Apuntes fonética Intonation, Apuntes de Fonética y Fonología Españolas

¡Descarga Apuntes fonética Intonation y más Apuntes en PDF de Fonética y Fonología Españolas solo en Docsity! Asignatura: Pronunciación de la lengua inglesa Grado en Estudios Ingleses: Lengua, Literatura y Cultura (UNED) Unit 6: Focus and intonation Eva Estebas Vilaplana UNIT 6. FOCUS AND INTONATION: A THEORETICAL APPROACH 1. Introduction This document includes a brief introduction to some basic theoretical concepts for the study of intonation. It also presents and compares the proposals of two of the most influential intonation frameworks: the British School and the American School (including the latest works within the Autosegmental-Metrical framework and the ToBI system). • Intonation, pitch, tone, accent and focus • Tone languages and intonational languages • Parameters to describe intonation o Tonality o Tonicity o Tone o Pitch range • Intonational modelling: configurations vs. levels o The British School o The American School • Comparing approaches 2. Intonation, pitch, tone, accent and focus Intonation deals with the pitch changes associated to utterances. For example, an utterance such as Melanie can be produced with different pitch trajectories depending on the meaning the speaker wants to convey. In the two examples presented below, the first utterance is produced with a falling pitch movement typical of a declarative intonation. The second pattern, on the other hand, shows a rising pitch trajectory more common in questions. *Mel a nie *Mel a nie The articulatory parameter responsible for intonation changes is the rate of vocal fold vibration. Differences in the vibration of the vocal folds are perceived as different 1 Asignatura: Pronunciación de la lengua inglesa Grado en Estudios Ingleses: Lengua, Literatura y Cultura (UNED) Unit 6: Focus and intonation Eva Estebas Vilaplana pitches. The relationship between vocal fold vibration and pitch perception is the following: Articulatory perspective Perceptual or auditory perspective the quicker the vibration of the vocal folds the higher the pitch the slower the vibration of the vocal folds the lower the pitch From a phonological perspective the study of intonation is aimed at defining the inventory of tonal categories that are linguistically relevant in a given language. In other words, the phonology of intonation investigates which pitch movements trigger differences in meaning at the sentence level and therefore they should be interpreted as contrastive phonological entities or tones. For example, the two different pitch configurations of the word Melanie illustrated before should be categorized as two distinctive tones or phonological units since these pitch differences are responsible for the changes in the meaning (declarative vs. interrogative) of the same sequence of sounds (Melanie). Thus, we have to refer to a “falling” tone which contrasts with a “rising” tone. Even though the intonation pattern of an utterance expands throughout the whole utterance, the pitch movements that are linguistically relevant (the tones) are only associated to two possible sites, namely, the stressed syllables and the right boundary of the utterance. For example, in the following utterance we can see that each stressed syllable (marked with an asterisk) shows a high pitch movement and that at the end of the utterance the pitch shows a falling trajectory which indicates a declarative intonation. In sections 6 and 7, we will see the proposals of different intonational schools to categorize the linguistically relevant entities (inventory of tones) of English intonation. I’m *sure she’ll *call you to *mor row. When a stressed syllable is produced with a pitch movement, it becomes accented. Thus, whereas a stressed syllable is a syllable with rhythmic prominence, an accented syllable is a syllable which, apart from rhythmic prominence, also has pitch prominence. This means that all accented syllables have to be stressed but not all stressed syllables are accented. The following example shows the same sentence as before but with a different accentuation pattern. In this case, the only syllable that is accented is the first one (*sure). The other two stresses (*call and *mor) are not accented since no pitch movement is associated to them. I’m *sure she’ll *call you to *mor row. 2 Asignatura: Pronunciación de la lengua inglesa Grado en Estudios Ingleses: Lengua, Literatura y Cultura (UNED) Unit 6: Focus and intonation Eva Estebas Vilaplana 4.1. Tonality Tonality has to do with the division of a chunk of speech into different intonation units or phrases (complete intonation patterns). An intonation unit is delimited by some kind of intonational boundary. Whereas sometimes a major break (pause) is produced between