Speech imitation between speakers influences the realization of initial rises in French intonation

Amandine Michelas (1) , Noël Nguyen (1)

1 LPL - Laboratoire Parole et Langage

French accentual phrases (APs) are characterized by the presence of a typical final fo rise (LH*) and an optional/additional initial fo rise (LHi). This study tested whether between-speaker speech imitation influenced the realization of APs tonal patterns. The experiment was based on APs containing a function word plus a bisyllabic content word, whose tonal patterns differed in the potential placement of an optional/initial high tone (Hi). In two shadowing tasks (without/with explicit instructions to imitate the speaker's way of pronouncing the stimuli), participants produced more initial high tones when they heard a stimulus including both initial and final high tones relative to stimuli which only a final high tone was present. Thus, imitation influences the realization of APs tonal patterns in French.

Mots clés: imitation; convergence; tonal pattern; accentual phrase; initial high tone; intonation; French

Domaines: Linguistique

Amandine Michelas, Noël Nguyen. Speech imitation between speakers influences the realization of initial rises in French intonation. ISICS 2012 (International Symposium on Imitation and Convergence in Speech), Sep 2012, Aix-en-Provence, France. pp.39-40. ⟨hal-01510439⟩