The prosodic word in brazilian portuguese

Author(s)

Priscila Marques Toneli

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: Campinas, SP.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem
• Defense date: 2014-05-12

Examining board members

Maria Filomena Spatti Sândalo; Plinio Almeida Barbosa; Flaviane Romani Fernandes; Luiz Carlos da Silva Schwindt

• Advisor: Maria Bernadete Marques Abaurre; Marina Claudia Vigário

Abstract

This thesis presents a systematic study on the domain of Prosodic Word (PW) in Brazilian Portuguese (BP) in relation to (i) the prosodization of function words and of lexical words; (ii) phonological phenomena that can take PW as an application domain, and those that can work as diagnostics to identify it; (iii) the investigation of the intonational structure searching for evidences of these prosodic domain in BP. A comparison between BP and European Portuguese (EP) is made throughout the study as the phonological phenomena that identify and characterize the PW in the European variety are discussed, since there is a systematic study about this domain conducted by Vigário (2003). The analyzed corpora on the development of this research were empirically obtained through the observation and by the elaboration of experiments that controlled some variables to validate or to deny some hypotheses, for example, the investigation of the relevant domain to the tonal distribution in BP and to the assignment of the phonological focus stress. In this thesis, we show that some phonological phenomena take the PW as an application domain, as the rules of: (i) primary stress assignment, (ii) vowel harmony, assignment of secondary stress, (iv) pretonic vowel neutralization, (v) phonetic nasality assimilation, (vi) pitch accents association and (vii) initial stress assignment. Other phenomena such as haplology, semivocalization, phonetic nasalization, pretonic and post-tonic vowels neutralization, helped us to identify a PW in PB. We emphasize that the syndrome of minimal word and that the phonotactic generalizations also contribute to the discussion of the prosodic status of function words and lexical words. Our experimental results showed that the rule for focus stress assignment and for emphatic accent, the deletion in coordinated structures, and the truncation in sentences that included words formed by two PWs (e.g. cata-ventos) provide evidence of the Prosodic Word Group (PWG). The analysis of the prosodization of monosyllabic function words (e.g. a - definite article) also showed that such words when prosodized as unstressed syllables, suffer post-lexical phonological processes and are adjoined to a ready PW in the post-lexical, forming a prosodic domain above PW. In this case, we assume that this prosodic domain is a PWG. On the other hand, in relation to unstressed prefix prosodization (e.g. desfazer > des+fazer), we assume, as already proposed in the literature of PB, that they are adjoined to a ready PW in the lexical component, forming a single PW. In the case of the unstressed suffixes, it is also assumed that they are incorporated into a lexical base in the lexical component, forming a PW (cf. Lee, 1995; Moreno, 1997 Schwindt, 2000). The comparison between BP and EP is treated in more details in the context of the relationship between the prosodic structure and the intonational structure, particularly with respect to the production of declarative sentences in a context of focus with a broad scope and focus with a contrastive narrow scope, and consists in highlighting aspects approaching and distancing the two Portuguese varieties, with respect to the application of phonological phenomena such as tonal distribution in the Intonational Phrase (I). We show that the main similarity between BP and EP is the position and the type of pitch accent associated with the nuclear position of declarative sentences produced in the context of broad focus, and the main difference lies in the tonal density, since in the BP there is a pitch accent on each PW in I, while in BP there is only one pitch accent associated with the initial and the final positions of I (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 10/06748-9 - The prosodic word in Brazilian Portuguese
• Grantee: Priscila Marques Toneli
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate