Academic literature on the topic 'Metrical-autosegmental theory'

Historically, the behavioral theory of articulation that was applied to clinical assessment was consistent with the behavioral theory of developmental change that was applied to intervention. However, more recent applications of cognitively oriented linguistic theories have not been accompanied by novel intervention approaches. This article reviews some recent advances in phonological theories, including autosegmental, metrical, and lexical phonology, and their potential applications. A new theory of developmental change that also is cognitive in its orientation is presented, along with some preliminary suggestions for clinical applications.

This paper takes a fresh look at the theoretical relationship between linguistic rhythm and linguistic melody, arguing for a closer connection between metrical structure and intonational organization than is typically assumed. The focus of this paper is the theoretical treatment of word-medial intonational targets in languages without stress, since at first glance, such word-medial targets challenge the core assumption of the autosegmental-metrical theory of intonation that all intonational targets are aligned either with a stressed syllable or with the edge of a prosodic domain. I propose that this theoretical dilemma may be resolved by taking into account foot edges as possible alignment sites for edge tones. The claim that intonational tones may be aligned with foot edges is supported with new data from the Papuan language Fataluku. The implications of such an analysis for other stressless languages are also discussed.

The pitch realisations of the accentual systems in Osaka Japanese (OJ) and Kagoshima Japanese (KJ) have been auditorily described in detail, and analysed within various phonological frameworks. However, little linguistic-phonetic descriptive research has been undertaken on the accent types of Japanese dialects in such a way as to enable a cross-dialectal comparison of their acoustic realisation. In this study, linguistic-tonetic representations of OJ and KJ tonalities are derived from normalised acoustic representations for pitch patterns conventionally described as LH, LHL, LLH and LLLH. A comparison of these representations across the two dialects demonstrates some significant differences in the acoustic realisation of the H/L units. The implications of these observed differences for surface tonal representation of KJ within Autosegmental-Metrical theory are also explored.

In this paper I shall present a theory of phonetic interpretation of headed phonological representations. The phonological representations in question are non-segmental, hierarchical, graphical objects similar to those in common use in autosegmental, metrical, dependency and ‘government and charm’ phonology, although the details of the phonological formalism I employ are different in some respects from each of these. The theory of phonetic interpretation is based on a parametric, dynamic model of phonetic representation. The distinction between ‘head’ and ‘non-head’ constituents is central to the phonetic interpretation model. As well as being formally explicit, I have developed a computational implementation of this theory, constituting a novel speech synthesis program, ‘YorkTalk’. Consequently, although the theory, like any other, is likely to contain certain faults, it goes beyond pencil-and-paper phonological theories, in that it is capable of algorithmically generating quite natural-sounding speech-like signals of a superior quality to other methods of generating synthetic speech, albeit only for isolated words.

ResumenEl presente trabajo procura determinar y comparar los mecanismos entonacionales utilizados para establecer contraste entre el inglés RP y español de Chile. Para este fin,se han empleado corpora de habla espontánea del español de Chile y de la variedad RP del inglés. Los enunciados contrastivos fueron sometidos a análisis acústico, empleando un software especializado y el modelo de fonología entonacional Métrico Autosegmental. Las conclusiones más sobresalientes son las siguientes: (i) la marcación prosódica decontraste aparece como un rasgo mayormente predominante en inglés RP que en español chileno; (ii) el español presenta dos patrones que ocurren con cierta frecuencia: (H*+L) y (L+H+, L*+H); sin embargo, en inglés, el uso de (H*) sobrepasa ampliamente e nnúmero los otros patrones también detectados y (iii) en inglés el uso de (H*) se utiliza en más del 50% de los casos detectados.Palabras clave: Foco, foco contrastivo, pico tonal, acento tonal, patrón entonacional.AbstractThis paper attempts to determine and contrast the intonational mechanisms used in RP English and Chilean Spanish to mark contrastiveness. To this end, corpora of spontaneous speech have been used. The utterances were acoustically analysed, making use of the Autosegmental-Metrical model of intonational phonology.Key words: Focus, contrastive focus, peak accent, pitch accent, intonation pattern

The study of phonotactics is a central topic in phonology. We propose a theory of phonotactic grammars and a learning algorithm that constructs such grammars from positive evidence. Our grammars consist of constraints that are assigned numerical weights according to the principle of maximum entropy. The grammars assess possible words on the basis of the weighted sum of their constraint violations. The learning algorithm yields grammars that can capture both categorical and gradient phonotactic patterns. The algorithm is not provided with constraints in advance, but uses its own resources to form constraints and weight them. A baseline model, in which Universal Grammar is reduced to a feature set and an SPE-style constraint format, suffices to learn many phonotactic phenomena. In order for the model to learn nonlocal phenomena such as stress and vowel harmony, it must be augmented with autosegmental tiers and metrical grids. Our results thus offer novel, learning-theoretic support for such representations. We apply the model in a variety of learning simulations, showing that the learned grammars capture the distributional generalizations of these languages and accurately predict the findings of a phonotactic experiment.

