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Article Excerpt
Abstract. The present study, inspired by Prieto's (2006) work on Peninsular Spanish, analyzes experimental data of phonological phrasing in the Spanish of Lima, Perti, via Optimality Theory (OT) (McCarthy and Prince 1993, Prince and Smolensky 1993). Examining the data reveals that final lengthening is the most salient cue to phrase divisions in this dialect. The theoretical analysis shows that prosodic constraints relating to length and weight balance of phrases outrank those dealing with syntactic alignment and cohesion. The differences found between this study and that of Prieto motivate the proposal of a constraint that prohibits increasing phonological phrase length from the beginning to the end of an intonational phrase. *
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1. INTRODUCTION. Prosody is used to divide information into chunks that demonstrate definite size and internal structure (Selkirk 1984, Steedman 1991, Zubizarreta 1998, D'Imperio et al 2005). Prosodic Phonology (Selkirk 1984, 1986; Nespor and Vogel 1986), which considers the relationship between syntax and prosody, hierarchically organizes constituents in the fashion shown in 1. The abstract levels of this hierarchy are supported by concrete phonetic evidence from experimental data found in sources such as pitch contours.
(1) Prosodic Hierarchy (1) IP Intonational Phrase (Major Phrase) PPH Phonological Phrase (Minor Phrase) PW Prosodic Word F Foot [sigma] Syllable
The various levels in 1 are defined in detail by Selkirk (1984), with the top three being the most pertinent to this paper. An IP is a unit that corresponds to a portion of a sentence associated with a characteristic intonational contour or melody. In Spanish, the conclusion of an IP is signaled by a final high (H) or low (L) boundary tone or by a clear pause. A PPH denotes any level of prosodic constituent structure that may include one or more major category words (i.e. lexical categories of Noun, Verb, Adjective, and Adverb, from Chomsky 1965). The boundaries of such constituents can be located in Spanish by using phonetic cues such as fundamental frequency (F0) continuation rises ending in the final syllable of a PW, longer duration of stressed syllables, large pitch range increases or decreases, and pauses (Elordieta et al 2003, Hualde 2003, D'Imperio et al 2005, Prieto 2006). According to Truckenbrodt (1999, in press), the PPH and IP differ in that the former refers specifically to syntactic phrases (XPs or maximal projections), with heads that dominate other constituents, such as Noun Phrases (NPs), Verb Phrases (VPs), and Adjective Phrases (APs), while the latter deals with larger syntactic clauses. A PW is a phonologically relevant idea that plays a metrical role in describing main word stress. (2) In studies on Spanish intonation, it has been noted as far back as Navarro Tomas (1944) that words are considered prosodically accented if they display a F0 rise through the stressed syllable. Additionally, those such as Quilis (1993) and Face (2003) note that such F0 rises are actually the strongest cues to stress in Spanish. Therefore, in order for a lexical item to be considered as a PW, it must be prosodically accented, meaning it contains a F0 rise through the stressed syllable. (3) Furthermore, F refers to a suprasyllabic unit smaller than the word that helps describe stress patterns; however, Selkirk (1984) also notes that there is little evidence this unit is a relevant domain for phonological rules. Finally, the [sigma] is the smallest prosodic constituent in this hierarchy. (4)
Phonological rules are applied to the prosodic constituents of the hierarchy. Previously, some such as Nespor and Vogel (1986) claimed that syntactic structure is that which dominates the distribution and division of prosodic constituents. This idea especially pertains to the top two levels of the hierarchy, the IP and PPH. Although it was mentioned in such older studies that speech rate, style, and emotion can lead to restructuring of IPs into shorter IPs, D'Imperio et al (2005) emphasize that more recent studies (Steedman 1991; Ghini 1993; Ladd 1996; Truckenbrodt 1995, 1999; Selkirk 2000) have shown that prosodic boundary placement in different languages is determined by factors other than merely syntax, namely constituent weight, symmetrical distribution of constituents, and information structure.
The majority of studies on phonological phrasing decisions in Spanish and in Romance languages in general have been carried out only in recent years. (5) Elordieta et al (2003) study the effects of syntactic branching and constituent length on the placement of prosodic boundaries in Spanish, European Portuguese, and Catalan using Subject-Verb-Object (SVO) sentences with combinations of two constituent length conditions and seven syntactic branching conditions. The most common phrasing pattern found for Spanish is (S) (VO). The division between phrases is manifested as a F0 rise, often accompanied by final lengthening of stressed syllables, and sometimes includes pauses as well. Also, there is reset and a drop in F0 at the beginning of the verb. Overall, the study demonstrates that the three languages investigated share the fact that constituent length is a stronger determiner of phrasing decisions than is syntactic complexity.
