Advancements of phonetics in the 21st century: Intonation

• Overview of main tenets of the autosegmental-metrical (AM) theory of intonational phonology. • Critical discussion of traditional methods for the study of intonation production within AM. • Presentation of newer methods for the investigation of intonation production and perception. • Suggestions for future research. Intonation, the linguistic use of voice pitch, is critical for acquisition, phonetic organisation at the phrasal level and subsequent speech processing. By indicating syntactic constituency and encoding information structure and conversational implicatures, intonation is not only crucial for communication, but also for understanding grammatical phenomena such as information structure and syntax. Nevertheless, existing research has not always done justice to the roles that intonation plays in grammar, acquisition, and communication. Here, we first present an overview of what intonation is (and what it is not), and briefly discuss the essential tenets of the autosegmental-metrical (AM) theory of intonational phonology, currently the most influential and widely used approach to intonation. We critically review the standard methods of conducting intonation research within AM and present newer methodologies developed in response to shortcomings of the standard methods. We conclude by reviewing potential changes to AM in light of the findings stemming from these newer methods, followed by suggestions for future research.