Investigation of Nonpitch-Accented Phrases In Brazilian Portuguese: No Evidence Favoring Stress Shift (original) (raw)
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Cadernos de estudos linguisticos, 2002
RESUMO Um modelo de osciladores acoplados da produção do ritmo da fala é apresentado, modelo este capaz de reproduzir via simulação os padrões de duração de unidades do tamanho da sílaba em português brasileiro, incluindo casos de encontro acentual. Para tanto, os parâmetros do modelo são otimizados com relação a frases naturais e manipulados convenientemente a fim de reproduzir os dados comportamentais. Ao comparar padrões de duração para três tipos de unidades prosódicas mínimas (sílaba, GIPC e rima) em condição ou não de choque acentual, não se encontrou evidência clara para o deslocamento acentual: os padrões nas duas condições exibem um aumento da duração das unidades em questão em direção ao acento frasal à direita. Discute-se uma possível relação do deslocamento acentual com a colocação do pitch accent bem como com a alternância de proeminências ao longo do enunciado.
Proceedings of Speech Prosody, 2024
This study investigates the prosodic aspects of rhythm and intonation in the production of Brazilian L2 English (BrazE) in comparison to American English (AmE), Indian English (IndE), and Brazilian Portuguese (BP). Previous research suggests that IndE is more syllable-timed in terms of the syllable/stress-timing continuum than L1 varieties of English, such as AmE. The present paper hypothesizes that BrazEdue to L1 cross-linguistic influence of BP, which has been suggested to be syllable-timedhas lower variability of duration-based rhythm and F0 measures compared to AmEjust like IndE. We analyze both duration-based rhythm and F0 measures in only-male read speech of BrazE, AmE, IndE, and BP (with five speakers per variety) using linear mixed-effects modeling. Results show significant differences between both BrazE-AmE and IndE-AmE in duration-based rhythm measures (%C, nPVI-V, ∆-S, YARDS , RR-S, z-scored syllable duration, speech, and articulation rates) and F0 measures (z-scored F0, F0 semi-amplitude interquartile, F0 skewness). Minor, primarily non-significant differences were observed between BrazE and IndE/BP. Overall, with a view to duration-based rhythm and F0 measures, the results confirm our hypothesis that BrazE leans toward the syllable-timed pole of the rhythm continuum, not unlike IndE and 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.
Speech rate and rhythmic variation in Brazilian Portuguese
Speech Prosody …, 2010
This paper discusses new inventive methodologies for the classification of speech rhythms. Moreover, it sheds new light in the search for isochrony in speech by showing that fast rates exacerbates the timing characteristics of rhythms, i.e., syllable-and/or stress-timing properties are more easily perceived at these rates. This finding is supported by an acoustic experiment which showed that the standard deviation of VV duration and/or SG duration is smaller at fast rates. In addition, this work reveal that the decrease of standard deviation of SG and/or VV duration is influenced by many factors such as dialect, gender, and sentence structure. This article, therefore, calls attention to another condition that need to be controlled in the study of speech rhythm: the rhythm variability across dialects.
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.
Secondary stress, intensity and fundamental frequency in Brazilian Portuguese
This paper investigates whether values of acoustical correlates of pretonic syllables adjacent to the one(s) perceived as bearing secondary stress could predict such perception in Brazilian Portuguese (BP) data. In order to pursue this goal, a comparison is made between pretonic syllables perceived as bearing secondary stress and those perceived as not bearing it. According to the results, obtained by application of statistical analyses, it is possible to claim that variation in intensity and in F 0 in syllables perceived as bearing secondary stress, as well as in adjacent syllables, can be taken as a robust correlate for data perception regarding secondary stress placement in BP. Variation in intensity and in F 0 in syllables perceived as bearing secondary stress and variation in intensity and in F 0 in the other adjacent pretonic syllables seem to be complementary information for the perception of secondary stresses by BP speakers. The results point to relevant questions for further work concerning the rhythmic and intonational organization of Brazilian Portuguese.
Correlating Speech Rhythm in Spanish:Evidence from Two Peruvian Dialects
2008
The categorizations of stress-timed, syllable-timed and mora-timed have been used to differentiate between languages according to the domain used in assigning rhythmic patterns in speech. In this view, duration is relatively equal between stresses in stress-timed languages, between syllables in syllable-time languages, and between morae in mora-timed languages (Pike 1946, Abercrombie 1967, Ladefoged 1975). A prediction stemming from this proposed isochrony is that the duration between stresses in syllable-timed languages would be longer with the addition of more unstressed syllables. However, as summarized in Dauer (1983) and Grabe and Low (2002), phonetic research on several languages has not upheld this hypothesis, while others describe the presence of isochronous units as a tendency. Nonetheless, given that speakers often intuitively describe alternate rhythms when comparing languages and dialects, research has continued to examine the acoustic signal to determine the extent to w...