Three Levels of Tune-

This paper proposes that to understand various issues concerning tune-text alignment, three levels of timing relations need to be recognized, namely, underlying association, target synchronization, and surface alignment. While the link between underlying association and target synchronization may be stipulated by various phonological rules, the link between surface alignment and target synchronization can be better understood only through the recognition of various articulatory constraints. Most importantly for experimental research, surface alignment only indirectly reflects the alignment at the other two levels, and thus should not be taken as intended by the speaker as such.