Word-edge tones in Catalan

Pilar PrietoICREA and UAB

2004 TIE Workshop

Santorini, 9-11 September 2004

L consistently anchored with onset of accented syllable H generally displaced to the postaccented syllable (Prieto

1995 and Estebas-Vilaplana 2000, 2003).

Catalan prenuclear rising accents

Broad focus statements:

Volen una nena La Marina vol demanar-l’hi‘They want a girl’ ‘Mary wants to ask him’

Factors affecting H location Right-hand prosodic context (peaks are retracted before

upcoming pitch accents; Prieto 2005). Recent experiments show that H strictly aligns with the

end of the word (Estebas-Vilaplana 2000, 2003). Thus, Estebas analyzes rises as sequences of a low pitch

accent (L*) plus a word edge tone (H) anchored at the end of the word.

Yet, other rises place H in the postaccentual syllable. Speech-style differences? Potential presence of H- boundaries?

Goals of the study

To clarify the role of word-edge tones in broad focus declaratives in Catalan

A production experiment examines whether H anchoring to word-edges is produced by speakers to disambiguate sentences.

An identification experiment checks whether H alignment can be a helpful perceptual cue to identify word-boundaries.

Production experiment Materials: 20 pairs of potentially ambiguous utterances

which are only distinguished by word boundary location

Code

Mirà batalles ‘(s)he watched battles’ w-fin

Mirava talles ‘(s)he used to watch carvings’ w-med

Comprà ventalls ‘(s)he bought fans’ w-fin

Compraven talls ‘they bought pieces’ w-med

Buscà vanguàrdies ‘(s)he was looking for newspapers’ w-fin

Buscaven guàrdies ‘they were looking for guards’ w-med

3 speakers read the 20 pairs 4 times (40 x 4 = 160 sentences per speaker, for a total of 480 utterances)

Comprà ventalls Compraven talls

Comprà ventallets de vim Compraven tallets de vim

Results Strong correlation between H delay and syllable duration for the 3

speakers (correlation coef. 0,67-0,82) Difference in H delay between two groups: Hs in word-final position

(e.g., comprà ventalls) are less delayed than in word-medial position (e.g., compraven talls)

SPEAKER: AG

Dur Accented Syllable

240220200180160140120100

H D

ELA

Y (

ms)

400

300

200

100

WB

w -fin

w -med

SPEAKER: PG

Dur. Accented Syllable (ms)

240220200180160140120100

H D

ELA

Y (

ms)

400

300

200

100

WB

w f

now f

SPEAKER: PP

Dur. Accented Syllable

300200100

H D

EL

AY

(m

s)

500

400

300

200

100

WB

w -fin

w -med

Effects of within-word position on H location All peaks displaced to the

postaccented syllable Clear effects of within-word

position on H peak placement: peaks less displaced in word-final position (e.g., comprà ventalls).

Differences statistically significant for the 3 speakers (two-tailed t-tests significant at p < 0,0005)

No strict word anchoring effects in w-fin.808080 808080N =

SPEAKER

PPPGAG

H D

ista

nce

En

d-S

yll

140

120

100

80

60

40

WB

w -med

w -fin

No strict anchoring effects found on w-med: peaks are located before the end of the word (-72 ms) if the accented syllable is word-medial and after (48 ms) if it is word-final.

w-med: compraven talls

w-fin: comprà ventalls Differences statistically

significant for the 3 speakers (two-tailed t-tests significant at p < 0,0005).

808080 808080N =

SPEAKER

PPPGAG

H D

ista

nce

Wor

d-B

ound

ary

(ms)

80

60

40

20

0

-20

-40

-60

-80

-100

WB

w -med

w -finw-med

w-fin

F0 alignment differences:

w-medial w-final compraven talls comprà ventalls

60 ms100 ms

Effects of within-word position on duration

Accented syllables in word-final position are slighly longer than syllables in internal position, except for speaker AG.

w-fin: comprà ventallsw-med: compraven talls

Differences are not statistically significant (at p > 0,05) except for one speaker

808080 808080N =

SPEAKER

PPPGAG

Du

ratio

n A

cce

nte

d S

yl (

ms)

220

210

200

190

180

170

160

150

140

WB

w -med

w -fin

Postaccented syllables in word-final position are slighly longer than syllables in word-initial position, except for speaker AG.

Differences are not statistically significant (at p > 0,05) except for one speaker.

No consistent effects of within-word position on duration patterns.

808080 808080N =

SPEAKER

PPPGAG

Dur

atio

n po

stac

cent

ed s

yl (

ms)

170

160

150

140

130

120

WB

w -fin

w -init

Identification experiment Are differences in range and in peak location used by

listeners to perceive differences in word-boundary location? 12 listeners heard 12 ambiguous utterances from the

production experiment (a maximum of 3 times) and had to identify the sentence.

  Comprà ventallets de vim Compraven tallets de vim

Nomenaves comtes al matíNomenà vescomtes al matí

Mirà batalles Mirava talles

Results Low rate of identification (between 35 and 66% of correct

responses, depending on sentence). Type A utterances tend to be less easily identified than Type

B utterances (60 vs 40%). Frequency of Correct Identification of Sentences

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

comprà ventalls nomenàvescomtes

mirà batalles mirà batalletespetites

buscàvanguàrdies

Utterance Type

Fre

qu

ency

Type A

Type B

Type A: comprà ventalls

Type B: compraven talls

Why? The hearer identifies more easily Compraven talls (with an H

aligned towards the end of the first word) than Comprà ventalls (with an H less displaced to the right).

The hearer is probably using a more clear H alignment towards the edge of the word as a cue. In the second case, H placement is more ambiguous.

A controlled perception experiment is needed.

Less ambiguous More ambiguous

Conclusions No strict anchoring to word-edges. Clear effects of within-word position on H

location: H peaks are more retracted in word-final accents than in word-medial accents.

No effects of within-word position on duration. H alignment towards word-edges might act as a

helpful perceptual cue in disambiguating tasks.

THANK YOU. GRÀCIES!

Effects of within-word position on range Pitch range of the entire accent (and pitch span during

accented vowel) is greater in word-final position than internal position, except for 1 speaker.

808080 808080N =

SPEAKER

PPPGAG

F0

Ra

ng

e A

cce

nte

d V

ow

el (

Hz)

20

10

0

-10

-20

WB

w -med

w -fin808080 808080N =

SPEAKER

PPPGAG

F0

Pitc

h R

ange

(H

z)

70

60

50

40

30

20

WB

w -med

w -fin