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Prosodic Variation in European Portuguese: Phrasing, Intonation and Rhythm in Central-Southern Varieties

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Prosodic Variation in European Portuguese: Phrasing, Intonation and Rhythm in Central-Southern Varieties Universidade de Lisboa Faculdade de Letras Departamento de Linguística Geral e Românica Prosodic variation in European Portuguese: phrasing, intonation and rhythm in central-southern varieties Marisa Cruz PhD in Linguistics Portuguese Linguistics 2013 Universidade de Lisboa Faculdade de Letras Departamento de Linguística Geral e Românica Prosodic variation in European Portuguese: phrasing, intonation and rhythm in central-southern varieties Marisa Cruz PhD in Linguistics Portuguese Linguistics Supervisor: Sónia Frota 2013 This research was developed within the PhD Project BD/61463/2009, funded by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia. Aos meus pais À minha avozinha, a minha segunda mãe Abstract Included within a research project aiming to provide a detailed description of prosodic variation in European Portuguese (EP), the present study analyzes phrasing, intonation and rhythm in central-southern varieties using data from different types of tasks (reading task, Discourse Completion Task, Map Task). Following the Prosodic Phonology view of prosodic structure (e.g., Selkirk 1984, 1986, Nespor & Vogel 1986/2007) and the Autosegmental Metrical (AM) approach within the intonational phonology framework (e.g., Pierrehumbert 1980; Ladd 1996/2008), we examined the prosody of two regions of the south of Portugal (Alentejo – Ale –, and Algarve – Alg) relating to: (i) phrasing; (ii) tonal system and pragmatic meanings of tonal morphemes; (iii) pitch accent distribution, and (iv) rhythmic properties of each variety. The analysis of prosodic phrasing reinforces the relevance of the Intonational Phrase in EP. Segmental phenomena such as Fricative Voicing and Paragoge (the later only in Ale) cue the IP level, and length in number of syllables and syntactic/prosodic branching of phrases impact on intonational phrasing. Intonationally, some general properties can be observed across varieties, such as: (i) similar nuclear contours across speech styles, (ii) the same pitch accent to convey focus in declaratives, (iii) post-focal subordination, and (iv) tonal boundary marking at the IP-level. However, some specificities were also found, namely: (i) a dense pitch accent distribution correlated with intonational phrasing choices in Ale, but not in Alg; (ii) a specific phrasal level in Ale, but not in Alg, that may show tonal edge-marking. The inspection of rhythmic properties showed that Ale presents a mixed rhythmic nature, whereas Alg is clearly stress-timed. Perceptual experiments with listeners from the Standard variety (SEP) showed that central-southern varieties are discriminated from SEP, even when F0 is not preserved in the signal. In contrast with SEP-Alg (different rhythmic properties), the discrimination SEP-Ale (same rhythmic properties) is unexpected. Speech rate is raised as a possible cue being interpreted by listeners, but left open for future research. This work contributes to our knowledge of the prosodic and intonational system of Portuguese, as well as the prosody of other languages, namely in the Romance space. Furthermore, our findings impact on the phonological analysis of prosody and of prosodic variation. The current results may be used as resources for the teaching of European Portuguese as first or second language, for computational applications, forensics, speech therapy, inter alia. Keywords: prosodic variation, prosodic phrasing, intonation, rhythm, speech styles. i Resumo da Dissertação Enquadrada num projecto dedicado à variação prosódica no Português Europeu (PE), a presente investigação visa analisar o fraseamento, a entoação e o ritmo nas variedades centro-meridionais, a partir de dados de diferentes tipos de tarefa (leitura, Discourse Completion Task, Map Task). Partindo da abordagem da Fonologia Prosódica à estrutura prosódica (Selkirk 1984, 1986, Nespor & Vogel 1986/2007) e do Modelo Métrico Autossegmental enquadrado na Fonologia Entoacional (Pierrehumbert 1980; Ladd 1996/2008), analisou-se a prosódia de duas regiões do Sul de Portugal (Alentejo – Ale; Algarve – Alg), considerando os seguintes aspectos: (i) fraseamento, (ii) sistema entoacional e significados pragmáticos dos morfemas tonais; (iii) distribuição de acentos tonais e (iv) propriedades rítmicas de cada variedade. A análise do fraseamento prosódico confirma a importância do Sintagma Entoacional (IP) no PE. Fenómenos segmentais como o Vozeamento da Fricativa e a Paragoge (o último apenas no Ale) fornecem evidências para o nível de IP. A extensão frásica (em número de sílabas) e a complexidade sintáctica/prosódica têm impacto no fraseamento. Entoacionalmente, observam-se propriedades comuns a todas as variedades: (i) contornos nucleares semelhantes, independentemente do estilo discursivo, (ii) o mesmo acento tonal para o foco, nas declarativas, (iii) subordinação pós-foco, e (iv) marcação tonal da fronteira, obrigatória para o nível de IP. Contudo, também verificámos especificidades, tais como: (i) elevada densidade tonal correlacionada com os padrões de fraseamento entoacional no Ale, mas não no Alg, e (ii) marcação opcional do PhP, apenas no Ale. A análise do ritmo mostra que o Ale apresenta uma natureza mista, enquanto o Alg tem um ritmo acentual. Testes perceptivos com participantes da variedade standard (SEP) mostram que as variedades centro-meridionais são discriminadas do SEP, mesmo quando a entoação não é preservada no sinal acústico. Em contraste com SEP-Alg (propriedades rítmicas diferentes), a discriminação SEP-Ale (mesmas propriedades rítmicas) é inesperada. A velocidade discursiva é sugerida como possível pista usada para a discriminação, aspecto a explorar em trabalhos futuros. Esta investigação contribui para o conhecimento do sistema prosódico e entoacional do Português, bem como para o conhecimento da prosódia de outras línguas, nomeadamente, no espaço Românico. Além de fornecerem informação adicional para os estudos de variação prosódica, os resultados alcançados constituem instrumentos relevantes para outras áreas do conhecimento, tais como o ensino do Português como L1 ou L2, terapia da fala, aplicações computacionais, inter alia. Palavras-chave: variação prosódica, fraseamento, entoação, ritmo, estilo discursivo. iii Index List of Figures.................................................................................................................................. vii List of Tables .................................................................................................................................. xiii List of Abbreviations and Symbols....................................................................................................xv Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................ xvii 1. Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 1 2. Prosodic Variation ........................................................................................................................ 5 2.1. An overview .......................................................................................................................... 5 2.2. Variation in European Portuguese .......................................................................................... 7 2.2.1. Non-prosodic variation ................................................................................................ 7 2.2.2. Prosodic variation ....................................................................................................... 9 2.3. General methodology............................................................................................................11 2.3.1. Sample .......................................................................................................................11 2.3.2. Tasks .........................................................................................................................13 2.3.2.1. Interview ......................................................................................................13 2.3.2.2. Map Task ......................................................................................................13 2.3.2.3. Discourse Completion Task (DCT) ...............................................................14 2.3.2.4. Reading Task ................................................................................................15 2.3.3. Procedures .................................................................................................................16 2.3.4. Main annotation criteria .............................................................................................16 3. Prosodic Phrasing ........................................................................................................................21 3.1. General considerations on prosodic structure ........................................................................21 3.2. Prosodic structure in European Portuguese ............................................................................23 3.3. Prosodic Phrasing .................................................................................................................25 3.3.1. Segmental evidence to phrasing .................................................................................26 3.3.2. Suprassegmental evidence to phrasing ........................................................................30 3.4. Experiments .........................................................................................................................32
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