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Local Conclusion

From the above discussion, we are led to conclude that tone bearing ability is directly related to the sonorous portion of the rime of a syllable: the longer the sonorous rime, the higher the tone bearing ability. Also, a vowel is a better tone bearer than a sonorant consonant. Just from the phonetics itself, it is not entirely clear how duration interacts with sonority in terms of tone bearing ability. But it is safe to say that when two syllable types have the same sonorous rime duration, the one with a longer vocalic duration has a higher tone bearing ability.

3. Empirical Predictions of Different Approaches

This chapter lays out specific empirical predictions of the most phonetically-informed approach to contour tone distribution—the direct approach—and compares it with the predictions of the other approaches. I start by defining the Tonal Complexity Scale and identifying the phonological factors that may influence the crucial phonetic parameters for contour tone bearing—the duration and sonority of the rime.

1. Defining Tonal Complexity from the Phonetics of Contour Tones

The preceding chapter establishes that the realization of contour tones relies on two aspects of the rime: duration and sonority. Therefore, we may hypothesize that it is the weighted sum of these two factors that is proportional to the contour tone bearing ability of the syllable. I term this weighted sum C_CONTOUR. Suppose that Dur(V) and Dur(R) represent the duration of the vowel and the sonorant consonant in the rime respectively. One possible way of constructing C_CONTOUR is shown in (0).

First, we know that the longer the sonorous rime duration, the greater the contour tone bearing ability. Therefore, if Dur(V_i) and Dur(R_i) represent the vocalic and sonorant coda duration for position P_i, and Dur(V₁)+Dur(R₁) > Dur(V₂)+Dur(R₂), then C_CONTOUR(P₁) > C_CONTOUR(P₂); i.e., aDur(V₁)+Dur(R₁) > aDur(V₂)+Dur(R₂). From this, we derive the range of a as in (0).