The first eight chapters concern general topics: phonetic aspects of pitch modulation;typological notions (stress, accent, tone, and intonation); the distinction between phonetic implementation and phonological representation; the paralinguistic meaning of pitch variation; the phonology and phonetics of downtrends; developments from the Pierrehumbert?Beckman model; and tone and intonation in Optimality Theory. In chapters 9?15, the book?s central arguments are illustrated with comprehensive phonological descriptions ? partly in OT ? of the tonal and intonational systems of six languages, including Japanese, French, and English.