This paper presents a fully machine-driven approach for intonation description and its linguistic interpretation. For this purpose, a new intonation model for bottom-up F0 contour analysis and synthesis is introduced, the CoPaSul model which is designed in the tradition of parametric, contour-based, and superpositional approaches. Intonation is represented by a superposition of global and local contour classes that are derived from F0 parameterisation. These classes were linguistically anchored with respect to information status by aligning them with a text which had been coarsely analysed for this purpose by means of NLP techniques. To test the adequacy of this data-driven interpretation a perception experiment was carried out, which confirmed 80% of the findings.

Index Terms: intonation, modelling, information status, datadriven, perception