Algumas observações sobre as proparoxítonas e o sistema acentual do português

Abstract

In Brazilian Portuguese, words with antepenultimate syllable stress are regarded as exceptions to lexical stress rules. Evidence for their exceptionality has been given in the literature: the late introduction of these words in the language, the predominant occurrence of the antepenultimate syllable stress in low frequency words, and the tendency of the language to shift stress to the penultimate syllable. Using a corpus of 18,413 words with antepenultimate stress and their respective phonological transcription from the Houaiss dictionary (HOUAISS VILLAR 2001), we argue that these claims are not always accurate and that words with antepenultimate stress are a long established and consistent pattern in the language. Furthermore, we show that stress shift to the penultimate syllable is not the rule, but it is only one possibility, restricted by the phonotactics of the language, and that preservation of antepenultimate stress is far more frequent. The data and analyses presented in this paper argue that prediction of lexical stress in Brazilian Portuguese must include words with the antepenultimate pattern, as there is no evidence that they are either disappearing in the language or being avoided by speakers.

Elaboração de um Protocolo de Avaliação Instrumental da Fala (PRAINF) baseado em critérios linguísticos e psicométricos

“…In an earlier study (23) , by examining a general corpus of 150,875 words, it was found that 24.9% were oxytone, 62.5% were paroxytone and 12.2% proparoxytone, corroborating with the assertion that paroxytone words are the most frequent accentuation pattern in Portuguese.…”

“…It was decided to choose trisyllabic words because of the ease in finding words with consonant in OM, between the vowel [a], in paroxytone (15,23) . In an earlier study (23) , by examining a general corpus of 150,875 words, it was found that 24.9% were oxytone, 62.5% were paroxytone and 12.2% proparoxytone, corroborating with the assertion that paroxytone words are the most frequent accentuation pattern in Portuguese.…”

As Restrições Silábicas E a Síncope Em Proparoxítonas No Sul Do Brasil

“…Os estudos de Amaral (1999), Silva (2006), Lima (2008), Ramos (2009) e Gomes (2012, conforme já mencionado, também encontraram taxas percentuais de apagamento 25%. O pequeno índice de apagamento, além do mais, vai na direção do que é enfatizado por Araújo et al (2008), segundo os quais, do total de palavras proparoxítonas presentes no léxico do português, a síncope teria "aval" do sistema para se manifestar em apenas 30%, sem violar as restrições silábicas universais e parâmetros de constituição da sílaba do português. Nas palavras dos autores: Do total de 18.413 palavras com acento antepenúltimo no corpus, cerca de dois terços das palavras proparoxítonas não formam clusters válidos quando é feito o apagamento mecânico da vogal da sílaba pós-tônica, como em rápido > *ráp.do, calotípico > *calotíp.co, haféfobo > *haféf.bo.…”

The role of phonological processes in determining the vowel inventory of Brazilian Portuguese

“…Antepenultimate stress (e.g., SÍ.la.ba 'syllable', LÂM.pa.da 'light bulb') is the least frequent stress pattern in the lexicon of the language. According to Cintra (1997), only 7% of words in Portuguese have antepenultimate stress and many authors argue that, due to the fact that most words with antepenultimate stress are borrowings, technical or simply unfrequently used, it is an unnatural stress pattern to the language (Araújo 2007). Still, it is only in words with antepenultimate stress that nonfinal posttonic syllables exist.…”