The PENTA model: Concepts, use and implications

Speech is a communication system for transmitting information from one human being to another.1 The information transmitted is rich and multifaceted, but it is coded by an articulatory system in such a way that the listener can readily decode it. These facts, which may seem too obvious to be worth restating, are the premise of the articulatory-functional view of speech that forms the basis of the parallel encoding and target approximation (PENTA) model (Xu 2005). PENTA is therefore a theory of how multiple layers of information are effectively conveyed through prosody with a neu- rally controlled biomechanical system. In other words, PENTA is about how prosody works as a communication system, how it can be learned, and how it goes through changes over time—in short, how it operates. The mission of PENTA therefore differs from those of many other theories that focus on directly accounting for observed pro- sodic forms. By focusing on operation as its primary goal, PENTA accounts for prosodic forms only as a by-product, rather than as an end in itself.