Editing Pitch-accent language (section)

===Definitions===
Scholars give various definitions of a pitch-accent language. A typical definition is as follows: "Pitch-accent systems [are] systems in which one syllable is more prominent than the other syllables in the same word, a prominence that is achieved by means of pitch" (Zanten and Dol (2010)).<ref>Zanten, Ellen van & Philomena Dol (2010). "Word stress and pitch accent in Papuan languages. In: Hulst, Harry van der, Rob Goedemans & Ellen van Zanten (eds) (2010). ''A survey of word accentual patterns in the languages of the world''. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton, p. 120.</ref> That is to say, in a pitch-accent language, in order to indicate how a word is pronounced it is necessary, as with a stress-accent language, to mark only one syllable in a word as accented, not specify the tone of every syllable. This feature of having only one prominent syllable in a word or morpheme is known as ''culminativity''.<ref name="Downing, Laura 2010 p. 411">Downing, Laura (2010). "Accent in African languages". In Harry van der Hulst, Rob Goedemans, Ellen van Zanten (eds.) ''A Survey of Word Accentual Patterns in the Languages of the World'', p. 411.</ref>

Another property suggested for pitch-accent languages to distinguish them from stress languages is that "Pitch accent languages must satisfy the criterion of having ''invariant tonal contours'' on accented syllables ... This is not so for pure stress languages, where the tonal contours of stressed syllables can vary freely" (Hayes (1995)).<ref>Hayes, Bruce (1995) ''Metrical stress theory: Principles and case studies''. University of Chicago Press; p. 50.</ref> Although this is true of many pitch-accent languages, there are others, such as the [[Franconian (linguistics)|Franconian dialects]], in which the contours vary, for example between declarative and interrogative sentences.<ref name="Köhnlein"/>

According to another proposal, pitch-accent languages ''can only use F0'' (i.e., pitch) to mark the accented syllable, whereas stress languages may also use duration and intensity (Beckman).<ref>Beckman, Mary, (1986). ''Stress and Non-stress Accent''. Dordrecht: Foris.</ref> However, other scholars disagree, and find that intensity and duration can also play a part in the accent of pitch-accent languages.<ref name=Levi />

A feature considered characteristic of stress-accent languages is that a stress-accent is ''obligatory'', that is, that every major word has to have an accent.<ref>Hyman, L.M. (2012). "Do all languages have word-accent?" UC Berkeley Phonology Lab Annual Report (2012), p. 35.</ref> This is not always true of pitch-accent languages, some of which, like Japanese and Northern Bizkaian Basque, have accentless words. But there are also some pitch-accent languages in which every word has an accent.<ref name=Levi />

One feature shared between pitch-accent languages and stress-accent languages is ''demarcativeness'': prominence peaks tend to occur at or near morpheme edges (word/stem initial, word/stem penult, word/stem final).<ref>Downing, L.R.; Mtenje, A.D. (2017), ''The Phonology of Chichewa'', p. 133.</ref>

Often, however, the difference between a pitch-accent language, a stress-accent language, and tonal language is not clear. "It is, in fact, often not straightforward to decide whether a particular pitch system is best described as tonal or accentual. ... Since raised pitch, especially when it coincides with vowel length, makes a syllable perceptually more prominent, it can often require detailed phonetic and phonological analysis to disentangle whether pitch is playing a more stress-like or a more tone-like role in a particular language" (Downing).<ref>Downing, Laura (2010). "Accent in African languages". In Harry van der Hulst, Rob Goedemans, Ellen van Zanten (eds.) ''A Survey of Word Accentual Patterns in the Languages of the World'', p. 382.</ref>

Larry Hyman argues that tone is made up of a variety of different typological features, which can be mixed and matched with some independence from each other.<ref>Larry Hyman, [http://linguistics.berkeley.edu/~hyman/papers/2009-hyman-pitchaccent.pdf "How (not) to do phonological typology: the case of pitch-accent"], ''Language Sciences'' (2009), 31: 213-238</ref> Hyman claims that there can be no coherent definition of pitch-accent, as the term describes languages that have non-prototypical combinations of tone system properties (or both a tone system, usually still non-prototypical, and a stress system simultaneously). Since all pitch-accent languages can be analysed just as well in purely tonal terms, in Hyman's view, the term "pitch-accent" should be superseded by a wider understanding of what qualifies as a tone system - thus, all "pitch-accent" languages are tone languages, and there is simply more variety within tone systems than has historically been admitted.