Accentuation and phrasing in Romance:Occitan and French

Rafèu Sichel-Bazin1,2, Carolin Buthke1, Trudel Meisenburg1

1 Universität Osnabrück, 2 Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona)

DFG-Projekt

Intonation im Sprachkontakt: Okzitanisch und Französisch

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STRUCTURE

1. Project and data2. Theoretical background3. General basic contour: LHiLH*

3.1 Initial accents3.2 Pitch accents

4. Boundaries4.1 Continuation contours and hesitations

4.1.1 Continuation rise and sustained pitch4.1.2 Continuation fall

4.2 Utterance-final contours4.2.1 Upstepped last prenuclear rise4.2.2 Delayed peak

5. Conclusion2

1. PROJECT AND DATA

• Project “Intonation in contact: Occitan and French”

3http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Romance_20c_en.png

1. PROJECT AND DATA

– Occitan: word accent on the penultimate or ultimate– French: phrase final accent

Northern (N-) French: close to standard FrenchSouthern (S-) French: in close contact to Occitan

• DataSituations survey (Prieto 2001, http://prosodia.upf.edu/atlesentonacio/)

Neutral yes/no question:2a1. You enter a shop where you never went before and you ask if they

have mandarins. ‘Do you have mandarins?’

Confirming yes/no question:2d6. John has said that he’d come for dinner. You ask him to confirm it.

‘You will come for dinner, right?’

• Project “Intonation in contact: Occitan and French”Occitan and French prosody, accentuation and phrasing

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1. PROJECT AND DATA

Summary of the fable “The North wind and the sun” (IPA 1999)

• DataMap task (http://prosodia.upf.edu/atlasintonacion/)

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1. PROJECT AND DATA

Corpus: speakers from La Cauna/Lacaune, Tolosa/Toulouse, Lille & Orléans 6

2. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

• Jun & Fougeron (2002), ~ Welby (2006):

French• Post (2000): syntactic approach,

lexical accents, deletion process

• Di Cristo (2009):

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2. THEORETICAL BACKGROUNDOccitan • Hualde (2003a, 2004), Sichel-Bazin (2009):

Tonal movements on syllables that are not metrically strong initial or secondary accents

(Hualde 2003a)

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3. GENERAL BASIC CONTOUR

• Corresponding prosodic unit (accentual phrase, AP)– French:

determined by final (and optionally initial) accent– Occitan: determined

by lexical accent plus surrounding clitics = clitic group

• APs are organized into Intonational Phrases (IPs)– prenuclear AP(s) vs. nuclear AP– boundary tone(s)

basic contour in Gallo-Romance intonation

• in all 3 varietiesLHiLH*

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‘to move forward he folded up’

3. GENERAL BASIC CONTOUR

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3.1 INITIAL ACCENTS• Tonal movements on syllables that are not metrically strong• Traditional “accent d’insistance” to signal emphasis (Carton et al

1976, Fónagy 1980, Astésano 2001)• Possible features:– Tonal rise (to variable height)– Onset consonant strengthening (under emphasis)– Intensity peak– Usually no lengthening

• More frequent in cases of emphasis, but quite generalized today• Marking of left boundaries (in support of phrasing)– On initial syllables of first content word– Also possible on clitics

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3.1 INITIAL ACCENTS in Occitan

‘to move forward he folded up’

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3.1 INITIAL ACCENTS: clash conditions• French: clash usually avoided• Occitan: clash situations possible (Hualde 2003a)• Spanish– Initial rises possible in emphatic or didactic speech, clash said

to be avoided– Hualde 2003b, to appear: clash situations are marked, but

accent correlates split up between syllables:SYLLABLE INITIAL = PRETONIC TONIC

PITCH + -

INTENSITY + -

DURATION - +

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3.1 INITIAL ACCENTS in French: clash conditions

‘he gets started to heat up, heat up’SYLLABLEchau-[ʃo

-fferfe]

PITCH + +

INTENSITY +/- +

DURATION - +

Onset consonant strengthening +/- -14

3.1 INITIAL ACCENTS in French: clash conditions

‘who make a bet to…’SYLLABLEpa-

[pˑa-riʁi]

PITCH - +

INTENSITY + -

DURATION - +

Onset consonant strengthening + -15

3.2 PITCH ACCENTS in our 3 varieties• Obligatory accents on metrically strong AP-final syllables:– Tonal movement (rising or falling)– Eventually intensity peak– Lengthening

• APs organized into IPs:– 1 (or more) prenuclear accent(s), 1 nuclear accent– nuclear accent: most prominent, normally rightmost

• D’Imperio et al (2007), French left dislocated IPs:– prenuclear and nuclear pitch accents differ in alignment

and scaling properties:PRENUCLEAR NUCLEAR

ALIGNMENT: start of the rise EARLIER LATER

SCALING: tonal level of the H target HIGH HIGHER

PERCEPTION HIGH LEVEL TONE RISE 16

3.2 PRENUCLEAR vs. NUCLEAR ACCENTS

• Rising contours: similar observations for the 3 varieties– Higher scaling of nuclear accents:

due to H boundary tone?– Differences in alignment:

due to different pitch accent types?– Differences in slope:• convex in prenuclear accents > H*?• concave in nuclear accents > LH* H%?

