Research and Pedagogical Materials on Spanish Intonation: A Re-Examination

Abstract

NTONATION is one of the least understood areas of Spanish phonology. There has been a paucity of basic research, and the void is reflected in the quality and scope of current pedagogical applications. Recent analytical developments in the field suggest that a re-examination of the linkage between basic research and pedagogical applications is in order, for established ideas have been challenged. Methodological advances have been made that need to be translated into intonational instruction. This article re-examines major studies of Spanish intonation which serve as source materials for pedagogical applications and also the pedagogical materials themselves. Attention is drawn to the basic approaches (methodology, theory) of the source material, as they influence the validity and utility of the Spanish pedagogical material. The various approaches are acoustic and/or perceptual, theoretical (e.g., structural), dialect, speech style, and age, sex, and socioeconomic status of informants, and transcription. Intonation usually refers to the melody or pitch (perceptual dimension), or the fundamental frequency (acoustic dimension). Along with a re-examination of the pedagogicallyoriented literature, recent acoustic research will also be discussed, for such research on Spanish intonation elucidates a number of features which perceptual analyses (the majority of extant work) may only hint at. The recent acoustically based research is not reflected in the pedagogical literature.' It has been my experience in remedial pronunciation and phonetics classes for advanced Spanish students that intonation is just about the most difficult speech habit to change. Phonetics books are limited in their presentations and often leave intonation to the end of the book and/or with the intonation section usually comprehending a small percentage of the total phonology studied. Specific information on contours, finalities, sentence-initial rise, and the like, is presented in the vaguest of terms, if at all. For example, we must interpret contours from a pitch level and juncture analysis in much of the literature. Most pedagogical materials treat Spanish intonation as a single monolithic en ity, as if there were no dialectal or style differences. Yet dialectal literature hints at striking intonational variety; there are impressionistic statements of the grave quality of Castilian as compared to the agudo quality of Spanish-American dialects.2 Navarro Tomis says that intonational differences are to be found in finalities and the main body of the phrase.3 Moreover, we have little idea about syntactic boundaries as signalled by certain intonational shapes within conversational Spanish as a whole, much less regarding dialectal differences.