An Initial "Search for Tonics"

Abstract

This pilot experiment was set up in order to test whether judges who were familiar with the notion "tonic" would identify tonics according to the criteria of maximum F o movement, maximum Fo height and maximum intensity. The hypothesis being tested was that the cumulation of physical maxima when present in an utterance would be identified by judges as the realization of the tonic element. The results indicate that there are several main parameters that function as cues for the identification of the tonic element of an utterance. These are a) the cumulation of physical maxima, b) the rightmost lexical item, c) maximum Fo movement and d) maximum Fo height. These cues may contradict each other or they may conflict with other cues involving syntactic and semantic criteria. The background of hearers who are performing the task of identifying "tonic" must also be taken into consideration. The notion "tonic," therefore, is seen to be very complex and the present experiment was followed by further experiments that tried to restrict some of the semantic and syntactic criteria involved (cf. Currie 1979(c)).