– But some prenuclear accents are actually LH*(especially in S-French and Occitan)

more research needed

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3.2 PRENUCLEAR vs. NUCLEAR ACCENTS

‘the story between the North wind and the sun, …’

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4. BOUNDARIES:4.1 CONTINUATION CONTOURS and HESITATIONS

• Continuation rise / sustained pitch: H%

‘the traveling man, er… tightens his coat’ 19

4.1.1 CONTINUATION RISE• S-French: on etymological schwa syllables

‘the coat of a traveling man who passes the…’20

4.1.1 CONTINUATION RISE• N-French: also on non etymological schwas

‘the story between the North wind and the sun, …’21

4.1.1 CONTINUATION RISE• Occitan: on different vowels

‘and then he wanted to make him lose the …’22

4.1.2 CONTINUATION FALL

• Continuation fall: L%

‘and he tightened a coat’23

4.1.2 CONTINUATION FALL: boundary tones

• Continuation fall: L%• Utterance-final boundary tone: T#• IP-final boundary tone: T%

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4.1.2 CONTINUATION FALL• N-French: also on non etymological schwas

continuation

‘make a competition’ 25

4.1.2 CONTINUATION FALL• N-French: also on non etymological schwas

continuation or hesitation

‘who has… won… on… the North wind.’ 26

4.1.2 CONTINUATION FALL• Interrupted prosodic constituents: lengthening and

falling contour

‘the coat of a traveling man who passes the…’27

4.1.2 CONTINUATION FALL• Interrupted prosodic constituents: lengthening and

falling contour

‘and then he wanted to make him lose the …’28

4.2 BOUNDARY TONES:UTTERANCE-FINAL CONTOURS

• Utterance-final contour: L* L#Pitch reaches the baseline of the speaker’s tessitura L# ≠ L%

• 2 types of last prenuclear contours:– upstepped rise– delayed peak

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4.2.1 UPSTEPPED LAST PRENUCLEAR RISE• D’Imperio et al (2007)

Last prenuclear AP in left-dislocated IPs: slightly different pattern– continuation rise pattern– nuclear configuration: rise– last prenuclear AP: downstep

bigger contrast with IP-final rise• Our data

– Nuclear configuration: fall– Last prenuclear accent upstepped (LHi or LH*) bigger contrast with IP-final fall

• Due to an increased range in the focus domain?Focus domain: final, 2 APs

– last or nuclear AP: falling contour– prenuclear AP: upstepped rising contour 30

4.2.1 UPSTEPPED LAST PRENUCLEAR RISE

‘the one who would make him take off the jacket. The blazer.’

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4.2.1 UPSTEPPED LAST PRENUCLEAR RISE

‘and decide to find out who is the strongest’32

4.2.2 DELAYED PRENUCLEAR PEAKS

• Utterance-final contour: L* L# • Last prenuclear AP-final rises: – both L and H* targets may align later – due to sentence type? cleft sentences– syntactic boundary marked intonationally? – AP basic contour in U-final conditions: HiL*?

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4.2.2 DELAYED PRENUCLEAR PEAKS

‘it is thus the sun who is the strongest’34

5. CONCLUSIONS: BASIC CONTOUR OF APs

• Basic contour of APs in Gallo-Romance: LHiLH*– Occitan AP = clitic group– French AP = clitic group or bigger

• Prosodic marking of the AP:– Left: initial phrase accent LHi

More research needed on • conditions provoking it• alignment• features splitting up in clash conditions

– Right: final pitch accent LH*• Occitan: lexically defined position• French: not lexically defined, but on last full syllable of a

lexical word 35

5. CONCLUSIONS: FRENCH SCHWA

• Final schwa– S-French

• only etymological schwas• schwas normally realized– N-French:

• etymological schwas normally not realized• non etymological schwas may be inserted at the

end of APs

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5. FURTHER RESEARCH: role of feet?

• How are Occitan, S-French and N-French feet organized? In what may they differ?

• Do feet play a role– in determining the AP maximal/minimal length?– in the appearance of initial accents?– in the assignment of prominences to syllables within APs?– in the alignment of tonal targets?

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5. FURTHER RESEARCH: intermediate phrases (ip)?

Different prosodic hierarchy in the 3 varieties?– Occitan:

AP= clitic group > ip > IP > ULHiLH* T- T% T#

– S-French:AP > ip > IP > ULHiLH* T- T% T#

– N-French:AP ? > IP > ULHiLH* ? T% T#

Evidence for ips in Occitan and S-French:– prosodic interdependence of certain APs– presence of IP-internal boundary tones– ...

Further research needed38

ˌmeɾ.se.ˈpla mɛɾ.ˈsi.bo.ˈku ˌmɛʁ.si.bo.ˈku.ə

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