before explaining this. 

The INTSINT model provides a way of labelling intonation across theories and languages, and provides a way of labelling data for further analysis in much the same was as the IPA is used in phonetics. 

One of the main sources of difficulty in labelling is that the labelling model which provides the labels to be chosen is in some sense lacking. As we saw in Section 9.3, there is an enormous range of intonation models and theories, and while we reserve judgment on which one is better than another, it is clear that they can t all be right. A more accurate statement is that they all have... 

Many theories of intonation define pitch accents as the fundamental unit of intonation. While we defer specific systems of pitch accent descriptions for the section below on intonational models, here we attempt to describe some pitch accent phenomena in theory neutral terms. In most models that use piteh accents, we see a basic distinction between the pitch accent s inherent properties and its setting. 

The history of the AM model is particularly interesting in that it has a dual character of being intended as a pure linguistic theory in the MIT, Chomsky/Halle phonology tradition and as a working model for the Bell Labs TTS system. It is important to realise that, from a theoretical linguistic point of view, the model as just described is not intended to be a complete model of intonation as used in human communication. 

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