8 - Conclusion

Summary

In this final chapter we would like to assess the main points that we have tried to make in establishing the feasibility of approaching pitch in speech from a mainly perceptual point of view.

This focussing on perception was initially inspired by the dissatisfaction we felt with the state of the art at the start of our programme. At this juncture, in the concluding chapter of this book, we wish to sketch briefly, by way of summary, the main considerations that have led to the choice of our approach. These are to be found in the inadequacy of the methods used within a linguistic framework, based on the primacy of semantic functioning, the principle of distinctivity (8.1).

In close connection with this we were faced also with the lack of an adequate apparatus to account for the melodic properties of the surface phenomenon of intonation, which were generally dealt with in an impressionistic way (8.2). By means of the technique of experimental phonetics, in studying the listeners' intonational skill, we believe we are in a better position to account ultimately for the way language users cope with speech melody (8.3; 8.4).

In the following sections we will deal successively with the two major lines of approach, prevalent in the field, which can be indicated as top down versus bottom up, leading to our endeavour to reconcile them in our own attempt at modelling the listeners' way of processing intonational cues in speech.