two intonation units, other times no actual break is observed. In such cases, speakers still perceive the presence of an intonation boundary which is signaled by means of a relevant pitch movement at the end of the phrase. Furthermore, other cues, such as syllable duration, can also help to identify the end of an intonation phrase: the duration of the last accented syllable and the post-accented syllables (if any) tends to be longer at the end of an intonation phrase. The decision to divide a given speech chunk into a number of intonation units is speaker-dependent and it may vary according to the meaning the speaker wants to convey. Thus, tonality is the choice the speaker has of the placement of intonation boundaries in an oral production to create intonation units. For example, the following speech chunk can be produced with a different number of intonation phrases. |I didn’t know that Peter left the country. | |I didn’t know | that Peter left the country. | |I didn’t know that Peter | left the country. | |I didn’t know | that Peter | left the country. | The concept of intonation phrase has received different names in the literature, namely, intonation pattern, tone unit, tone group, sense group or word group. Sometimes the presence of intonation boundaries can disambiguate otherwise ambiguous sentences. This is illustrated below for the sentence she washed and brushed her hair that can acquire different meanings depending on the number of intonation phrases with which it is produced. She washed and brushed her hair. (produced with one intonation unit) MEANING: “she washed her hair and then brushed it.” She washed |and brushed her hair. (produced with two intonation units) MEANING: “she washed herself and brushed her hair.” Even though the speaker has the final decision on how to divide the text into intonation units, there are places where the location of an intonation mark is more likely to occur than others. For example, in the sentence My father reads the newspaper every day, it is very unlikely that the speaker would choose to produce an intonation break between my and father or between the and newspaper, as that would split a syntactic phrase. Thus, the speaker chooses the tonality of an utterance without breaking certain syntactic constraints. There are some contexts in which the presence of an intonation boundary is more likely to occur. Those are named in the following list. 5 Asignatura: Pronunciación de la lengua inglesa Grado en Estudios Ingleses: Lengua, Literatura y Cultura (UNED) Unit 6: Focus and intonation Eva Estebas Vilaplana 1. Long constituents. When one of the constituents of the clause becomes too long, then it is treated as a separate intonation phrase (IP). This is illustrated in the following examples. The man goes to Leeds. (short subject one IP) The man with black glasses and a brown hat |goes to Leeds. (long subject two IPs) 2. Lists. In lists, each item tends to be included in a separate intonation unit, as illustrated below I brought bananas |strawberries|a pound of cherries |and some grapes. 3. Vocatives. Vocatives behave differently depending on whether they are located in initial or in final sentence position. In initial position, vocatives are produced in a separate intonation group. In final position, they do not belong to a separate intonation unit. How are you Mary? (final vocative 1 IP) Mary |how are you? (initial vocative 2 IPs) 4. Reporting phrases. As in vocatives, reporting phrases behave differently depending on whether they are located in initial or in final sentence position. In initial position, they are produced in a separate intonation unit and in final position they tend to belong to the same intonation unit. "Call me on Wednesday" she said. (final reporting phrase 1 IP) She said | "call me on Wednesday.” (initial reporting phrase 2 IPs) 4.2. Tonicity Once the speaker has decided the number of intonation phrases in which a given speech chunk is divided, the next step is to decide which syllables will become accented (will have pitch prominence) for each intonation phrase. Tonicity deals with the distribution of accents within each intonation unit. Only stressed syllables can get an accent. However, as reported in section 2, not all stressed syllables must be accented and the choice of which syllables get a pitch prominence depends on the speaker’s communicative intentions. The next example contains a sentence with two stresses (My *friend is a mu*sician) which is produced with two different accentuation patterns: with two accents (one accent for each stress) and with one accent (only the first stressed syllable becomes accented). My *friend is a mu *si cian. 6 Asignatura: Pronunciación de la lengua inglesa Grado en Estudios Ingleses: Lengua, Literatura y Cultura (UNED) Unit 6: Focus and intonation Eva Estebas Vilaplana My *friend is a mu *si cian. Note that tonicity (or the distribution of accents within an intonation phrase) is a parameter which is closely linked to focalization. In a broad focus sentence, the last lexical item is always accented (as in the first example) and in a narrow focus sentence, the last accent is displaced to the most informative word and there is no accentuation of the following items (as in the second example, which can be the answer to a question such as Who is a musician?). Normally, function words are not stressed and therefore they are not accented. Sometimes, however, function words may become informative (that is, they are focalized or highlighted) and hence they are subsequently stressed and accented. This is illustrated below where the possessive adjective receives an accent in a context in which my contrasts with your and therefore is focalized. *My *friend is a mu *si cian (not your friend). 4.3. Tone Once the speaker knows which syllables are accented for each intonation phrase, then (s)he must decide the kind of accent (s)he wants to use in order to convey a given meaning. The system of accentual choices of a given language is known as the tone inventory and it includes all the tones (linguistically relevant intonation entities) used in that particular language. In the following example, the word no is produced with different pitch trajectories (fall, rise, fall-rise and rise-fall) which can be categorized as different tones since each pitch movement is responsible for changes in the meaning of the utterance. *No *No *No *No Tones: Fall Rise Fall-rise Rise-fall Meanings: involved and question statement showing angry and urgent polite statement reservations statement 7 Asignatura: Pronunciación de la lengua inglesa Grado en Estudios Ingleses: Lengua, Literatura y Cultura (UNED) Unit 6: Focus and intonation Eva Estebas Vilaplana optional it includes the unaccented syllables before the first accent. Note that it is possible to have a pre-head without a head. The head and the pre-head make up the pre- nuclear configuration. The following pitch contours illustrate: 1) a nucleus (*nice) preceded by a head (*Melanie´s) 2) a nucleus (*nice) preceded by a pre-head (My) and a head (*sister´s) 3) a nucleus (*nice) only preceded by a pre-head (It’s). (1) (2) (3) *Mel a nie’s *nice My *sis ter’s *nice It’s *nice head nucleus p-h head nucleus p-h nucleus Note that the head starts with the first accented syllable (first syllable with a pitch movement) and it finishes on the last unaccented syllable before the nucleus. It is possible to have heads with more than one accent, as in the following example, which exhibits a head with two accents (one on *sure and the other one on *call). I’m *sure she’ll *call you to *mor row p-h head n tail Finally, it is important to remember that the division of a phrase into pre-head, head, nucleus and tail depends on the intonational pattern of the sentence, that is, on the accent distribution the speaker uses in a given sentence. Thus, we may have the same sentence but with different intonational components if the intonational pattern is different. This is illustrated below for the sentence *Melanie’s *nice which is produced with two intonational patterns and thus it has different components 1) a head and a nucleus in the first example, and 2) a nucleus and a tail in the second one. *Mel a nie’s *nice *Mel a nie’s *nice head nucleus nucleus tail To sum up, the description of intonation within the parameters of the British school involves the division of each intonation phrase into four components, as schematized below. The elements in brackets are optional. (pre-head) (head) nucleus (tail) (Prenuclear configuration) Nuclear configuration 10 Asignatura: Pronunciación de la lengua inglesa Grado en Estudios Ingleses: Lengua, Literatura y Cultura (UNED) Unit 6: Focus and intonation Eva Estebas Vilaplana According to this framework, the tones, that is, the linguistically relevant entities that account for a pitch contour are associated to two elements: 1) the nuclear syllable and 2) the accented syllables in the head (if there is a head). The types of tones differ depending on their position: nuclear position or pre-nuclear (head) position. In the following section, we will be looking at the tone inventory in more detail. Nuclear tones Nuclear tones are associated to the nuclear syllable. The inventory of nuclear tones includes five simple tones (with one pitch trajectory) and two complex tones (with two pitch trajectories), as indicated below. The simple tones indicate the origin of the pitch (high, low or mid) and direction of the pitch (fall, rise or level). The complex tones show the combination of two pitch trajectories (fall-rise and rise-fall). Simple tones Complex tones High-fall Fall-rise Low-fall Rise-fall High-rise Low-rise Mid-level The following table includes: 1) the inventory of tones, 2) the diacritics (symbols) used to represent each tone, 2) the description of the pitch movement for each tone and 4) a schematic representation of the tone. Tone inventory Diacritics Description Schematization Simple tones High-fall No High pitch falling to low and staying low and level to the end of the intonation pattern Low-fall  No Mid pitch falling to low and staying low and level to the end of the intonation pattern High-rise No Mid pitch rising to a high pitch to the end of the intonation pattern Low-rise  No Low pitch rising to a mid pitch to end of the intonation pattern Mid-level > No Mid pitch sustained to the end of the intonation pattern 11 Asignatura: Pronunciación de la lengua inglesa Grado en Estudios Ingleses: Lengua, Literatura y Cultura (UNED) Unit 6: Focus and intonation Eva Estebas Vilaplana Complex tones Fall-rise No High pitch falling to low and rising again at the end of the intonation pattern Rise-fall  No Low pitch rising to high (or mid), then falling to low and finally levelling out to the end of the intonation pattern Note that the realization of each tone may vary depending on whether there is a tail after the nuclear syllable or not. If there is no tail, the pitch movement will take place within the limits of the accented syllable. If there is tail, the pitch movement will start on the nuclear syllable and expand over the syllables in the tail. Examples of the realization of nuclear tones with and without tail are provided below. The diacritic  located on the first syllable of the word singing indicates that this syllable is stressed but not accented. Nuclear tones Without tail With tail High-fall No Mel a nie’s sing ing Low-fall No  Mel a nie’s sing ing High-rise No  Mel a nie’s sing ing Low-rise  No  Mel a nie’s sing ing Mid-level > No > Mel a nie’s sing ing 12 Asignatura: Pronunciación de la lengua inglesa Grado en Estudios Ingleses: Lengua, Literatura y Cultura (UNED) Unit 6: Focus and intonation Eva Estebas Vilaplana categorized as H L since the pitch trajectory from high (H) to low (L) involves a fall. Thus, “HL” would be another way of accounting for a “high-fall”. The second difference between the two traditions is the way intonation phrases are interpreted. Whereas the British tradition decomposes an intonation phrase into a nuclear and a pre-nuclear configuration, the American tradition does not differentiate between nuclear and pre-nuclear accents. According to the American School, each stressed syllable may become accented, which means that it may me associated to one of the preceding tones (H, L or M). In order to account for the final movement of an intonation phrase, the American School introduced the concept of boundary tones, that is, tones that occur at the final edge of an intonation phrase. These tones are not associated to stressed syllables but to the limits of intonation units. Thus, the falling contour of the following example would be modelled as an H tone on the stressed syllable *Mel and a low boundary tone at the end of the phrase. *Mel a nie H L The American tradition of intonational analysis embraces a rather large variety of theoretical frameworks with different proposals to model intonation. All these models have two common features: 1) the analysis of the pitch contours by means of level tones and 2) the presence of boundary tones. The early works within the American School proposed a tone inventory based on numbers. Thus, for example tone 4 was a high tone and tone 1 a low tone. Again the combination 4 1 indicated a high fall. Boundary tones were indicated by means of the following diacritics: # (fall), ⎪⎪ (rise) and ⎪ (level). According to this theoretical proposal the following pitch contour would be modelled as illustrated below where 3 indicates a mid-high pitch, 2 a mid-low pitch and 1 a low pitch. The symbol # stands for a final fall. My *sis ter’s *nice 3 2 1 # One of the latest and most influential frameworks of intonational analysis within the American tradition is the Autosegmental-Metrical approach whose tenets have been used to create a system for intonational annotation known as the ToBI (Tone and Break Indices) system. According to the Autosegmental-Metrical framework and the ToBI system, intonation contours can be described by means of two tones, H (high) and L (low), which can be associated to stressed syllables or to the edges (breaks) of the intonation phrases. When the tones are associated with stressed syllables, they are marked with an asterisk. Thus, H* and L* indicate that a high pitch and a low pitch occur within a stressed (accented) syllable. When