In the previous section, we introduced the downstepped H pitch accent (!H*) [and a downstepped High phrase accent, shown with a Low boundary tone (!H-L%)]. We will see in this section additional contexts for which the downstep diacritic is used. Namely, there are three bitonal pitch accents which have a downstepped H element: L+!H*, L*+!H and H+!H*.

As was the case for the single-tone !H* pitch accent, the L+!H* and L*+!H pitch accent labels are only used to mark a relationship between the high element of the pitch accent under consideration, and the immediately preceding pitch accent containing a High tone element. And much like the two non-downstepped bitonals we have looked at previously (L+H* and L*+H), the L+!H* and L*+!H indicate that there are two tonal targets associated with the prominence: a Low and a High (this time a downstepped High).

The file <bloomingdales1> is an utterance of the sentence "There's a lovely one in Bloomingdales." This Intonational Phrase contains two bitonal pitch accents, and culminates in a Low phrase accent-Low boundary tone. The first pitch accent is the bitonal L+H*, such as we have seen in previous sections. Notice how the F0 does not begin to rise (i.e. it stays relatively low) until the first syllable, love- of the word lovely-, peaking around the end of the prominent syllable, again love-. These F0 features reflect the L+H* pitch accent. The second pitch accent, on the syllable Bloom- of Bloomingdale shows similar behaviour: the F0 is low leading up to the prominent syllable, Bloom-, and then rises sharply to a peak around the end of that syllable. What makes this pitch accent L+!H*, as opposed to L+H* (with no downstep) is that the High target of the bitonal pitch accent on Bloom- is perceptually lower than the High target of the preceding pitch accent (the pitch accent on love- of lovely). This relationship among perceptual pitch heights is comparable to that between the single-tone !H* pitch accent and the pitch accent with a High target that immediately precedes it. (The example <illuminating3> shows another example of the same pattern of tones, L+H* L+!H* L-L%, on the words "that's really illuminating.") In these two examples, you may have noticed that the Low tone of the second pitch accent in both of these examples, the leading tone of the L+!H* (on Bloom- of Bloomingdales and -lum- of illuminating) is also lower than the leading L of the first pitch accents (the L+H* on love- and real-). However, this is not necessarily always the case; the L+!H* does not reflect any height relationship with the Low of the preceding pitch accent.

The other way in which the H+!H* pitch accent differs from others in the ToBI inventory is that it is a bitonal pitch accent that does not have contrasting High and Low targets. Each of the previously introduced bitonal pitch accents (L+H*, L*+H, L+!H* and L*+!H) has had a Low target, followed by a High target. The H+!H* has two High targets.

The example <mothertheresa2>, shown below, contains two full Intonational Phrases, the second of which, on the text "Mother mothertheresa2," contains an H+!H* pitch accent. The pitch accent in question is on the prominent syllable -re- of mothertheresa2, and is followed by the phrase accent-boundary tone combination L-L%. Look carefully at the pitch track over the words Mother and mothertheresa2. Notice how the highest F0 in the pitch track (for the Intonational Phrase on the words "Mother mothertheresa2") occurs at the beginning of the word mothertheresa2: this is a reflection of the first H tone (the unstarred H) of the H+!H*. The pitch is falling through the word mothertheresa2, and is quite a bit lower by the time it reaches the prominent syllable -re, a reflection of the !H* portion of the bitonal pitch accent H+!H*. The pitch then continues to fall through the end of the word, and as such through the end of the intonational phrase, and as it heads towards the Low targets of the phrase accent and boundary tone. (As we have seen before, the pitch track disappears due to pitch tracking errors, as the speaker reaches the bottom of her pitch range; notice that there is no pitch track visible for th final syllable -sa of mothertheresa2.)

Break indices:
0: word boundary erased
1: typical inter-word disjuncture within a phrase
4: end of an intonational phrase

Optional labels:
<: late High Tonal peak