Lexical Stress in Brazilian Portuguese in Contrast with Spanish (original) (raw)
Related papers
Primary Word Stress in Brazilian Portuguese and the Weight Parameter
In this paper, we develop an analysis of primary word stress in Brazilian Portuguese (BP). We evaluate the typological and language-specific arguments that are presented in the literature against the relevance of syllable weight in Portuguese, and show that none of them appears to be valid when confronted with cross-linguistic evidence or the facts of BP phonology. We then go on to show that stress in BP represents a mixed system, in which verbs receive stress as a function of the morphological categories of tense (past, present, future), whereas stress in non-verbs is prosody-based and sensitive to the distinction between heavy and light syllables. We finally propose a constraint analysis of this system, which we claim functions in the lexical part of a stratified model.
Productive and unproductive stress patterns in Brazilian portuguese
In this paper, we provide a constraint-based analysis of main stress location in Brazilian Portuguese (BP) non-verbs, departing from the assumption that stress is quantity sensitive in non-verbal words. Based on the native speakers’ treatment of newly created vocabulary, we separate productive and unproductive stress patterns. In BP, main stress respects a three-syllable window, which we interpret at the theoretical level as a left-dominant main stress constituent, which must be aligned with the right edge of the word. Universal conditions on branching structure restrict the maximal size of the main-stress constituent to three syllables. Within our proposal, there is no need for mora-extrametricality or non-finality, at least in BP.
This paper investigates the presence of phrase-initial high tones in Brazilian Portuguese (BP) and in Peninsular Spanish neutral declaratives. Like in other recent work, we observe that neutral declarative sentences in BP very frequently present high initial pitch events, which may be classified as either pitch accents or phrasal tones. We further observe that phrasal tones in initial position in BP neutral declaratives can be expressed as either a peak or a plateau. By analyzing comparable materials in Peninsular Spanish, we conclude that this language lacks the phrase-initial high tone phenomenon, also in agreement with previous work. We argue that F0 is a less reliable cue of stress in BP than in Spanish, since pitch excursions frequently occur on phrase-initial syllables that lack lexical stress. To compensate for this diminished reliability, duration plays a much greater role as a cue of lexical stress in BP than in Spanish. As the reliability of F0 as a cue of stress decreases, the reliability of another stress cue increases.
This work aims at characterising and comparing acoustic correlates of lexical stress in Swedish and Brazilian Portuguese (BP). For doing so, a parallel corpus was recorded in three speaking styles (spontaneous, read phrases and read words) with 10 subjects in each language. In both languages duration, F0 standard-deviation and spectral emphasis values for vowels tend to be higher in comparison with unstressed position. These parameters are also robust across styles. F0 standard-deviation is more effective in distinguishing stress levels in Swedish than in BP.
Revista de Estudos da Linguagem, 2019
many adults who learn a second language have a foreign accent to some extent. The misproduction of lexical stress (LS), which plays an important role in the prosodic structure of speech, contributes to the perception of a heavier foreign accent. Twenty-four Brazilian Portuguese (BP) speakers of English of four different selfreported levels underwent tests of production and perception of LS. This study aimed to describe how production and perception of lexical stress happen to BP speakers of four different self-reported levels. Acoustic data, as well as the percentage of scores in stress placement, were collected and compared to the production of a native speaker of American English (AmE). Syllable duration, total intensity, and relative intensity were the most important parameters used by the BP speakers to stress syllables. Hits in the perception task were greater than the production task, overall. Initially stressed words had the greatest hits in both production and perception. Overall, the BP speakers from this use, in AmE, the same acoustic parameters used in BP for signaling LS. The production, in regards of acoustic parameters use, gets closer to the native when the proficiency level increases. Cognate words were not relevant in the acoustic parameters choice of the speakers, but they were relevant for the stress position hits.
