The use and realisation of accentual focus in Central Catalan with a comparison to English
The aim of this thesis is threefold: 1) to investigate to what extent intonational (accentual) strategies are used in Central Catalan to signal the information structure of sentences as compared to syntactic devices, 2) to describe the phonetic and phonological properties of broad and narrow focus sentences in Central Catalan, and 3) to compare the results of Central Catalan with those of a language that mainly uses accentual focus, such as English. The first question is tested by means of a production test, a perception test and an acceptability test. Sentences produced with a broad focus and a narrow focus reading are analysed. Within narrow focus, two kinds of contexts are included: focus triggered by contrast and by identification. The results of the three tests show that Central Catalan speakers can both produce and recognise focus conveyed by intonational means and that the use of accentual devices is perceived as natural. The analysis and interpretation of the production data is done within the Autosegmental-Metrical framework of intonational analysis for both broad and narrow focus sentences. The results show that Central Catalan associates tonal primitives to metrically strong syllables and to the
Estebas-Vilaplana, Eva
Intonational; Sentences; Phrasing; Broad; Narrow
The use and realisation of accentual focus in Central Catalan with a comparison to English. The aim of this thesis is threefold: 1) to investigate to what extent intonational (accentual) strategies are used in Central Catalan to signal the information structure of sentences as compared to syntactic devices, 2) to describe the phonetic and phonological properties of broad and narrow focus sentences in Central Catalan, and 3) to compare the results of Central Catalan with those of a language that mainly uses accentual focus, such as English. The first question is tested by means of a production test, a perception test and an acceptability test. Sentences produced with a broad focus and a narrow focus reading are analysed. Within narrow focus, two kinds of contexts are included: focus triggered by contrast and by identification. The results of the three tests show that Central Catalan speakers can both produce and recognise focus conveyed by intonational means and that the use of accentual devices is perceived as natural. The analysis and interpretation of the production data is done within the Autosegmental-Metrical framework of intonational analysis for both broad and narrow focus sentences. The results show that Central Catalan associates tonal primitives to metrically strong syllables and to the
use realisation accentual focus central catalan comparison_english aim threefold investigate_extent intonational accentual strategy_use central catalan signal information_structure sentence compare syntactic device describe phonetic_phonological property broad_narrow focus sentence central catalan compare central catalan language mainly use accentual focus english first question test mean production test perception test acceptability test sentences produce broad focus narrow_focus reading analyse within narrow_focus two_kind context include focus trigger contrast identification test show central catalan speaker produce recognise focus convey intonational mean use accentual device perceive natural analysis_interpretation production data within metrical framework intonational analysis broad_narrow focus sentence show central catalan associate tonal primitive strong syllable