D'Imperio et al (2005), which expands the previous study to include five Romance languages, mentions the same results for Spanish while also providing further comments. For Spanish, it is found that objects displaying prosodic branching, such as proper names, display a decreased percentage of (S) (VO) phrasings, with other types of phrasing divisions increasing such as (SVO), (S) (V) (O) and (SV) (O). These results differ from those for syntactically branching common nouns in object position, which, as shown in Elordieta et al (2003), occur almost always in (S) (VO) groupings. D'Imperio et al (2005) claim that this difference may be attributed to employing phrasing or accentuation (i.e. separating the object by phrase boundaries) in order to make an object intonationally salient.
A study by Frota et al (in press) addresses the phonetics and phonology of phrasing in Romance. Results indicate that in Spanish, H boundary tones usually serve as markers of prosodic breaks. Furthermore, the F0 stretch before the boundary tends to appear as a rise on the stressed syllable in phrase final (i.e. nuclear) position, which extends to the boundary syllable or plateaus up to the boundary. Catalan and the two varieties of European Portuguese investigated both show these patterns similar to Spanish. However, other cues such as pitch reset and pre-boundary lengthening are shown to be used by the languages with different frequencies. For Spanish, pitch reset is found to be a common indicator of a phrase boundary.
Prieto (2006) examines patterns of phonological phrasing in Peninsular Spanish. While making reference to the hierarchy shown in 1 and using the Optimality Theory (OT) approach to phonology, this study considers the rankings of a series of size and eurhythmic constraints that interact to determine the phonological phrasing of Spanish declaratives in slow, normal, and rapid speech. In terms of accounting for PPHs when looking at F0 contours, Prieto states that Spanish speakers prominently stress or accent the last tonic syllable of a PPH. Optionally, there is a rise at the right boundary of a PPH, even though a phrasing break is often perceptible without this rise. The phrasing data given in the study supports the concept that well-formedness constraints dealing with the length and weight balance of PPHs within IPs have a crucial role in phrasing decisions. In fact, some of these well-formedness constraints rank higher than those addressing syntactic alignment and cohesion. Overall, Prieto's study suggests that a complete theory of prosodic phrasing must realize that prosody, syntax, and linguistic variation all interact in determining phrasing patterns.
Finally, in relation to the theme of boundaries, Garrido et al (1995) investigate the link between prosody and syntactic boundaries by examining the phonetic variables indicative of such boundaries. It is found that vowel duration tends to increase at a non-prepausal syntactic boundary when compared to word-internal vowels, though not at a statistically significant level. Furthermore, F0 peaks normally occur just before syntactic boundaries. It appears that F0 reset occurs more in valleys and is more common at higher level syntactic boundaries, such as NPVP. Therefore, the results suggest that reset could be a cue to hierarchical differences between syntactic boundaries.
Overall, previous accounts of phrasing in Spanish reveal various phonetic cues that point out phrase breaks. It has also been shown that different phrasing patterns are possible in SVO utterances. The phrasing of such utterances seems to be determined by syntactic branching as well as the distribution of PWs. Furthermore, the majority of the studies reviewed are experimental rather than theoretical in nature. Prieto's (2006) approach distinguishes itself by employing OT and ranking various constraints dealing with the length and balance of individual PPHs as well as those associated with the relationship between syntactic constituents and PPHs. She also shows that speech rate affects phrasing decisions. In sum, her analysis of Peninsular Spanish not only describes PPHs but also proposes an explanation of why they pattern themselves in specific ways.
The present study expands on the work of Prieto (2006) by seeking to explain phonological phrasing decisions in the dialect of Lima, Peril, using OT. By focusing on this idea in a dialect that has received little to no attention in previous studies on intonation, the study aims to fill in existing gaps in research. The goals of the investigation are twofold: i. discover phonetic cues (related to both pitch and duration) to PPH boundaries; ii. theoretically account for phrasing patterns. The data come from productions of utterances with different degrees of syntactic branching. From an OT perspective, the goal is to reveal whether prosodic constraints pertaining to length and weight balance of PPHs across IPs are more important than syntactic alignment constraints in determining phonological phrasing preferences. The experimental results and OT analysis will be compared to those of Prieto.
The remainder of the paper is organized as follows: Section 2 describes the participants and the methods used for data elicitation; Section 3 provides a series of pitch contours illustrating phonetic cues to PPH boundaries and discusses the most common phrasing patterns, based on degree of syntactic branching; Section 4 proposes an OT analysis of the experimental results; and Section 5 concludes by summarizing the main findings of the study and addressing the issue of phonological variability.
2. METHODOLOGY. Inspired by the methodology of Prieto (2006),...
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