Tone and Intonation in Mandarin

This paper discusses the basic facts about Mandarin intonation.

I start with a description of tone shapes and tonal targets in monosyllabic and disyllabic sequences, and then proceed to discuss other factors such as catathesis, prominence, and pitch raising and lowering in discourse structure. Although it is possible that we will never be able to give an exhaustive list of the various factors that may influence the realization of FO, a step-bystep study will bring us closer to our goal.