The modelling of prenuclear accents in Central Catalan declaratives

The aim of this paper is to examine the phonetic and phonological properties of prenuclear accents in Central Catalan declaratives within the Autosegmental-Metrical approach of intonational analysis. Prenuclear accents show a rising movement whose peak tends to be aligned after the accented syllable. Three possible interpretations for the modelling of such rises are considered: 1) an H* with peak delay, 2) a bitonal accent (L*+H), and 3) the combination of two different tones, namely, a pitch accent (L*) and a word edge tone (H). Words with different stress distributions (oxytones, paroxytones and proparoxytones) are analysed to observe whether the presence of a word boundary has an effect on the location of the F0 peak. The results show that the F0 peak is consistently anchored at the end of the word no matter the number of post-accented syllables. Thus, prenuclear rises in Central Catalan declaratives are interpreted as a combination of an L* pitch accent and an H word edge tone

La notación prosódica del español: una revisión del Sp-ToBI

El principal objetivo de este artículo es presentar una nueva propuesta de etiquetaje prosódico del español mediante el modelo métrico-autosegmental de análisis entonativo, Sp_ToBI (Spanish ToBI). Para esta versión de Sp_ToBI nos hemos basado en 1) trabajos tradicionales sobre la entonación del español, 2) una revisión de artículos anteriores sobre el Sp_ToBI y 3) un análisis sistemático de las variedades de español peninsular de Madrid y Sevilla y de la variedad de Ciudad de México. Las unidades fonológicas que constituyen esta versión del Sp_ToBI son las siguientes. El sistema cuenta con dos acentos tonales monotonales (L* y H*) y cuatro acentos tonales bitonales (L*+H, L+H*, L+>H* y H+L*). Los tonos altos H pueden presentar escalonamiento ascendente o descendente. En cuanto a tonos de frontera destacamos tres tonos monotonales (L%, H%, M%), tres tonos bitonales (LH%, HL% y HH%) y un tono tritonal (LHL%). En línea con estudios anteriores descartamos la presencia de tonos de frase. Las novedades de esta propuesta en relación con la primera versión del Sp_ToBI son básicamente tres: 1) la presencia de L* como acento tonal, 2) el triple contraste de acentos tonales ascendentes (L*+H, L+H* y L+>H*) y 3) la existencia de tonos de frontera bitonales y tritonales.The aim of this paper is to present a new proposal of prosodic transcription for Spanish intonation within the autosegmental-metrical framework, Sp_ToBI (Spanish ToBI). This proposal has been based on 1) traditional descriptions of Spanish intonation, 2) a revision of previous works on Sp_ToBI, and 3) a systematic analysis of the Madrid, Sevilla, and Mexico City accents. The phonological units that we propose in this version of Sp_ToBI are the following ones. The system has two monotonal pitch accents (L* and H*) and four bitonal pitch accents (L*+H, L+H*, L+>H* and H+L*). The H tones can be produced with upstep or downstep. As far as boundary tones are concerned, Spanish has three monotonal tones (L%, H%, M%), three bitonal tones (LH%, HL% y HH%) and a tritonal tone (LHL%). In line with previous studies, no phrase accents are found in Spanish intonation. This version of Sp_ToBI includes three new aspects with respect to the former model: 1) the existance of an L* pitch accent, 2) the three-way contrast of rising accents (L*+H, L+H* and L+>H*) and 3) the presence of bitonal and tritonal boundary tones.El principal objetivo de este artículo es presentar una nueva propuesta de etiquetaje prosódico del español mediante el modelo métrico-autosegmental de análisis entonativo, Sp_ToBI (Spanish ToBI). Para esta versión de Sp_ToBI nos hemos basado en 1) trabajos tradicionales sobre la entonación del español, 2) una revisión de artículos anteriores sobre el Sp_ToBI y 3) un análisis sistemático de las variedades de español peninsular de Madrid y Sevilla y de la variedad de Ciudad de México. Las unidades fonológicas que constituyen esta versión del Sp_ToBI son las siguientes. El sistema cuenta con dos acentos tonales monotonales (L* y H*) y cuatro acentos tonales bitonales (L*+H, L+H*, L+>H* y H+L*). Los tonos altos H pueden presentar escalonamiento ascendente o descendente. En cuanto a tonos de frontera destacamos tres tonos monotonales (L%, H%, M%), tres tonos bitonales (LH%, HL% y HH%) y un tono tritonal (LHL%). En línea con estudios anteriores descartamos la presencia de tonos de frase. Las novedades de esta propuesta en relación con la primera versión del Sp_ToBI son básicamente tres: 1) la presencia de L* como acento tonal, 2) el triple contraste de acentos tonales ascendentes (L*+H, L+H* y L+>H*) y 3) la existencia de tonos de frontera bitonales y tritonales

