Dictionary

catathesis en · NOUN

Etymology

By surface analysis, cata- + thesis. Coined by Michael Studdert-Kennedy.

Meanings

1. (dated, rare) Downstep or downdrift, particularly in non-tonal languages such as Japanese and English.
   • The term ‘downstep’ was first used to refer to certain well-known phenomena in African tone languages that vaguely resemble the tonal implementation phenomenon we describe here. Since we are not in a position now to evaluate the precise extent of the formal similarity between the two classes of phenomena, we will use the term ‘catathesis’ only, withdrawing the term ‘downstep’ as it was used in Pierrehumbert (1980) and Beckman & Pierrehumbert (1985) out of deference to the Africanist usage. 1986, Mary E. Beckman, Janet B. Pierrehumbert, “Intonational structure in Japanese and English”, in Phonology Yearbook, volume 3, Great Britain: Cambridge University Press, →DOI, S2CID, archived from the original on 13 Mar 2012, pages 255–309, endnote 9:
   • The pitch trajectories of these melodic patterns are not simply falling pitch sequences that may appear in any musical melody, but they exhibit the jagged character typical of linguistic downtrends triggered by catathesis. 2025 September 5, Thyra-Lilja Altunin, “Recovering Ancient Greek poetic melodic patterns”, in Greek and Roman Musical Studies, volume 13, number 2, Brill, →DOI, →ISSN, Downtrend Melodic Patterns (section 3.2.3), pages 267–302:
   • The term “catathesis” rather than downstep was adopted for a time (Poser 1984; Beckman and Pierrehumbert 1986), in order to avoid the terminological conflicts inherent in the use of downdrift vs. downstep and automatic vs. non-automatic downstep [...]; usage has since reverted to, and settled on, downstep. 2011 March 11, Bruce Connell, “Downstep” (chapter 35), Suprasegmental and Prosodic Phonology (II), in Marc van Oostendorp, Colin J. Ewen, Elizabeth Hume, Keren Rice, editors, The Blackwell Companion to Phonology, John Wiley & Sons, →DOI, →ISBN, Downstep in "Non-Tonal" Languages (section 3.4):

Forms