contour (n.)

A term used in SUPRASEGMENTAL PHONOLOGY, particularly by those phonologists working within an American tradition, to refer to a distinctive CONFIGURATION of PITCHES, TONES or STRESSES in an UTTERANCE. Several types of contour are recognized, e.g. ‘primary’, ‘secondary’ and ‘terminal’ contours, which relate to major patterns in the analysis of INTONATION, or the notion of stress contour in GENERATIVE phonology, which refers to a sequence of stresses assigned through the application of the transformational CYCLE. Rising and falling tones are sometimes referred to as contour tones. A contour tone system is used in some tone languages (e.g. Thai) where the critical feature is the direction of tonal movement rather than the relative level of the tone (a contour tone language as opposed to a REGISTER TONE LANGUAGE).

In some models of NON-LINEAR PHONOLOGY, a sequence of different FEATURES which belong to a SEGMENT in a HIERARCHICAL feature representation. Such segments (e.g. AFFRICATES, pre-nasalized STOPS) are known as contour segments. Such segments display phonological EDGE effects, in that the segment behaves as though it has the feature [+F] with regard to segments on one side and [−F] with regard to those on the other.

In a WINDOWS model of COARTICULATION, the term refers to the connection path between individual windows, representing ARTICULATORY or ACOUSTIC variation over time in a specific context; also referred to as a path.