Fraseo y configuraciones nucleares en español con acento inglés auténtico e imitado

This paper examines the differences in the division of intonation phrases and in the tonal structure of the nuclear configuration (i.e., the last pitch accent and the following boundary tone) in imitated and in authentic English-accented Spanish. The same Spanish text was read by four native speakers of American English, who produced the text with a real English foreign accent in Spanish, and six native speakers of Spanish, who read the text twice: in L1 Spanish and in fake English-accented Spanish. An auditory analysis of the data was carried out along with an inspection of the f0 traces aligned with the spectrographic representation and the segmental string. The results showed that the Spanish speakers produce more intonation breaks when they imitate an English accent in Spanish than when they speak L1 Spanish. Furthermore, they adopt the typical tonal structure of Spanish final accents in their fake English-accented productions. The number of prosodic breaks in real and in imitated English-accented Spanish is similar. The nuclear configurations, on the other hand, present more variability and differ in the frequency of occurrence of some patterns. The high occurrence of the fall-rise pattern (L+H* LH%) and the presence of the high-fall contour (L+H* L%) in the English productions may help discriminate an authentic English-accented Spanish from a fake one.El presente artículo analiza las diferencias en la división de las frases entonativas y en la estructura tonal de la configuración nuclear (i. e., el último acento tonal y el tono de frontera siguiente) en español con acento inglés imitado y auténtico. El mismo texto en español lo leyeron cuatro hablantes nativos de inglés americano, que produjeron el texto con acento extranjero inglés real, y seis hablantes nativos de español, que leyeron el texto dos veces: con su acento habitual de L1 y en español con acento inglés fingido. Se llevó a cabo un análisis auditivo de los datos junto con un análisis acústico de las curvas melódicas alineadas con la representación espectrográfica y con la cadena segmental. Los resultados mostraron que los hablantes españoles producen más pausas entonativas cuando imitan el acento inglés. Además, en acento inglés fingido adoptan la estructura tonal típica de las configuraciones nucleares del español. El número de pausas prosódicas en las producciones con acento inglés real e imitado es similar. Por otro lado, las configuraciones nucleares presentan mayor variación y se diferencian en la frecuencia de aparición de algunos patrones. La alta frecuencia del patrón descendente-ascendente (L+H* LH%) y la presencia de un tono circunflejo (L+H* L%) en las producciones de los anglófonos podría ayudar a discriminar una producción en español con acento inglés auténtico de una con acento fingido

Una aproximación contrastivo-competencial a la enseñanza de segundas lenguas1

[ES] En este trabajo proponemos una aproximación contrastiva a la enseñanza de segundas lenguas (L2) que parte de las competencias en la lengua materna (L1) para llegar a las estrategias lingüísticas que permiten alcanzar dichas competencias en la L2. Definimos una metodología dividida en cuatro fases y que comienza con el conocimiento que los estudiantes tienen de su L1, proponiendo su uso como andamiaje en el proceso de enseñanza de las estrategias en la L2. Finalmente, mostramos cómo se puede utilizar esta metodología en la enseñanza de la entonación de predicados téticos y del uso de la pasiva perifrástica en inglés como L2.[EN] In this work, we put forward a contrastive approach to the teaching of second languages (L2) which goes from the competences in the mother tongue (L1) to the linguistic strategies used to achieve such competences in the L2. We outline a methodology made up of four phases, which starts from the knowledge that the students have of their L1. We propose to use this knowledge as scaffolding in the process of teaching the strategies in the L2. Finally, we show how this methodology can be used to teach the intonation of thetic predicates and the use of the periphrastic passive in English as L2

