Style, prosodic variation, and the social meaning of intonation

Abstract

This paper reports on an acoustic analysis of the intonational patterns of declarative questions and wh-questions produced by a group of young adults residing in a rural town of south-central Spain. Question intonation has been reported as highly variable across and within Spanish dialects; recent sociophonetic research on multiple languages suggests that intonational variation may be accounted for by speaking condition (i.e. speech style) in addition to other linguistic and social factors. This study is an initial attempt to examine the potential interactions between speaking condition (read speech vs. task-based dialogue) and social characteristics (speaker sex) on intonational variation. First, it is shown that 12 of the 16 speakers undergo at least one style-shift between speaking conditions; these data are captured in variationist terms, providing empirical assessments about formal and vernacular variants for the two sentence types in question. Second, it is shown that speaker sex differences play a role in style-shifting, and this leads to the hypothesis that variation in declarative questions may have developed as a marker of local identity for Manchego men. All in all, this study offers empirical support that the findings on sociophonetic variation warrant consideration in current models of speech production.

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

“…Most experimental work has focused on F0 movements in phrase-final position, due to their pragmatic, stylistic and regional variation (Estebas-Vilaplana and Prieto, 2010;Henriksen, 2009Henriksen, , 2013Henriksen, , 2014López-Bobo and Cuevas-Alonso, 2010;Prieto, 2004;Sosa, 1999). Navarro Tomás (1948), in his treatise on Spanish intonational structure, distinguishes 3 melodic contours used to signal wh-question intent, displayed in figure 2: a default falling contour (2a), a pragmatically motivated 'polite' contour characterized by a final rise (2b) and a circumflex contour characterized by a final rise-fall that communicates amazement or surprise (2c).…”

“…The L* H% configuration is well documented in Spanish question intonation, and the findings of experimental research suggest that this configuration is an artifact of read speech protocols (Henriksen, 2013;Henriksen et al, 2016, for Spanish andSavino, 2012, for Italian), although the full scope of pragmatic meanings has not been explored in full detail. Since the L* H% pattern was limited to 1 speaker, we discarded these data from our corpus and focused on the production of the remaining 14 speakers.…”

Syllable structure and word stress effects in Peninsular Spanish nuclear accents

“…Speakers were instructed to read aloud the sentences keeping in mind a neutral context and to make their best effort to maintain the same intonational melody for all sentences. In most cases there was no need to monitor speakers, since the H þ L* L% and L þ ¡H* L% configurations are used interchangeably as the wh-question melody in this variety of Spanish (see Henriksen 2013). The topic of intonational variation in Spanish has been addressed in previous research across dialects (Prieto and Roseano 2010) and also within dialects (Henriksen 2012(Henriksen , 2013.…”

“…In most cases there was no need to monitor speakers, since the H þ L* L% and L þ ¡H* L% configurations are used interchangeably as the wh-question melody in this variety of Spanish (see Henriksen 2013). The topic of intonational variation in Spanish has been addressed in previous research across dialects (Prieto and Roseano 2010) and also within dialects (Henriksen 2012(Henriksen , 2013. Since it is known that speakers can display variability in the type of utterance-final configuration that they use (due to stylistic or pragmatic factors), we needed to ensure that each speaker was fairly consistent in order to obtain a balanced data sample in his/her corpus.…”

“…These configurations occur in most varieties of Peninsular Spanish, documented for northern, central, and southern varieties (Prieto 2004;Henriksen 2009;Estebas-Vilaplana and Prieto 2010;López-Bobo and Cuevas-Alonso 2010;Henriksen and García-Amaya 2012;Henriksen 2013). The phonetic properties of the H þ L* and L þ ¡H* accents were examined in Henriksen (2014), where it was shown that the leading tones aligned within the last portion of the prestressed syllable and the starred tones aligned within the second half of the nuclear syllable.…”