Intervallic intonation: Applying the Implication-Realization model of musical melody to speech intonation and prosody

Abstract

This methodological study presents the Implication-Realization (IR) model as a framework for the analysis of linguistic prosody and examines its application to English-language examples of speech. Originally developed by Eugene Narmour for music analysis, IR’s cognitively-based approach views melodies as hierarchical structures formed through processes of implication and closure. It parses melodies by comparing successive pitch intervals while also considering duration and potentially other parameters. With computational assistance from a newly developed set of Praat scripts (IRProsodyParser), the study applies an adapted version of IR’s symbology to several Modern American English examples. In this adaptation, comparisons of successive pitch intervals form the basis for a categorical classification of interval sizes. IR-generated parsings show broad correspondence with those produced within the autosegmental-metrical (AM) framework, with AM boundary tones, phrase accents, and pitch accents manifested at progressively deeper levels in the IR hierarchy. These findings support the view that pitch intervals are central in perceiving speech intonation and that intonational features arise as the result of a complex interaction of pitch, duration, and other cues. Moreover, while AM and similar approaches often frame intonational features in terms of aural prominences within the melodic stream, IR encourages viewing them in terms of their positions within a melodic hierarchy.