Phrasal prominences do not need pitch movements: postfocal phrasal heads in Italian

Informationally Given phrases following an instance of focus are generally realized in a compressed pitch range and are assumed to lack prosodic prominences above the word level. In this paper, we address the question of the metrical representation of postfocal constituents in Tuscan Italian. The results of a production experiment show that, despite their being realized with a low and flat F0 contour, postfocal constituents are not extrametrical, but are phrased and assigned metrical prominences of phrasal level. The impact of our results on the prosodic representation of Italian is discussed

Can the metrical structure of Italian motivate focus fronting?

This paper addresses the issue of the interplay between discourse-related properties, syntax, and prosody in Italian. How this interplay between prosody, syntax, and information structure is to be conceptualized is lively debated in the literature. The theoretical relevance of this issue is not marginal, because it gives rise to several core questions with regard to the architecture of the grammar. According to the cartographic approach (Rizzi 1997; Cinque and Rizzi 2008; and much related work), discourse-related properties are encoded as active features in the syntax, and focus fronting is an instance of feature-driven syntactic movement. Reinhart (1995, 2006) proposes a radically different view: focus and d-linking are encoded at PF (Phonetic Form). Building on Reinhart\u27s work, Szendr?i (2001, 2002) develops a model in which PF information is directly available at the conceptual-intentional interface. Under this approach, discourse-related phrasal movement is not feature driven, but takes place to repair potential mismatches at the PF-LF interface. Focus movement in Italian is analyzed as prosodically motivated by the need to align focus with main prominence and to destress given information (in the sense of Schwarzschild 1999). The key component of this analysis is that postfocal elements in Italian are extraprosodic and destressed. The aim of this paper is twofold. First, we want to address the issue of the metrical representation of postfocal and given constituents in Italian. Second, we want to ascertain on empirical grounds the prosodic assumptions underpinning the stress-based approach to focus movement. On the basis of a production experiment, we propose an analysis of the metrical structure of Italian according to which phrasing and head assignment apply exhaustively. We show that postfocal elements, though given, are assigned phrase-level metrical heads by virtue of default syntax-prosody mapping rules. Accordingly, we claim that Italian fails to destress given information, and that rightmostness of prosodic heads is violated when focus does not occurs in sentence-final position: postfocal constituents are neither extraprosodic nor destressed. These conclusions strongly undermine the stress-based approach. On the basis of a comprehension experiment, we further support the validity of our analysis showing that the distribution of phrase-level metrical heads and boundaries in postfocal contexts are used by listeners in sentence comprehension

Focus contrastivo nella periferia sinistra della frase: un solo accento ma non solo un accento

No abstract availableIn questo lavoro abbiamo investigato le propriet? prosodiche (metriche e intonative) che caratterizzano le frasi con Focus Contrastivo (FC) nella periferia sinistra della frase (Rizzi, 1997). Per valutare la portata di differenti configurazione sintattiche e interpretative, abbiamo costruito e sottoposto ad analisi acustica un corpus di frasi lette (italiano parlato a Siena), contenente frasi con Focus Contrastivo e, quale mezzo di confronto, frasi in Focus Ampio (FA) e con Topic dislocati a sinistra con ripresa clitica (Topic) (Cinque, 1990). Indipendentemente dalla presenza di un ordine superficiale dei costituenti in grado di disambiguare l\u27interpretazione contrastiva, all\u27attivazione della proiezione di Focus corrispondono sistematicamente un insieme di caratteristiche prosodiche che non sono confinate al costituente focalizzato ma che caratterizzano tutta l\u27articolazione FC-Presupposizione. Sia l\u27analisi intonativa che metrica, tanto percettiva che quantitativa, ci hanno portato a concludere che tutta l\u27articolazione FC-Presupposizione ? realizzata all\u27interno di un unico Sintagma Intonativo, al cui interno la prominenza principale ? assegnata al costituente focalizzato e non al costituente pi? a destra, come invece avviene nelle frasi in FA. Dal punto di vista intonativo, la prominenza associata al costituente focalizzato ? costituita da un accento ascendente per il quale proponiamo la trascrizione L+H*, gi? proposta per il FC in situ nella variet? fiorentina (Avesani & Vayra, 2003, 2004). Poich? la Presupposizione di Focus ? priva di accenti intonativi, mentre il Comment di Topic ? portatore di un accento intonativo nucleare, H+L* nel nostro corpus, arriviamo a concludere che Focus e Topic ricevono un trattamento distinto nel componente fonologico. L\u27assenza nella Presupposizione e la presenza nel Comment di un accento nucleare ci sembra essere collegata alle differenti propriet? interpretative che caratterizzano il FC (Calabrese, 1982; Belletti, 2004) e i Topic (B?ring, 1997; Bocci, in stampa). Se le nostre analisi sono corrette, inoltre, possiamo scartare l\u27ipotesi che la prosodia del FC sia derivata a partire dal Focus Ampio semplicemente attraverso la cancellazione degli accenti sulla Presupposizione. In conclusione, il raffronto tra frasi in FC e in FA indica che le differenti propriet? prosodiche delle due strutture non possono essere ridotte unicamente ad un fatto di allineamento tra Focus e prominenza principale poich? gli accenti intonativi nucleari coinvolti sono tipologicamente opposti. Allo stesso tempo, le caratteristiche prosodiche associate alla presenza del FC investono tutta la struttura intonativa dell\u27articolazione discorsiva e, pertanto, non possono essere ridotte all\u27associazione di un accento intonativo idiosincratico

