Acoustic evidence for affix classes: A case study of Brazilian Portuguese

Abstract

In languages that assign stress differently according to morphological structure, affixes often fall into different categories. In Brazilian Portuguese, normal suffix words have one stress (Base: [kaˈfε] 'coffee'; suffixed: [kafe-ˈtejɾa] 'coffee pot'). Special suffix words are claimed to have two stresses, one of which falls in the same location as in the independent base ([ka ˌfε-ˈzĩɲu] 'coffee-dim'). The special suffixes include diminutive -(z)inho, superlative -íssimo, and adverbial -mente. This paper reports on a production study showing that stress maintenance on the base of special suffix words is acoustically present through longer duration and marginally higher intensity, and through maintenance of vowel height for mid vowels. Phonologically, the special suffixes are often analyzed as attaching to an independent prosodic word base (e.g. Collischonn 1994;Moreno 1997;Vigário 2003;Guzzo 2018). I cast the analysis in Distributed Morphology (Halle & Marantz 1993): the phonological differences between special and normal suffixes are due to morphosyntactic differences. Under this analysis, differences between special and normal suffixes are principled rather than arbitrary. Morphological and prosodic structure are both necessary, and prosodic structure mediates between morphology and phonological processes.