Sorting out the phonetics and phonology of intonation: typological and acquisition data

The Autosegmental Metrical (AM) model of intonation offers several constructs for describing intonation. On the basis of data on language typology and language acquisition, this paper tries to sort out those constructs that because of their added semantic import should be characterized as phonemic, from the phonetic ones, which being language-specific as well, lead to variation without added semantic import. Phonetic constructs of intonation can be discerned when comparing languages that share similar “targets”, but which show otherwise unmotivated differences. These are acquired later in L1, and tend to be persistent in L2.