Stability effects in tonal clash contexts in Catalan

Investigating the Nature of the Left Periphery in Peninsular Spanish wh-Question Intonation

“…180-183). This is different from tonal compression, which is the faster realization of an accent over a small amount of voiced segmental material Prieto, 2005). Based on their truncation analysis, Arvaniti and Ladd argue for a bitonal L* + H bitonal accent at the left periphery, in line with previous findings on Greek rising accents in prenuclear position (Arvaniti et al, 1998(Arvaniti et al, , 2000.…”

“…Researchers typically report a gradual peak displacement whereby tonal alignment remains stable once tones are 2 or more syllables apart (Arvaniti et al, 1998(Arvaniti et al, , 2000(Arvaniti et al, , 2006a. Prieto (2005) shows that, as a compression strategy in time pressure situations, rising accents are shortened and steepened. Our data followed these patterns, showing significant alignment differences between ISI = 1 and ISI = 2 conditions.…”

“…We also always included a minimum of 2 unstressed syllables between the prenuclear stressed syllable and the nuclear stressed syllable to avoid tonal clash effects (Prieto, 2005). We did not manipulate the ISI in the statement test sentences since we were concerned primarily with a scaling comparison between statements and wh-questions.…”

“…However, if the H peak deviates rightward into unstressed segmental material as ISI increases, this would support an L + <H* pitch accent analysis. In the latter scenario, we might also see compression of the H peak in contexts of extreme tonal crowding (Arvaniti et al, 1998;Face, 2002;Henriksen, 2012;Prieto, 2005).…”

“…All syllables need not bear a pitch specification, and in certain cases it becomes necessary to specify multiple pitch targets on a single syllable. In this regard, the notion of tonal crowding, or strict adjacency between two accents, becomes crucial for determining the tonal levels of adjacent tones (Face, 2002;Prieto, 2005;Prieto et al, 1995, for Spanish).…”