AbstractThe objective of this work is analysing absolute interrogative sentences from the Spanish of San Antonio de Texas using three corpus featuring different levels of spontaneity (formal ad hoc, situational and conversational), and uttered by native speakers with superior studies. The choice of these corpus and their acoustic analyses have been performed according to the methodology established by the international project AMPER (Atlas Multimédia Prosodique de l’Espace Roman). Furthermore, we have undertaken the phonetic-phonological labelling of the boundary tones and of initial and nuclear pitch accents within the framework of the autosegmental-metrical model. This study has been carried out with the aim of contributing to the knowledge of Texan intonation, in order to make comparisons with other varieties of Spanish language as well as to include it in the international Atlas AMPER. We hypothesize that interrogatives from the informants considered follow the patterns described for Mexican interrogatives (Sosa, 1999; Ávila, 2003; Martín Butragueño, 2004, among others), taking into account the geographical location of San Antonio de Texas in relation to Mexico and the influence of Mexican immigration, which has a strong presence in San Antonio. Results provide evidence of such influence, particularly in the final ascent of the F0.

Under the autosegmental-metrical (AM) theory of intonation, the temporal alignment of fundamental frequency (F0) patterns with respect to syllables has been claimed to distinguish pitch accent categories. Several experiments test whether differences in F0 peak or valley alignment in American English phrases would produce evidence consistent with a change from (1) a H* to a H+L* pitch accent, and (2) a L* to a L+H* pitch accent. Four stimulus series were constructed in which F0 peak or valley alignment was shifted across portions of short phrases with varying stress. In Experiment 1, participants discriminated pairs of stimuli in an AX task. In Experiment 2, participants classified stimuli as category exemplars using an AXB task. In Experiment 3, participants imitated stimuli; the alignment of F0 peaks and valleys in their productions was measured. Finally, in Experiment 4, participants judged the relative prominence of initial and final syllables in stimuli to determine whether alignment differences generated a stress shift. The results support the distinctions between H* and H+L* and between L+H* and L*. Moreover, evidence consistent with an additional category not currently predicted by most AM theories was obtained, which is proposed here to be H*+H. The results have implications for understanding phonological contrasts, phonetic interpolation in English intonation, and the transcription of prosodic contrasts in corpus-based analysis.

AbstractThe current study is a phonetic description and phonological analysis, using the Autosegmental Metrical (AM) theory of intonational phonology, of broad focus (neutral) declarative utterances in the Spanish of three generations of Miami Cubans. No differences were found across these three generations indicating the maintenance of a robust intonational pattern for declarative utterances. The prenuclear (non-final) pitch accent is analyzed to be L*+H and the nuclear pitch accent is L+H*. This phonological analysis is similar to what has been found for many other varieties of Spanish. A high rate of deaccenting, however, was observed in conjunction with the final lexically stressed syllable. The prevalence of deaccented final stressed syllables is unique to what has been found for other Spanish varieties.

Besides studies based on illocution criteria (Raso Mello, 2009), most studies on Portuguese intonation pertain mainly to read speech, and use for a large part either the autosegmental-metrical framework -- AM - (Frota al., 2007) or, for a small number, a phonosyntactic model (Martin, 1999, 2004). In papers pertaining to the last category, there is a clear assumption that the sentence prosodic structure is independent but associated to syntax. In this view, prosodic contours located on or around stressed syllables function as phonological markers of this prosodic structure. Experimental studies describe for example a high and rising melodic contour located on the first stressed syllable of a subject NP, and either a rising contour (on the stressed syllable) or a complex contour (falling on the stressed syllable and rising on the last syllable) of the last unit of a SN syntagm. Whereas this description is essentially compatible with those given in the AM framework, the validity of AM theory may be questionable if extended to non-prepared (spontaneous) speech. In such cases, a macrosyntactic approach proves to be an effective tool, as it envisions the sentence as a sequence of macrosegments, syntactically well formed in the classical sense, but whose relations of parataxis or dependency with each other are partially determined by the sentence prosodic structure. This paper presents a short example of analysis conducted in this framework, showing the interaction between macrosyntactic and prosodic structures, the latter operation (re)structuring the sequence of macrosegments organized (by definition) in a flat structure in the sentence.

