Abstract
Experimental results on Brazilian Portuguese (BP) intonation are reported, concentrating on speakers from the Campinas area. A combined production and perception study shows that four nuclear contours are produced and distinguished: statements (H+L* L%), emphatic statements (same, with higher F0), yes/no-questions (L+H* L%), and surprise questions (L*+H L%). A first semi-compositional analysis of the contours is offered, in which the declarative/interrogative distinction (not marked morphosyntactically on BP yes/no-questions) is encoded by the choice of L* vs. H* pitch accent. A distinction corresponding to English committing vs. non-committing intonation is marked in addition by the choice of bitonal H+L vs. L+H pitch accent. Further, it is shown that focus is marked by four out of our six speakers by the absence of a pitch accent following an early narrow focus, as well as by increased relative length of the focused constituent.
Highlights
In this study, conducted in the Campinas area of Brazil, we present numerical results of production and perception studies on Brazilian Portuguese (BP) intonation that allow us to develop an analysis of core phenomena of BP intonation in the autosegmental-metrical approach (Pierrehumbert 1980, Ladd 1996, Gussenhoven 2004, with the analysis of intonational meaning following Pierrehumbert and Hirschberg 1990 and Bartels 1997)
In non-final position, the tonal contours showed low turning points on the stressed syllables followed by a rise towards the end of the name
In 34/36 tokens there is clear evidence of a high turning point corresponding to H+ in the syllable preceding the stressed syllable
Summary
We can draw on a range of previous literature on BP intonation, most of which builds on other frameworks of intonational analysis. This literature includes first descriptions of contours used in statements and different interrogatives in Gebara (1976), and a suggested set of nuclear contours in Cagliari (1981, 1982) and Massini-Cagliari and Cagliari (2001); Journal of Portuguese Linguistics, 8-1 (2009), 75-114. We compare our results to European Portuguese (EP) with reference to Cruz-Ferreira (1998) and Frota (2000, 2002, to appear)
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