Peaks and Plateaux: different F0 patterns representing the same category

Resumo

This paper revisits results of previous studies about sentence initial high tones in the Portuguese language and argues that the shape and distribution of these sentence initial pitch events in Brazilian Portuguese are more complex than previously suggested in the literature. By pointing out that peaks and plateaux are manifestations of the same pitch event the results also suggest that the peak, the highest point of a pitch excursion, is not always the main pitch target of the phrasal tone in this language. These findings contribute to the phonology-phonetics mapping in intonation.