Spanish was classified as a language that only exploits syntactic mechanisms to mark focus. Recent experimental studies, nonetheless, have shown that speakers of different dialects are also able to use prosody to different degrees. This study aims to provide further understanding on the role played by prosody in the realization of focus in Spanish by looking at Asturian Spanish, a dialect in contact with another Romance language, Asturian. The data from a contextualized sentence completion task revealed that a phonological distinction between specific pitch categories (L+
The aim of the present study is to provide an account of the different strategies, both syntactic and prosodic, employed by American English and Peninsular Spanish speakers in subject focus marking. Data obtained through parallel experimental designs revealed that prosodic marking of focus in-situ is possible in both languages both for informational and contrastive focus. Nonetheless, in the expression of contrastive focus Peninsular Spanish speakers increase the use of clefting while American English speakers exploit prosodic strategies like creaky voice. Differences in the pitch range implemented on focalized subjects were against the posed prediction. This study, nonetheless, contributes to the lacking cross-linguistic comparisons of these two languages and explores the interconnections between syntax and prosody.
Infant-directed speech has been shown to be different from adult-directed speech in that it is generally characterized by short, acoustically exaggerated (e.g. higher F0 peaks, wider F0 range) utterances (Fernald et al., 1989; Kitamura et al., 2001, inter alia). Thus, at some point parents begin to change these acoustic parameters once the child is no longer an infant. The present study uses longitudinal data to compare F0 use in two language varieties, American English (AE) and Peninsular Spanish (PS), in an effort to understand how two prosodic aspects (mean F0 and F0 range) change after a child’s first birthday. Specifically, we asked how these parameters might change as a function of the child’s linguistic development, here defined as the children’s mean length of utterance (MLU). Results show that mothers show changes in their use of both of these parameters after the second birthday, with turning points between 28 and 31 months. MLU was not found to be a significant predictor for either language. Additionally, despite differences in how AE and PS exploit F0 for expressing focus, both AE- and PS-speaking mothers were shown to use more narrow F0 range for utterances not containing a focused element sometime after 30 months. Implications for language acquisition are discussed.
This study examines the developmental patterns manifested in the intonational grammar of American English-speaking learners of Spanish based on their use of intonational features (e.g., [±delayed peak], [±deaccentuation], or [±compression]) involved in focus marking in three different discursive contexts (i.e., broad focus, informational subject focus and corrective subject focus). The data, collected through a Question & Answer pairs task performed by learners and native speakers, suggests that while development towards the target language is possible, it is constrained by markedness and learnability. The analysis of the results is framed within Mennen’s L2 Intonation Learning theory, which considers the multidimensionality that characterizes intonational grammars and the complexity of the acquisition process as a result of it. Individual factors related to the learners’ experience (i.e., experience abroad and hours of exposure) were examined and extended periods of immersion (i.e., more than 8 months) were found to have a positive effect.
The pitch accent associated with contrast in English and in Spanish is labeled as L+H* in their respective ToBI labeling systems. Nevertheless, the phonetic implementation of these categories differs, since a wider pitch range is needed in American English to consider a rising tonal movement as L+H*. This study explores the differences between American English and Peninsular Spanish in their use of F0 scaling as a cue to perceiving contrast or lack thereof in nuclear position. Following the predictions of the L2 intonation learning theory (LILt), the hypothesis guiding this study was that Spanish speakers would perceive contrast within a more compressed pitch range than learners of Spanish with American English as their L1. Fourteen native speakers of Spanish and fourteen learners enrolled in a Spanish phonetics class at a U.S. university participated in a forced-choice identification task. The stimuli consisted of manipulations of two utterances produced by native speakers of Peninsular Spanish, expressing contrastive focus; tonal landmarks outside of the focused word were neutralized, and seven-step continua were created manipulating only the height of the peak in the nuclear accent. The results indicate that pitch range is used similarly by native speakers and learners of Spanish.
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