Accent H*+L

This label marks the lexical accent, and should be placed within the accented mora. In many cases, the position of this H*+L accent label will coincide with the location of the actual F0 maximum. However, it is not uncommon to see the peak of the accent (and the fall) occur after the accented mora (e.g. ososagari, see [Sugito 1981]). In such cases, the H*+L label should be placed within the accented mora, and an additional `` <'' label should be placed at the actual peak to mark the late F0 event (see section 3.3.3 for use of the `` >'' label in marking an early F0 event). It is essential for the point of F0 maximum to be marked, either with the H*+L label or the < label.

The example utterance sankaku shows the marking of the H*+L pitch accent in cases where the peak occurs within the accented mora. (For now, concentrate on the /sa'Nkaku no ya'ne no/ portion only, and ignore the tiers other than the tone and word tiers. We will return to the other parts of the transcription below. Word-for-word English glosses for each example utterance in this guide are given in Appendix B.) In this utterance, the H*+L accent labels on /sa'Nkaku/ `triangle' and /ya'ne/ `roof' are placed at the F0 peak, which falls within the accented mora.

<<sankaku>> ``I will place it right in the center of the triangle roof.''

Utterance yane gives an example of an accent peak occurring after the accented mora. The nouns /ya'ne/ `roof' and /ma'do/ `window' are initially accented, but clearly the F0 maximum and accentual fall in each word occur well into the second syllable (see the dip in amplitude in the waveform for the /n/ of /ya'ne/ and the /d/ of /ma'do/). Here, the H*+L accent label is placed within the accented mora, and the actual F0 peak is marked with the < label (placed at the start of the precipitous fall in pitch).

<<yane>> ``I will put a window on the roof.''

Labellers should be aware that there may be movements or peaks in the F0 contour which are not genuine tonal events, but rather are segmental perturbations or mistrackings due to creaky voice, etc. For example, the /d/ of /ma'do/ in example utterance yane causes a considerable F0 perturbation. The English ToBI Labelling Guidelines ([Beckman and Ayers 1994]) provides an extensive discussion of such segmental effects on the F0 contour.

Careful labelling of the actual F0 event in J_ToBI transcribed databases will facilitate future research on the timing of F0 peaks relative to the accented mora (for example, see [Sugito 1981], [Hata and Hasegawa 1988]). Marking the actual high F0 event will also surely help research on the relationship between discourse structure and pitch range or local prominence.

• No Mark for Downstep