A new model of intonational phonology is here developed, based primarily on the ‘tone sequence’ approaches of Bruce & Gårding 1978 and Pierrehumbert 1980. As in those works, contours are seen as sequences of pitch accents composed of high and low tones. Unlike those works, this model uses cross-classifying features to represent the scaling (height) of tones, and the alignment of tones in time relative to their associated syllables. This form of representation permits both the specification of phonetic detail and the formulation of phonological generalizations. Three features—[delayed peak], [down-step], and [raised peak]—are introduced; to illustrate the type of description they make possible, largely familiar data from English, Dutch, Hungarian, and Rumanian are re-analysed in these terms.

This quantitative and qualitative study of the distribution of tense and aspect in oral Spanish narrative shows that the meaning of certain verb forms is in part delimited by the narrative structural context in which they occur. The historical present/preterit alternation, an issue that has attracted recent controversy (Wolfson 1979, Schiffrin 1981) is examined, and the results show that the Spanish historical present functions as an internal evaluation mechanism.

The distance between linguistic expressions may be an iconically motivated index of the conceptual distance between the terms or events which they denote. But the length of an utterance may also correspond to the extent to which it conveys new or unfamiliar information. Reduced form may thus be an economically motivated index of familiarity. Much of the arbitrariness of grammatical structure arises where equally plausible motivations such as iconicity and economy are, in effect, competing for expression on the same linguistic dimension.

This paper addresses two current controversies about the nature and origin of Chinook Jargon. First, evidence is presented to support the claim that CJ is a true pidgin—rather than a jargon, in Silverstein's sense (1972) of a speech form without independent grammatical status. When structural features of CJ, as used by English (and French) speakers and by Indians, are compared with those of the speakers' native languages, we see that CJ possesses a grammatical norm that differs in non-simplificatory ways from the native languages. Second, the paper explores the implications of CJ structure for the older controversy as to whether CJ existed before Europeans set up permanent trading posts in the Northwest. The major point here is that phonological and syntactic features of CJ fit well with typological features of Northwest Amerindian languages, but they are markedly non-European. This weakens the case for a post-European origin, since it is hard to explain on the hypothesis that CJ arose from Indian–white communication.