American English pitch accent dynamics: A minimal model

What is the minimal mathematical model that can generate the F0 trajectories for a system of pitch accents? In this work, we propose a nonlinear coupled dynamical systems theory of American English pitch accents with a single basic parameter. As that parameter increases, F0 profiles for different pitch accents are generated. The terms in the differential equation are based on a novel dynamical analysis of a large database of F0 productions in terms of measurements of F0 peak, peak velocity, and the time to achieve peak velocity. We describe the basic dynamical properties of pitch accents in our database and argue for the proposed model as the simplest onethat realizes all the major dynamic F0 properties of the pitch accent system. We argue that the proposed model describes both abstract phonological and concrete phonetic aspects of the system.