ToBI
Encyclopedia
ToBI is a set of conventions for transcribing and annotating the prosody
of speech. 'ToBI' is sometimes used to refer to the conventions used for describing English specifically, but ToBI systems have been defined for a number of other languages, for example J-ToBI refers to the ToBI conventions for Tokyo Japanese.
For example, the sentence "Mary went to the store to get some milk" may be produced with a slight break after 'store', indicating that this sentence consists of two smaller units: "(Mary went to the store) | (to get some milk)". The English ToBI standard distinguishes four levels of boundary strength, corresponding roughly to breaks between constituents at different levels of the Prosodic Hierarchy
. One signal of boundary strength is lengthening of the preceding syllable: the stronger the boundary, the more lengthening of the preceding syllable.
'Tonal events' include both pitch accent
s and boundary tones. Pitch accents, written as combinations of H and L tones (high and low, respectively), are typically realized on words that carry the most information in a sentence. For example, in the sentence "Mary went to the store to get some milk", a natural pronunciation would include pitch accents on 'Mary', 'store', and 'milk'. Boundary tones, also written with H and L, are affiliated not to words but to phrase edges. For example, the sentence "Mary went to the store" can be pronounced as a statement or a question ("Mary went to the store." vs. "Mary went to the store?") The contrast between the statement and the question is signalled by a boundary tone at the end of the phrase: a low boundary tone causes a falling pitch contour, signalling the statement, whereas a high boundary tone causes a rising pitch contour, signalling the question.
Prosody (linguistics)
In linguistics, prosody is the rhythm, stress, and intonation of speech. Prosody may reflect various features of the speaker or the utterance: the emotional state of the speaker; the form of the utterance ; the presence of irony or sarcasm; emphasis, contrast, and focus; or other elements of...
of speech. 'ToBI' is sometimes used to refer to the conventions used for describing English specifically, but ToBI systems have been defined for a number of other languages, for example J-ToBI refers to the ToBI conventions for Tokyo Japanese.
Overview
A ToBI transcription minimally indicates the intended prosodic grouping of an utterance and its tonal events.For example, the sentence "Mary went to the store to get some milk" may be produced with a slight break after 'store', indicating that this sentence consists of two smaller units: "(Mary went to the store) | (to get some milk)". The English ToBI standard distinguishes four levels of boundary strength, corresponding roughly to breaks between constituents at different levels of the Prosodic Hierarchy
Phonological hierarchy
Phonological hierarchy describes a series of increasingly smaller regions of a phonological utterance. From larger to smaller units, it is as follows:#Utterance#Prosodic declination unit / intonational phrase...
. One signal of boundary strength is lengthening of the preceding syllable: the stronger the boundary, the more lengthening of the preceding syllable.
'Tonal events' include both pitch accent
Pitch accent
Pitch accent is a linguistic term of convenience for a variety of restricted tone systems that use variations in pitch to give prominence to a syllable or mora within a word. The placement of this tone or the way it is realized can give different meanings to otherwise similar words...
s and boundary tones. Pitch accents, written as combinations of H and L tones (high and low, respectively), are typically realized on words that carry the most information in a sentence. For example, in the sentence "Mary went to the store to get some milk", a natural pronunciation would include pitch accents on 'Mary', 'store', and 'milk'. Boundary tones, also written with H and L, are affiliated not to words but to phrase edges. For example, the sentence "Mary went to the store" can be pronounced as a statement or a question ("Mary went to the store." vs. "Mary went to the store?") The contrast between the statement and the question is signalled by a boundary tone at the end of the phrase: a low boundary tone causes a falling pitch contour, signalling the statement, whereas a high boundary tone causes a rising pitch contour, signalling the question.