Phonological Phrasing in Spanish

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Phonological Phrasing in Spanish

• Pilar Prieto
• ICREA and UAB
• XIVth Colloquium on Generative Grammar
• Porto, April 5-7 2004

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What is a p- or a ?-phrase?

• The unit in the prosodic hierarchy above the PW
  (Selkirk 1986, Nespor Vogel 1986, ..)
•   
• Utt Utterance
• IP Intonational Phrase
• PPh Phonological Phrase
• (P-Phrase or ?-Phrase)
• PW Prosodic Word
• F Foot
• ?               Syllable
• ? Mora

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Arguments for p-constituency in Spanish

• Tonal and stress phenomena
• Final prominence More prominent stress at end of
  p-phrase
• Continuation rise (or other boundary tones) at
  end of p-constituents.
• Other phonetic boundary effects at end of
  p-phrase lengthening, lower intensity, optional
  pause, resetting of pitch.
• No blocking or triggering of postlexical rules
  (It. Radop. Sintattico or Port Stress Retraction).

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Waveforms and Fo contours of the utterances (Juan
leerá)? (novelas de aventuras)? (speaker AE) and
(Compró las películas de Woody)? (en Londres)?
(speaker AE).
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The syntax-prosody mapping

• Work on the prediction of phonological phrases
  (?- or p-phrases) has highlighted the role of
  syntactic notions
• Alignment to syntactic constituents or heads
  (Selkirk 1986, 1995, 2000, Nespor Vogel 1986)
• Cohesional demands on maximal projections. XPs
  should be contained in a phonological phrase
  (Truckenbrodt 1995, 1999)
• Non-branching of constituents in p-restructuring
  (Nespor Vogel 1986)

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End-based theory of syntax-prosody relation

• Alignment of left or right edges of XPs (max.
  projections) or heads of XPs with edges of ? or
  p-phrases (Selkirk 1986, 1995, 2000)
• Constraints couched in OTs Generalized Alignment
  (McCarthy and Prince 1993)
• ALIGN XP,R Align right edge of XP to right edge
  of P
• ALIGN XP,L Align left edge of XP to left edge
  of P

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Cohesional constraints (Truckenbrodt 1995, 1999)

• Extension to edge-alignment. ALIGN-XP is a ranked
  constraint whose effects may be suppressed by
  another syntax mapping constraint (Truckenbrodt
  1995)
• WRAP-XP Each syntactic XP should be contained in
  a p-phrase (Truckenbrodt 1995, 1999).
• the same size or a larger size

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• Align XP, R gtgt Wrap XP (Chimuiini)
• Wrap-XP gtgt Align XP, R (Chizigula)

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Nespor Vogels mapping rules for Italian

• ?-construction Xhead (N, V, A)
• ?-restructuring Phonological phrases can undergo
  restructuring if they happen to be the first
  nonbranching complement on the right side
  (recursive side in Italian)
• (Hanno)? (dei caribú piccoli)?
• (Hanno)? (dei caribú)? (molto piccoli)?

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Ghinis (1993) observations

• Importance of notions such as average weight and
  balancing in Italian
• a. (Prenderà granchi)? (di ogni specie)?
• He will catch every kind of crab
• b. (Comprerá mappe)? (di cittá molto
  antiche)?
• He will buy maps of very old towns
• c. (Soffrirá pane)? (incredibilmente dure)?
• He will feel a lot of pain
• d. (Osserverá stelle)? (di ogni dimensione)?
• He will observe stars of any dimension

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Prosodic constraints on phrasing

• Ghini (1993a, b) for Italian
• Selkirk (2000) for English
• (i) Binary Maximum (MaP) A major phrase may
  consist of at most two minor/accentual phrases
•   (ii) Binary Minimum (MaP) A major phrase may
  consist of at least two minor/accentual phrases
• For Brazilian Portuguese, Max-Bin and Wrap-XP
  play a crucial role (Sandalo Truckenbrodt 2002)
• In Catalan size and eurhythmic constraints play a
  crucial role in phrasing (Prieto 2003). Active
  constraints Max-Bin and No-Clash.

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Why study Spanish p-phrasing?

• Complete investigation of the effect of prosodic
  conditions (size, eurhythmia) on phrasing that
  has started in other Romance languages (BP,
  Italian and Catalan)

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Goals of the study

• To examine the influence of both syntactic and
  prosodic factors on prosodic boundary placement
  in Spanish.
• Test syntactic alignment conditions on SVO
  groupings, VP and NP projections. Test behavior
  of PP and AdjP with different level attachments.
• Test size and clash effects on SVO groupings, VP
  and NP projections, etc.
• Use of three different speech rates crucial to
  test the possibility of restructuring effects.

