[elevated tone] / [elevated pitch]

Definition

The feature [elevated] refers to a positive pitch contour in which the larynx slows contractions to lower rate of vocal cord vibrations, then stretches and contracts to quicken rate of vocal cord vibrations, both to a degree that is meaningfully high compared to the speaker’s base pitch and surrounding syllabic and acoustic data (Goldsmith 1976).  In other words, in a single segment (the size of which depends on the language) the pitch goes from [+low tone] to [+high tone].  This is now analysed as rising pitch contour, in which we describe a tone that raises from [low tone] (L) to [high tone] (H).

Purpose

However, Chinese famously has a five-part minimal set differing only in tone because it is a tonal language.  Inflected with different tones (i.e., [high tone], [elevated tone] or [rising tone], [concave tone], [falling tone], and neutral) /ma/ can become ‘mother,’ ‘hemp,’ ‘horse,’ ‘scold,’ or an interrogative particle.  Because ‘horse’ starts with a high pitch and ends with a low pitch it exhibits a positive pitch contour, represented by the feature [+elevated tone] or, synonymously, [+elevated pitch], as Chomsky and Halley (1968) reference it.  This could also be mapped in a prosodic hierarchical structure in which the syllable exhibits first [+low] and then [+high].

History

The feature [elevated] is also known as [rising].  While Chomsky and Halle (1968) declined to touch on pitch, stating they “omitted pitch from consideration because [they] have nothing to add to the study of phonetics of intonation and phonological theory as [they] so far understand it,” later researchers treated [elevated] as a distinctive feature.

Goldsmith (1976) argued that tones such as [high] and [low], normally represented as H or L, should be represented on a separate tonal tier that can associate with, spread across, or detach from syllables independently.  This allows for pitch contours such as in [elevated] and [falling].

Duanmu (1999) described that tones inhibit different units of oral language, most commonly the syllable, in different languages.

Flemming and Cho (2017) argued that Mandarin does not have set pitch movements in relation to a speaker’s base pitch and pitch variance, but rather a set of phonetic targets in relation to the contour that can be significantly impacted by surround speech, including in relation to pitch.  As such, pitch contours are often overspecified, and in mental schemas, speakers most importantly recognize the rise rather than any quantifiable pitch or timing.

References

Chomsky, Noam, and Morris Halle. 1968. The sound pattern of English. New York: Harper and Row.

Duanmu, San. 1999. Metrical structure and tone: Evidence from Mandarin and Shanghai. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 8(1). 1–38. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1008353028173 

Flemming, Edward, and Hyesun Cho. The Phonetic Specification of Contour Tones: Evidence from the Mandarin Rising Tone. Phonology 34.1 (2017): 1–40. Web. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0952675717000021

Further Reading

Yip, Moira. 2002. Tone. (Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Author

Allon Boettcher