92
Besides, traditional tonal typology calls for an eitheror approach: contour tones either operate as units Asian or they behave as sequences African.
2.4.5 Pizer’s Resolution
According to Pizer, “A more reasonable and useful goal is to try to discover a representation which will allow contour tones to be simultaneously unitary and non-unitary.” 1994:118 In order to
reconcile the facts of gradient raising and lowering in combination with the dual behavior of the contour tones as units and as sequences, Pizer proposes that the representational schema developed by Hyman in
1986 and summarized above with references to Hyman 1993 may be appropriate. Recall from Chapter 1 that Hyman’s representational schema is an expansion of the tiers used by
traditional autosegmental phonology. Each tone bearing unit TBU has both a tonal root node TRN and a tonal node TN. The primitive features T attach to the tonal node as in 51.
51 Hyman’s representational schema Pizer 1994: 120
TBU = TRN
= TN T
Furthermore, Hyman 1986 defines the primitive features as relative to a neutral pitch height. Notice that while these primitives are relative, they are not relative to each other but to a third, neutral tone. Another
important attribute of these primitives stressed by Pizer is that they are additive. Therefore a Mid tone can be represented as having one H and one L, or potentially, nothing as in 52 below.
52 Representation of the mid tone M
1
adapted from Pizer 1994: 120 a.
TBU or b.
TBU
H L
93
In 52a the H and L are not linearly ordered, they could just as easily be L H, and because they are additive, they cancel each other out. Pizer exploits the additive nature of primitives in order to define the
four tones necessary for Soyaltepec.
58
A High tone would have one H 53a, a Mid-high, nothing or an equal number of H’s and L’s as was seen in 52, a Mid, a single L 53b and a low, two L’s 53c.
53 Representations of H, M
2
and L
As we have seen, Hyman represents a Mid tone via a branching TN. There is also the option of branching at the TBU, as in 54a which would produce a tone cluster i.e., a concatenation or sequence.
The representation can also branch from the TRN as in 54b which would produce a contour tone. 54
Tone Cluster vs. Contour Tone adapted from Pizer 1994: 121 a. Tone Cluster
b. Contour Tone TBU
TBU
T T T T
Branching at the TRN level as in 54b allows a certain level of independence for each primitive, T, as they do not directly share a node, but it also allows a level at which the contour tone can act as a unit, which is
precisely the geometry that Pizer has been looking for. In order to accomplish the raising and lowering of a contour that Pizer has called neutralization, a
primitive is added to each half of the contour, as is shown below in 55 and 56. Recall that when L and H share the TN, they merge to the neutral tone which has now been defined as the Mid-high tone.
58
Pizer admits that this is, “not entirely in the spirit of Hyman, and owes more to particle phonology cf. Schane 1984” Pizer 1994: 121.
a. High tone TBU
H b. Mid M
2
tone TBU
L c. Low tone
TBU
L L
94
55 Raising M
2
-M
1
Pizer 1994:122 M
2
-M
1
add H = M
1
-H TBU
TBU
L L H H
56 Lowering M
1
-H Pizer 1994:122 M
1
-H add L = M
2
-M
1
TBU TBU
H L H L
Pizer admits that the mechanism by which this H or L is added is a little elusive. It must come from the following morpheme and it must attach at the level of TRN so that it can influence both members of the
contour. This structure is represented in 57. Once the Low tone spreads left, it is unclear if it actually percolates through the structure to attach to the lower nodes or if it just has an affect from afar.
57 Mechanism for Lowering? Pizer 1994:122
TBU TBU
H L
The linkage of a L to the TRN as occurs in 57 is the mechanism that Hyman proposed for downstep, so it is possible that what Pizer has referred to as a raised and lowered register are actually an upstepped or
downstepped contour. One problem with this representation is that once the M
1
-H has been lowered to M
2
- M
1
, M
1
-Spread needs to be free to occur which means the right most TN of the contour must spread to the TRN of the following TBU, with all of its feature specifications. This cannot happen without crossing
association lines unless a percolation process relocates the L tone from the TRN to the TN.
95
2.4.6 Discussion