Automatic assessment of non-native prosody by measuring distances on prosodic label sequences

The aim of this paper is to investigate how automatic prosodic labeling systems contribute to the evaluation of non-native pronunciation. In particular, it examines the efficiency of a group of metrics to evaluate the prosodic competence of non-native speakers, based on the information provided by sequences of labels in the analysis of both native and non-native speech. A group of Sp ToBI labels were obtained by means of an automatic labeling system for the speech of native and non-native speakers who read the same texts. The metrics assessed the differences in the prosodic labels for both speech samples. The results showed the efficiency of the metrics to set apart both groups of speakers. Furthermore, they exhibited how nonnative speakers (American and Japanese speakers) improved their Spanish productions after doing a set of listening and repeating activities. Finally, this study also shows that the results provided by the metrics are correlated with the scores given by human evaluators on the productions of the different speaker

Speech Prosody

An automatic labeling system using Sp ToBI annotation conventions has been applied both to a non-native corpus of Japanese speakers using Spanish and to a reference corpus of Spanish speakers. A set of metrics based on conditional entropy is computed by using the output of an automatic labeler which happens to be highly correlated with the rates assigned by a team of subject evaluators. An analysis of the relative frequencies in the use of each of the Sp ToBI symbols permits to identify the recurrent mistakes in the productions of non-native speakers. It is discussed with the results that the majority of the observed prosodic deficits can be explained by the prosodic transference between the Japanese and Spanish systems as it had been previouly reported in the state of art.MEC-FEDER Grant TIN2014-59852-R y la Junta de Castilla y León Regional Grant VA145U1

The use and realisation of accentual focus in central Catalan with a comparison to English

The aim of this thesis is threefold: 1) to investigate to what extent intonational (accentual) strategies are used in Central Catalan to signal the information structure of sentences as compared to syntactic devices, 2) to describe the phonetic and phonological properties of broad and narrow focus sentences in Central Catalan, and 3) to compare the results of Central Catalan with those of a language that mainly uses accentual focus, such as English. The first question is tested by means of a production test, a perception test and an acceptability test. Sentences produced with a broad focus and a narrow focus reading are analysed. Within narrow focus, two kinds of contexts are included: focus triggered by contrast and by identification. The results of the three tests show that Central Catalan speakers can both produce and recognise focus conveyed by intonational means and that the use of accentual devices is perceived as natural. The analysis and interpretation of the production data is done within the Autosegmental-Metrical framework of intonational analysis for both broad and narrow focus sentences. The results show that Central Catalan associates tonal primitives to metrically strong syllables and to the edges of three higher levels of prosodic structure: the accented word, the intermediate phrase and the intonation phrase. The accentual cues to signal narrow focus involve the location of a pitch accent on the stressed syllable of the focal element and the introduction of an intermediate phrase boundary at the end of the focal domain. The deaccentuation of postfocal material is optional and varies in form (from reduction to absence of pitch accent). Broad and narrow focus sentences use the same nuclear accent type. Scaling differences are not incorporated into the phonological system but are a matter of choice on the speaker's part (i.e. emphasis). Finally, the expression of focus in Central Catalan is similar to English in that the two languages use the same nuclear tone for both broad and narrow focus. However, differences in phrasing and in deaccenting are detected between the two languages. Whereas Central Catalan introduces a prosodic boundary after the focussed element and deaccenting is optional, no boundary is observed in English and deaccentuation is compulsory