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Sources of data

• Main source of data Reading experiment
• 86 utterances with wide variety of constituent
  structures and lengths VPs, NPs, SVO.
• 4 native speakers of Peninsular Spanish (3 from
  Madrid and 1 from Burgos) CA, CG, AE, MM.
• Reading of each utterance at a normal, slow and a
  fast speech rate.
• Indications new information reading.
• Also
• A production database of SVO sentences for
  Catalan, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish
  (reported in Elordieta, Frota, Prieto, Vigário
  2003 and DImperio et al in press).

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Waveforms and Fo contours of the utterances
(Compraré yogures)? (de la sierra de Gredos)?
(speaker AE) and (María bebe)? (agua destilada)?
(speaker MM).
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Minimality effects

• VPs
• a. (Le nombraron profesor)?
• They appointed him professor
•   b.  (Compraba mapas)?
• He/she bought maps
• NPs
• a. (Una botella de vino)?
• A bottle of wine
•   b.  (Un anillo de plata)?
• A golden ring

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• Infl/Comp Projections
• a. (La nena quiere)?
• The little girl wants some
•  
• b.    (El presidente sufre)?
• The president is suffering
• Minimality requirements on utterances
• Min-Utt
• An utterance has to be minimally parsed into one
  p-phrase containing two prosodic words (that is,
  ((? ?)?)U better than ((?)? (?)?)U

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Binarity effects, VPs

• Binarity effects similar to Italian (Ghini
  1993a,b) and Catalan (Prieto 2003)
• V N PP APAPPPNPVP ? (V N)? (PP AP)?
• a. (Compraba mapas)? (de la Barcelona antigua)?
• He used to buy maps of old Barcelona
•  
• b. (Comeré pasteles)? (de chocolate amargo)?
• I will eat cakes of bittersweet chocolate
•  
• c. (Lo nombraron profesor)? (de filología
  románica)?
• He was appointed professor of Romance
  philology
•  
•  

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Binarity effects, NPs

• N PP PP APAPPPPPNP ? (N PP)? (PP AP)?
•   a. (Una botella de vino)? (bastante rosado)?
• A bottle of pretty rose wine
• c. (Un anillo de plata)? (bastante bonito)?
• A ring made of very nice silver
• d. (Yogures de limón)? (de la sierra de Gredos)?
• Lemon iogurts from sierra de Gredos  

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• Max-Bin
• (S T 2002295)
• P-phrases consist of maximally two prosodic
  words.

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Alignment effects, VPs

• V NP PPPPNP PPPPVP ? (V NP PP)? (PP)?
  
• a. (Compraba mapas de Barcelona)? (para Ana)?
• Also (Compraba)? (mapas de Barcelona)? (para
  Ana)?
• BUT (Compraba mapas)? (de Barcelona para
  Ana)?
• He/she used to buy Barcelona maps for Anna
• b. (Compró las películas de Woody)? (en
  Londres)?
• Also (Compró)? (las películas de Woody)? (en
  Londres)?
• BUT (Compró las películas)? (de Woody en
  Londres)?
• He/she bought Woodys films in London

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Alignment effects, NPs

• N PP APAPPP PPPPNP ? (N)? (PP AP)?
  (PP)?
• a. (Una botella de vino rosado)? (de Londres)?
• also (Una botella)? (de vino rosado)? (de
  Londres)?
• BUT (Una botella de vino)? (rosado de
  Londres)?
• A bottle of rose wine from London
•  
• b. (Un anillo de plata suiza)? (para mi madre)?
• also (Un anillo)? (de plata suiza)? (para mi
  madre)?
• BUT (Una botella de plata)? (suiza para mi
  madre)?
• A ring made of Swiss silver for my mother

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Alignment effects, Inf/Comp

• (S)? (VO)?
• a. (La casa de Pineda)? (se quedó vacía)?
• The Pineda house is empty
•   b. (El presidente de la Generalitat)? (sufre)?
• The president of the Generalitat is suffering
•    
• a.  (La casa de Pineda de Mar)? (se quedó
  vacía)?
• The Pineda de Mar house is empty
•   b.    (El presidente de la Generalitat de
  Catalunya)? (sufre)?
• The president of the Generalitat is suffering
•  

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• ALIGN-XP,R
• (or ALIGN (XP, R ?, R)
• Align right edge of XP to right edge of ?
• ALIGN-XP,R gtgt MAX-BIN

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Wrapping effects?

