Short summary of AM framework and ToBI system

[jvcasillas]

The paper talks about concepts such as pitch accents and boundary tones, which assume a specific framework. There should be a short section devoted to the Autosegmental Metrical Framework and the ToBI system of labeling intonation for Spanish specifically where the basic concepts (e.g. pitch accent) are explained. This is standard for papers that use these terms, which involve theoretical assumptions.

This is a good point. I think we could knock this out in more or less two paragraphs for the supplementary materials. @RobertEspo could you paraphrase something from your thesis to cover this?

[RobertEspo]

The Autosegmental Metrical (AM) framework, developed by researchers like Pierrehumbert (1980) and Ladd (2008), aims to map the instrumentally-derived F0 values onto sequential, discrete and categorically-distinct intonational events. Within the AM framework, F0 is mapped onto pitch targets. Pitch targets can be monotonal, H(igh) and L(ow), or bitonal combinations of H and L, which represent rises (e.g.: L+H) or falls (e.g.: H+L).

Pitch targets are identified at three points in an utterance: indicates a pitch accent, which is associated and aligned with a stressed syllable; - indicates a phrase accent, which is associated with the boundary of an intermediate phrase; and % indicates a boundary tone or intonational phrase. It is important to note that an H at any prosodic level is the same H – the symbol that comes associated with it, whether , - or %, is merely giving information about how that tone is aligned with a specific event or boundary, not about the phonetic realization of that tone.

These abstract representations are mapped individually to instances of phonetic realizations specific to each language, similar to how /t/ has different acoustic properties in English and Spanish, as well as different phonetic realizations within a language depending on the context, similar to allophones. This is further complicated by dialect, as different dialects may present different relationship mappings.

The Tones and Breaks Indices (ToBI) labeling system is used within the AM framework to annotate utterances for intonation. ToBI has two obligatory tiers: an orthographic tier, on which the utterance is recorded in IPA; and a tone tier, on which the pitch targets are recorded. A third, optional tier is the break-index tier, on which prosodic breaks and their relative strengths are recorded on a scale of 0 (no break) to 4 (Intonation Phrase break). It is idealized that each variety of a language should have its own ToBI system due to different varieties having distinct, but similar, intonational inventories. For example, in Dominican and Puerto Rican Spanish varieties, intonational phonologists may identify a bitonal fall H+L*, but the phonetic realization and pragmatic contexts in which that tone is produced may differ.

[RobertEspo]

I'd imagine you have these references in the paper already, but just in case:

@phdthesis{pierrehumbert1980phonology, title={The phonology and phonetics of English intonation}, author={Pierrehumbert, Janet Breckenridge}, year={1980}, school={Massachusetts Institute of Technology} }

@book{ladd2008intonational, title={Intonational phonology}, author={Ladd, D Robert}, year={2008}, publisher={Cambridge University Press} }

I know it's longer than you wanted, but this was the best I could do to trim it down :p The third paragraph and the last sentence of the fourth paragraph can probably be eliminated if need be (the last sentence of the fourth paragraph is definitely accounted for in another part of the paper, I remember).

[jvcasillas]

This is great. I'm not concerned too much with the length because I am going to stick it in the supplementary materials for now (a ver si cuela). Thanks!