On the articulatory bases of prominence in Italian

No abstract availabl

Does prosody meet syntax? A case study on standard Italian cleft sentences and left peripheral focus.

In this work we deal with two structures that have a very similar pragmatic function in Italian and have been claimed to have similar semantic and syntactic properties, namely clefts and left peripheral focus. Since Chomsky (1977. On wh-movement. In Peter W. Culicover, Thomas Wasow & Adrian Akmajian (eds.), Formal Syntax, 71\u2013132. New York: Academic Press.) they have been both considered as instances of A\u2019-movement and should therefore behave alike. Here we investigate their prosody and their syntax on the basis of three experimental studies and show that while the prosodic patterns found are indeed very similar, their syntax is less homogenous than expected if we apply general tests that have been traditionally used to distinguish A- from A\u2019- movement. In particular, we will discuss three of these tests, namely parasitic gaps, weak crossover and anaphoric binding and show that the two constructions yield quite different results. We analyse the differences within the framework of featural relativized minimality originally proposed in Rizzi (2004. Locality and the left periphery. In Adriana Belletti (ed.), Structures and Beyond: The Cartography of Syntactic Structures 3, 223\u2013251. Oxford: Oxford University Press.) and subsequent work. On this basis, we conclude that there is no one to one match between prosodic and syntactic properties, since we observe differences in the syntactic behaviour of the two constructions that do not surface in the prosodic patterns. Indirectly, this study sheds new light on the interface between prosody and syntax and is a confirmation of a modular theory of the components of grammar: some specific syntactic properties have no reflex in other components of grammar and can only be detected through purely syntactic tests

Is it prosody that settles the syntactic issue? An analysis of italian cleft sentences

The present study aims at investigating the prosodic realization of Italian cleft sentences, in order to provide some new cues for their still debated syntactic interpretation. A monoclausal approach to the analysis of cleft sentences (a.o. Frascarelli & Ramaglia 2013) parallels them to left focalization constructions, while a biclausal approach (a.o. Belletti 2008) considers them composed of a main copular clause and an embedded pseudo-relative clause. A systematic comparison between cleft sentences and left focalizations \u2013 carried out through an experimental study and an analysis of pitch accent distribution, scaling, and prosodic phrasing \u2013 leads to conclude that their prosodic realization is very similar. Prosody would thus suggest a monoclausal interpretation of cleft sentences, if we assume a direct matching between prosodic and syntactic phrases.The present study aims at investigating the prosodic realization of Italian cleft sentences, in order to provide some new cues for their still debated syntactic interpretation. A monoclausal approach to the analysis of cleft sentences (a.o. Frascarelli & Ramaglia 2013) parallels them to left focalization constructions, while a biclausal approach (a.o. Belletti 2008) considers them composed of a main copular clause and an embedded pseudo-relative clause. A systematic comparison between cleft sentences and left focalizations \u2013 carried out through an experimental study and an analysis of pitch accent distribution, scaling, and prosodic phrasing \u2013 leads to conclude that their prosodic realization is very similar. Prosody would thus suggest a monoclausal interpretation of cleft sentences, if we assume a direct matching between prosodic and syntactic phrases