This study proposes that metrical constituents are inherently headless and stress is autosegmental. Chapter 2 argues that, since stress is the only diagnostic for the presence of a metrical head, the latter is redundant and must be eliminated from phonological theory. Further arguments for the inherent headlessness of feet are cited fl:om the theory of prosodic morphology (McCarthy and Prince 1990, Crowhurst 1991b) and from the facts of Yidinʸ stress (Dixon 1977, Crowhurst 1991a, Crowhurst and Hewitt, to appear). Next, stress is shown to exhibit the following auto segmental properties: stability (Bedouin Hijazi Arabic) , morphemic stress (Spanish, Turkish, Tagalog) and the ability to float (Mayo, Tagalog). After comparing the properties of stress with those of autosegments, it is concluded that stress is an autosegment. Assuming that feet can be either disyllabic, bimoraic or iambic (Hayes 1991), the above conclusion predicts the existence of five types of binary stressed feet. These are the left- and right-stressed syllabic foot, instantiated by Warao and Mayo, respectively, the left- and right-stressed moraic foot, instantiated by Cairene Arabic and Turkish, respectively, and the iambic foot, instantiated by Hixkaryana. The asymmetric nature of the iamb is attributed to the Weight-to-Stress Principle (Prince 1990), which allows stress to be assigned directly to heavy syllables. Furthermore, this principle predict6 all and only the attested types of unbounded stress systems. Chapter 5 argues that stressless feet and unfooted stresses are instantiated in Mayo, and the theories of Halle and Vergnaud 1987a, b and Hayes 1987, 1991 are shown to be incapable of accounting for these facts. The autosegmental theory of stress advances phonological theory in three ways. First, it eliminates most of the principles and devices which up to now have been used only to describe stress, leaving only the abstract stress autosegment which is itself subject to the principles of autosegmental theory. Second, this approach attributes many of the apparent differences between stress and tone to differences in their respective domains rather than differences in their formal properties. Third, the autosegmental theory of stress facilitates the formalization of a number of stress systems with heretofore complex analyses, including Yidinʸ, Mayo, Cairene Arabic, Turkish, Khalkha Mongolian and Tagalog.

L’objectif de cette étude est d’apporter une contribution aux recherches portant sur les effets prosodiques du contact de langues à travers l’étude du système prosodique du français centrafricain, une variété de français ayant émergé suite au contact avec une langue africaine à densité tonale maximale, le sango. La République centrafricaine est un pays extrêmement multilingue. Entre 60 et 100 langues y sont parlées, outre les deux langues officielles que constituent le sango – lingua franca, et le français – langue principale de l’enseignement et de l’administration publique. Dans la capitale, Bangui, le sango est la langue parlée d’ordinaire dans la vie quotidienne, tandis que le français s’utilise essentiellement dans des contextes professionnels. Cette étude se base sur des enregistrements de parole spontanée de 12 locuteurs francophones de Bangui. Des analyses acoustiques montrent que l’intonation du français centrafricain partage des caractéristiques communes avec le sango. La majorité de mots ont des patrons tonals qui restent inchangés quel que soit leur place dans l’énoncé, et chaque syllabe porte un ton. Le système se distingue ainsi considérablement du système intonatif du français européen où la courbe mélodique est contrainte au niveau post-lexical et dépend entre autres de facteurs rythmiques, syntaxiques et pragmatiques. La conclusion principale de cette étude est que le français centrafricain se classifie d’un point de vue typologique comme une langue à tons lexicaux. Il ressort que le système prosodique du français centrafricain est plus proche de celui du sango et que de celui du français européen. Les faits mis au jour dans cette thèse montrent que la prosodie peut changer de façon fondamentale dans une situation de contact de langue
This study is concerned with prosody and language contact. The fact that language contact induces change is well documented, but few studies focus on the prosodic effects of contact-induced change. The aim of this study is to provide a case study of the prosodic system of the contact variety Central African French, which has emerged from the contact between French and the African tone language, Sango.The Central African Republic is a multilingual country with between 60 to 100 different regional languages spoken within its borders in addition to two official languages, the lingua franca Sango and French. French has been the main language of education and of public administration since colonial times. In the capital Bangui, Sango is the most used language in everyday communication whereas French is spoken in professional contexts. This study is based on recordings of spontaneous speech of 12 French-speaking informants from Bangui. Acoustic analyses of the recordings show that the prosody of Central African French shares with Sango some fundamental characteristics: most words have fixed tonal patterns independently of their position in the sentence and every syllable carries a static tone. This system greatly differs from the system of European varieties of French, where the sentence melody is determined at the post-lexical level and depends on factors such as rhythm, syntax and pragmatics. The main conclusion of this study is that Central African French may be classified as a tone language and thus is endowed with a prosodic system that is closer to Sango than to European French. This finding suggests that intonation might change radically in contact situations ; the change is not only superficial but concerns the underlying system

This overview of intonation in Arabic compares the intonational systems of selected Arabic dialects from Morocco in the West to Kuwait in the East. The formal comparison will mainly be carried out within the framework of autosegmental-metrical (AM) theory, taking the phonetic micro-prosody of the identified pitch accents as a tertium comparationis. Furthermore, the intonation systems will be compared with respect to prosodic phrasing. The second part of the overview is devoted to the functions of intonation in Arabic. In this section, the comparison will be based on a wider range of descriptions, including work carried out within other theoretical frameworks. The section will identify the role of metrical and tonal structures and the way they interact with syntax, information structure, and sentence mode in different varieties of Arabic. The concluding section will provide a preliminary typological picture of Arabic prosody with respect to the macro-rhythmic properties of Arabic.

Prosodic phenomena such as stress, tone, and intonation have been the focus of much developmental research as well as theoretical work in phonology. This review presents an overview of research that explores the relationship between the development of prosodic phenomena and linguistic models of phonological structure, particularly, metrical stress theory and autosegmental phonology. The review surveys what is currently known about the developmental course of stress, tone, and intonation in infants and children, introduces research that investigates the role of organizational principles of phonological structure in the acquisition of these prosodic phenomena, and discusses the evidence and arguments for this approach toward understanding phonological acquisition.