Pitch scaling and the internal structuring of the Intonation Phrase in French

Mariapaola d'Imperio (1) , Amandine Michelas (1)

1 Co-construction du sens : Intégration, Interface, Intéraction (C3I)

Within the Autosegmental-Metrical approach to French intonation, two levels of phrasing are generally accepted, the Accentual Phrase (AP) and the Intonation Phrase (IP), while the existence of an intermediate level, i.e., the intermediate phrase or ip, is controversial. Our data provide strong evidence for the existence of the ip by uncovering systematic pitch scaling effects associated with the right edge of this constituent. We first show that the presence of an ip-break is responsible for blocking recursive downstep of subsequent AP-final LH* rises in declarative utterances, causing the return of the H target to the pitch level set by the first accentual peak of the phrase (i.e., complete reset). This mechanism is claimed to result from control over the reference pitch level for the entire ip, which can alternatively be modeled through secondary association of the last pitch accent of the domain. We also report on duration evidence pointing to the existence of preboundary lengthening associated to the last syllable of the ip. Finally, we provide additional evidence for the internal structuring of the Intonation Phrase by reporting data on partial reset occurring on the first H peak following the ip boundary.

Mots clés: Pitch level; register shift; tonal scaling; intermediate phrase; French intonation; downstep; pitch reset; preboundary lengthening

Domaines: Linguistique; Linguistique

Mariapaola d'Imperio, Amandine Michelas. Pitch scaling and the internal structuring of the Intonation Phrase in French. Phonology, 2014, 31 (1), pp.95-122. ⟨10.1017/S0952675714000049⟩. ⟨hal-01000333⟩