Disentagling and Connecting Different Perspectives on Prosodic Prominence

Wagner P, Origlia A, Avesani C, et al. Disentagling and Connecting Different Perspectives on Prosodic Prominence. Presented at the ICPL 2015, Cologne

A Sound Approach to Language Matters: In Honor of Ocke-Schwen Bohn

The contributions in this Festschrift were written by Ocke’s current and former PhD-students, colleagues and research collaborators. The Festschrift is divided into six sections, moving from the smallest building blocks of language, through gradually expanding objects of linguistic inquiry to the highest levels of description - all of which have formed a part of Ocke’s career, in connection with his teaching and/or his academic productions: “Segments”, “Perception of Accent”, “Between Sounds and Graphemes”, “Prosody”, “Morphology and Syntax” and “Second Language Acquisition”. Each one of these illustrates a sound approach to language matters

Phrasal Prominences do not need Pitch Movements: Postfocal Phrasal Heads in Italian

Informationally Given phrases following an instance of focus are generally realized in a compressed pitch range and are generally assumed to lack prosodic prominences. In this paper, we address the question of the metrical representation of postfocal constituents in Tuscan Italian. The results of a production experiment show that, despite their being realized with a low and flat F0 contour, postfocal constituents are not extrametrical, but are phrased and assigned phrasal metrical prominences of phrasal level. The impact of our results on the prosodic representation of Italian and on the information structure-prosody interface are discussed

Prefazione

Il volume presenta contributi che possono essere raccolti intorno ad alcuni nuclei tematici considerati centrali nell\u2019ambito della Laboratory Phonology: le restrizioni fonetiche sul mutamento in diacronia e sulla variazione sincronica linguistica e sociofonetica (con particolare riferimento alle variet\ue0 linguistiche d\u2019area italiana e romanza, ma non solo); l\u2019acquisizione fonetico-fonologica di una lingua seconda e i processi di destrutturazione sonora della lingua prima. A questi nuclei principali si affiancano contributi sulla codifica neurale dei suoni del parlato e sul rapporto speciale che lega, entro una comunicazione di tipo multimodale, la componente orale alla componente gestuale nella Lingua dei Segni Italiana. In chiusura, una sezione dedicata alla \u201cgenerazione\u201d automatica della lingua parlata, nelle sue strutture e nelle sue variazioni, per mezzo dei sistemi di trattamento automatico delle lingue naturali. Il libro trae origine dalle tre intense giornate dell\u2019XI Convegno dell\u2019AISV (Associazione Italiana di Scienze della Voce), svoltosi a Bologna nel gennaio 2015 su una sollecitazione di ispirazione jakobsoniana. Intitolato Il farsi e il disfarsi del linguaggio. L\u2019emergere, il mutamento e la patologia della struttura sonora del linguaggio, il convegno intendeva infatti proporre all\u2019attenzione degli studiosi il tema del classico e insieme rivoluzionario saggio di Roman Jakobson, Kindersprache, Aphasie und allgemeine Lautgesetze, che nel 1941 lanciava l\u2019idea di un nesso fra acquisizione, afasia e leggi del mutamento fonico, generali e diacroniche. La proposta di discutere questi temi alla luce delle teorie linguistiche attuali \ue8 stata raccolta da studiosi affermati insieme a giovani e valenti ricercatori, italiani e stranieri. Il volume ospita una selezione dei lavori presentati in quella sede, sottoposti a blind peer review dal nutrito comitato scientifico del convegno: nella veste che qui si propone essi costituiscono il frutto del confronto a tratti serrato e sempre costruttivo che ha caratterizzato in un clima informale le giornate di studio bolognesi. I saggi sono raccolti in tre parti, dedicate a: \u201cVariazione fonetica, restrizioni sulla variazione e mutamento\u201d; \u201cAcquisizione, destrutturazione e codifica neurale della struttura sonora del linguaggio\u201d; \u201cTrattamento automatico delle lingue naturali\u201d