the tones are associated with the right 15 Asignatura: Pronunciación de la lengua inglesa Grado en Estudios Ingleses: Lengua, Literatura y Cultura (UNED) Unit 6: Focus and intonation Eva Estebas Vilaplana edge of an intonation phrase, they are marked with %. Thus, H% and L% stand for a high pitch and a low pitch respectively at the end of the pitch contour. According to this model, the following pitch contour would be described as H* L%. *Mel a nie H* L% The possibility of analyzing pitch contours by means of two tones only (H and L) derives from the fact that this model assumes that H and L can have different realizations. For example, in a pitch contour produced with a series of H* accents, each H* accent will be produced at a lower level than the preceding accent. Despite differences in the realizations of these H* accents, they are still interpreted as H*. The convention proposed by the Autosegmental-Metrical framework to indicate that an H* accent is lower than the preceding one is by means of the symbol ! (!H*). Thus, for example, the two high accents of following pitch contour will be described as H* !H*, as illustrated below. My *sis ter’s *nice H* !H* L% Apart from H* and L*, the tone inventory proposed by the Autosegmental-Metrical framework also includes bitonal accents, that is, accents which are made up of two tonal targets, namely, L*+H, L+H*, H*+L and H+L*. These tones can only be associated to stressed syllables but not at the edge of a pitch contour. In a bitonal accent, the tone with the asterisk indicates that this tone is realized within the accented syllable. The tone preceding the starred one is realized on the preceding (unstressed) syllable. The tone following the starred one is realized on the following (unstressed) syllable. For example, L*+H indicates that the stressed syllable has a low pitch and the following unstressed syllable has a high pitch. An example of an intonation phrase containing a bitonal accent (L*+H) is provided below for the sequence *Mary’s which exhibits a low pitch on the stressed syllable (*Ma) followed by a high pitch on the following unstressed syllable (ry’s). *Ma ry’s a *broad. L*+H L% The insights of both the British School and the American School (including the Autosegmental-Metrical framework) of intonational analysis are much more complex than what we have presented here. If you wish to learn more about them, you should 16 Asignatura: Pronunciación de la lengua inglesa Grado en Estudios Ingleses: Lengua, Literatura y Cultura (UNED) Unit 6: Focus and intonation Eva Estebas Vilaplana refer to the recommended bibliography. As a brief summary, you should remember that the two schools respond to two traditions of intonational modelling: 1) the configurational approach of the British tradition 2) the level approach of the American tradition. 6. Comparing approaches As presented so far, the modelling of English intonation has followed two proposals: the British School whose description of intonation reflects the pitch trajectories of the contours and the American School which analyzes intonation as a series of level tones located on the stressed syllables and at the edges to the pitch contours. The description of intonation proposed in this course is somehow a merging of the two traditions. As far as the notation conventions are concerned, we are using a system close to the American school. We model intonation by means of three tones, H (high), M (mid) and L (low), which are associated to stressed syllables (marked with an asterisk) and to the right edge of the contour. An example (reproduced from the book, page 212) is provided below. In this example, we can see that the first stressed syllable (*Where) is produced with an H tone, the second stressed syllable (*hosp) is produced with an L tone and that the pitch rises slightly at the end of the contour into a mid (M) pitch. *Where’s the *hosp it al? H L M We think that the association of H, M and L to stressed syllables and to the end of an intonation phrase is a quite clear way to tell students where they are expected to produce the relevant intonation movements to convey a given meaning. However, as far as the possible combinations of tones and their meanings are concerned, our proposal is closer to the British tradition. In other words, the combinations of tones we present in this course reflect the tonal configurations (nuclear and pre-nuclear) of the British tradition in the following way. Nuclear tones Pre-nuclear tones High-fall H L High H Low-fall M L Low M (not L) High-rise M H Low-rise L M Mid-level M M Fall-rise H L H Rise-fall L H L Finally, it is important to note that no matter which system we use for the analysis of intonation, the intonational patterns of a language are always the same. That is, the 17