On Intonational Universals

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses two opposing views on the analysis of intonation and its place in language, views which are referred to as the “Strong Universalist Hypothesis (SUH)” and the “Nuclear Tone Hypothesis (NTH)”. It is hoped to show that the SUH, for all its attractiveness and its apparent power and simplicity, is excessively Procrustean in the way it treats individual languages, and that the NTH, though superficially less ambitious in the claims it makes about into national universals, is nonetheless far superior in the analysis of individual languages and more revealing about the features that languages share. In short, the NTH, while recognizing into national differences among languages, nevertheless makes claims about the nature of the cognitive representation and universal aspects of intonation that are just as strong and, in their own way, just as simplifying as those made by the SUH. The chapter shows that, in addition, the NTH is substantially in a better agreement with the facts.