Accent fallacy

Biological Parallel

A wolf's howl conveys meaning through pitch accent—rising pitch signals rallying, falling pitch signals location. Change the accent, change the meaning. Birds use tonal accents extensively: chickadees encode predator size in 'dee' note count (more dees = smaller, more maneuverable predator). The accent fallacy in biology: misinterpreting signals by missing prosodic cues. Humans reading transcribed bird calls without hearing accents lose critical information. Context isn't optional—it's encoded in emphasis.