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
1
STRUCTURE
1. Project and data
2. Theoretical background
3. General basic contour: LHiLH*
3.1 Initial accents
3.2 Pitch accents
4. Boundaries
4.1 Continuation contours and hesitations
4.1.1 Continuation rise and sustained pitch
4.1.2 Continuation fall
4.2 Utterance-final contours
4.2.1 Upstepped last prenuclear rise
4.2.2 Delayed peak
5. Conclusion
2
1. PROJECT AND DATA
• Project “Intonation in contact: Occitan and French”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Romance_20c_en.png
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1. PROJECT AND DATA
• Project “Intonation in contact: Occitan and French”
Occitan and French prosody, accentuation and phrasing
– Occitan: word accent on the penultimate or ultimate
– French: phrase final accent
Northern (N-) French: close to standard French
Southern (S-) French: in close contact to Occitan
• Data
Situations 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?’
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1. PROJECT AND DATA
• Data
Map task (http://prosodia.upf.edu/atlasintonacion/)
Summary of the fable “The North wind and the sun” (IPA 1999)
5
1. PROJECT AND DATA
Corpus: speakers from
La Cauna/Lacaune, Tolosa/Toulouse, Lille & Orléans
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2. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
French
• Post (2000): syntactic approach,
lexical accents, deletion process
• Di Cristo (2009):
• Jun & Fougeron (2002),
~ Welby (2006):
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2. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
Occitan
• Hualde (2003a, 2004), Sichel-Bazin (2009):
Tonal movements on syllables that are not metrically strong
 initial or secondary accents
(Hualde 2003a)
8
3. GENERAL BASIC CONTOUR
• in all 3 varieties
LHiLH*
 basic contour in Gallo-Romance intonation
• 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)
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3. GENERAL BASIC CONTOUR
‘to move forward
he folded up’
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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’
12
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
SYLLABLE
to heat up, chau-
PITCH
[ʃo
-ffer up’
heat
fe]
+
+
INTENSITY
+/-
+
DURATION
-
+
+/-
-
Onset consonant strengthening
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3.1 INITIAL ACCENTS in French: clash conditions
‘who
make
SYLLABLE
a bet
pa[pˑa
to…’ -ri
ʁi]
PITCH
-
+
INTENSITY
+
-
DURATION
-
+
Onset consonant strengthening
+
-
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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:
ALIGNMENT: start of the rise
SCALING: tonal level of the H target
PERCEPTION
PRENUCLEAR
NUCLEAR
EARLIER
LATER
HIGH
HIGHER
HIGH LEVEL TONE
RISE
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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’
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4.1.2 CONTINUATION FALL: boundary tones
• Continuation fall: L%
• Utterance-final boundary tone: T#
• IP-final boundary tone: T%
24
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 …’
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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
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– prenuclear AP: upstepped rising contour
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’
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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*?
33
4.2.2 DELAYED PRENUCLEAR PEAKS
‘it is thus
the sun
who is the strongest’
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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
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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
36
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
>
LHiLH*
TT%
– S-French:
AP
> ip
> IP
>
LHiLH*
TT%
– N-French:
AP
?
> IP
>
LHiLH*
?
T%
Evidence for ips in Occitan and S-French:
– prosodic interdependence of certain APs
– presence of IP-internal boundary tones
– ...
 Further research needed
U
T#
U
T#
U
T#
38
ˌmeɾ.se.ˈpla
mɛɾ.ˈsi.bo.ˈku
ˌmɛʁ.si.bo.ˈku.ə
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