• Null wrapping effects (unlike to Brazilian
  Portuguese Sandalo Truckenbrodt 2002)
• V N PPNPVP ? (V)? (N PP)? or (V N)?
  (PP)?
• a. (Compraba)? (mapas de Barcelona)?
• a. (Compraba mapas)? de Barcelona)?
• He used to buy maps of Barcelona
• b. (Comeré)? (pasteles de chocolate)?
• b. (Comeré pasteles)? (de chocolate)?
• I will eat chocolate cakes
• c. (Lo nombraron)? (profesor de filología)?
• c. (Lo nombraron profesor)? (de filología)?
• They appointed him philology professor

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• Null wrapping effect on NPs
• N PPPPPPPPNP ? (N)? (PP PP)? or (N PP)?
  (PP)?
• a. (Un montón)? (de mapas de Barcelona)?
• a. (Un montón de mapas)? (de Barcelona)?
• A stack of maps of old Barcelona
•  
• b. (Yogures)? (de la sierra de Gredos)?
• b. (Yogures de la sierra)? (de Gredos)?
• Iogurts from sierra de Gredos
•  

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• ALIGN-XP
• (or ALIGN (XP, R ?, R)
• Align right edge of XP to right edge of ?
• ALIGN-XP,R gtgt MAX-BIN

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Minimality effects
 
 

• MIN-UTT gtgt ALIGN-XP,R

 
 
  c.
 
   
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Basic OT Analysis, I
 

• ALIGN-XP,R gtgt MAX-BIN

 
 
 
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  BUT
 
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But..

• a. (Javier)? (visitó Galicia)?
• Javier visited Galicia
•   b. normal/rapid speech (Javier visitó)? (la
  Galicia de sus sueños)?
• slow speech (Javier)? (visitó)? (la Galicia de
  sus sueños)?
• (Javier)? (visitó la Galicia)? (de sus
  sueños)?
• a. (El periodista)? (comunicó la noticia)?
• The journalist reported the news
• b. normal/rapid speech (El periodista
  comunicó)? (la noticia del día)?
• slow speech (El periodista)? (comunicó)? (la
  noticia del día)?
• (El periodista)? (comunicó la noticia)? (del
  día)?
•  

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New hierarchy of constraints

• MAX-BIN-END
• P-phrases containing the main stress of the
  utterance consist of maximally two prosodic words.

• MAX-BIN-END gtgt ALIGN-XP,R gtgt WRAP-XP

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• Slow speech phrasings derived by basic hierarchy
  

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• Normal/rapid renderings are derived by adding a
  constraint which reduces the number of phrases in
  an utterance (Min-N-phrases)

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Reanalysis
 

• MAX-BIN-END gtgt ALIGN-XP,R gtgt WRAP-XP

 
 
 
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Conclusions

• Alignment conditions are not sufficient to
  predict ?-groupings in Spanish.
• Wrapping and branching conditions do not play a
  crucial role in ?-grouping in Spanish
• In Spanish size constraints (Max-Bin, Min-Utt)
  play a crucial role in phrasing.
• Max-Bin can be sensitive to phrasal position

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• Thank you!

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Variation in p-phrasing

• Need to account for grammatical variation in
  prosodic phrasing and weight effects
  (preferences)
• In Catalan, a certain degree of variation is
  allowed for by using free ranked constraints
  (Align-XP ltgt Max-Bin, Wrap-XP ltgt No-Clash)
• Rate effects are obtained through the activation
  of Min-N-Phrases (reduces the n of p-phrases in
  an utterance)
• Explore formalisms to express weight effects

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Alignment effects, VPs

• Alignment effects non-local PP attachment
• V NPNP PPPPVP ? (VNP)? (PP)?
•   a. (Compraba mapas)? (para lAnna)?
• He/she used to buy maps for Anna
•   b. (Le dio el libro)? (a María)?
• He/she gave the book to Mary
• c. (Envió besitos)? (a Ana)?
• He/she sent kisses to Anna
• Cf. (Comprava)? (mapes de Barcelona)? vs.
  (Comprava mapes)? (per a lAnna)? ((Comprava)?
  (mapes per a lAnna)?)

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Alignment effects, NPs

• Alignment effects local vs. non-local AP
  attachments
• Non-local attachment Local attachment
• N PPPP APAPNP N PP APAP PPVP
  
•   (N PP)? (AP)? (N)? (PP AP)?
• a. (Una ampolla de vi)? (rosada)? a. (Una
  ampolla)? (de vi rosat)?
• A pink bottle of wine A bottle of rose wine
• b. (Un barret de nen)? (argentí)? b. (Un
  barret)? (de nen argentí)?
• A boys Argentinian hat A hat from an
  Argentinian boy
•   
• c. (Un anell de plata)? (suís)? c. (Un anell)?
  (de plata suïssa)?
• A Swiss silver ring A ring made of Swiss
  silver