Related Experiment Videos
Prosodic finality and sentence type in French.
1Department of Linguistics, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque 87131-1196, USA. caroline@unm.edu
Language and Speech
|March 5, 2003
Summary
Sentence type influences how speakers mark prosodic boundaries. Questions show more lengthening, while statements exhibit more vowel devoicing, affecting speech rhythm and finality.
Area of Science:
- Phonetics
- Linguistics
- Speech Communication
Background:
- Prosodic boundaries in speech are signaled by acoustic cues like F0, duration, and segmental quality.
- Sentence type (statement vs. question) may alter the prominence of these boundary markers.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if sentence type amplifies or attenuates prosodic modifications at the end of a prosodic domain.
- To compare sentence-final lengthening and vowel devoicing in French statements and questions.
Main Methods:
- Six native French speakers read matched sets of statements and questions.
- Acoustic measurements of sentence-final vowels and control sentence-medial vowels were analyzed.
- Focus on F0, duration, and voice quality (vowel periodicity/devoicing).
Main Results:
- Statement-final vowels were less periodic and more often devoiced than question-final or medial vowels.
- Question-final vowels showed greater lengthening compared to statement-final vowels.
- These patterns held regardless of the presence of a final pitch rise in questions.
Conclusions:
- Sentence type, rather than final intonation contour, is a key factor in marking prosodic finality.
- French distinguishes statements and questions by the relative prominence of lengthening versus voice quality changes at phrase edges.