Stress and related phenomena in Brazilian (Natal) Portuguese
1994
This thesis is devoted to the study of stress and related phenomena in the dialect of Brazilian Portuguese (BP) spoken in Natal. We assume a version of Metrical Theory where the principles of Government Phonology are incorporated. An analysis of the assignment of stress to three grammatical categories is presented: verbs, nouns, and adjectives. The analysis offered is an attempt to prove that these three grammatical categories are assigned stress with a single set of parameters available in the Universal Grammar. The analysis is divided in two parts. Part I consists of a discussion of various aspects of verbs. The insertion of clitics in the Future and the Conditional is discussed to some extent. Other aspects analysed include the relations of government expressed through vowel harmony, less obvious derivations where harmonized primarily stressed nuclei arise, and cases where the spreading of elements occurs. Nouns and adjectives are analysed in Part II. Of the three patterns of str...
XVth ICPhS, 2003
The aim of this paper is twofold: (a) to investigate possible differences in durational patterns within phrase stress groups contrasting stress clash vs nonclash condition, and (b) to test the assumptions of a coupled-oscillator model of speech rhythm production. Measures of duration for relevant units in isolated read sentences uttered by four subjects were statistically analyzed and tonal events were annotated. The pattern that emerges from the analyses is that of a monotonous increasing of duration of syllablesized units when approaching phrasal stress. These results contradict the Rhythm Rule and seem to indicate that no apparent, systematic, duration-related stress shift seems to take place in Brazilian Portuguese.
Traces, pro and Stress Shift in Brazilian Portuguese
Journal of Portuguese Linguistics, 2003
This paper deals with the phonology-syntax interface by discussing the role of empty categories in the resolution of stress clash in Brazilian Portuguese. I argue that the stress clash in a V ec Adv environment can be resolved by retraction of the first stress if ec is a trace of movement, but not if it is a null pronoun (pro). I show also that the blocking of stress shift in Brazilian Portuguese is not a consequence of Case marking.
Distinguishing emphatic and Prosodic Word initial stresses: evidence from Brazilian Portuguese
In European Portuguese (EP), emphatic stress and initial stress have been reported to be optionally assigned to the first (or in some cases the second) syllable of a Prosodic Word (PW) ([1]). In Brazilian Portuguese (BP), initial stress (and/or Htone) has been claimed to be assigned with reference to the primary stress position and be dependent on the number of pretonic syllables within a PW ([2]). [3], [4] and [5] suggest that in BP secondary stress assignment essentially signals the beginning of the PW in emphatic contexts, however. Although [5] reports that in emphatic contexts the initial stress and the 'H-tone' can coincide with a secondary stress, the nature of this type of stress and the difference between emphatic stress and PW initial stress in BP is in general not discussed. In this paper we argue that, although the two types of stresses in BP are tonally signaled, they are distinct, both in function and in distribution. Empirical data from two varieties of Portuguese spoken in Brazil (Paraná and Minas Gerais states) are presented, showing that the emphatic stress has a wider distribution than the initial stress, in neutral contexts. The emphatic stress may occur in any syllable from the stressed syllable leftwards, within the PW, including the syllable immediately adjacent to word-stress. The initial stress, by contrast, is found on the first or second pretonic syllable of PW, and there is a minimal distance of two syllables between initial stress and word-stress (e.g. governaDOres 'governors') ([2]). We argue that the initial stress is an edge phenomenon, marking PW initial positions, unlike the emphatic stress. In both cases, the tonal association is evidence for the PW domain in BP, because neither type of stress exceeds the limits of this domain (i.e. none of them can appear in post-tonic syllables of non-final PW).
Bootstrapping in the acquisition of word stress in Brazilian Portuguese
Journal of Portuguese Linguistics, 2003
This paper deals with the acquisition of word stress in Brazilian Portuguese. In the course of acquisition, children use several strategies to mark stress prominence before the adult algorithm of primary stress is used productively. I argue that the prominences found in children´s early utterances do not reflect word stress but prominences of a higher prosodic level. In other words, children use the stress information available in higher prosodic domains as a cue for the acquisition of the algorithm of primary stress.