Towards a P_ToBI:

1
Towards a P_ToBI
PaPI2007 Universidade do Minho Worskshop on the
Transcription of Intonation in Ibero-Romance

• Céu Viana Sónia Frota (coordinators)
• CLUL, DLGR/Onset-CEL, FLUL
• Participants Isabel Falé, Flaviane Fernandes,
  Isabel Mascarenhas, Ana Isabel Mata, Helena Moniz
  Marina Vigário

POCTI-SFA-17-745
2
0. Introduction background

• A first attempt at a unified transcription of
  some aspects of Portuguese intonation
• Brings together studies conducted on lab speech
  and on speech technology-oriented corpora
• First joint-venture of two research groups in
  process of fusion

• Our proposals are grounded on the understanding
  of the intonational and prosodic grammar of
  Portuguese based on the body of research
  developped in the last 20 years
• Pioneering work within the AM approach Viana
  (1987)
• Previous studies on P-Intonation almost
  inexistent
• Overview Frota (2000)

3
0. Introduction topics covered

• Pitch accents
• Nuclear accents
• Prenuclear accents
• Post-nuclear accent
• Boundary Tones
• Levels of prosodic structure relevant to
  intonational phrasing
• Distribution of tonal events and phrasing
• Sparse vs. rich distribution

• Sentence Types
• Declaratives
• Neutral late/early focus
• Questions
• Wh-, yes-no
• Yes-no late/early focus
• Queries, Checks
• Varieties
• SEP NEP BP
• Speech style
• Lab speech professional reading non-scripted
  speech spontaneous speech

4
0. Introduction main goals

• In this talk
• Basic tunes across sentence types (Lab speech)
• Data from SEP, NEP and BP
• Discuss the levels of phrasing in P-intonation
• New insights from spontaneous, non-scripted
  speech
• New accents
• Differences in the structural position, frequency
  of use and/or meaning of the same accents
• Levels of phrasing revisited

• Research on P-intonation (and P-prosody) is
  fairly recent, and a ground for consensus is only
  now being achieved
• Present labelling proposals are seen as work in
  progress
• It is hoped that they can help formulate relevant
  directions for further research
• This workshop is a big push Towards a P-ToBI

5
2. Basic tunes in SEP pitch accents

• Description
• HL HL LH H!H H LH

Three main nuclear accents
6
2. Basic tunes in SEP pitch accents

• Description
• HL HL LH H!H H LH

Previous peak fall within the accented
syllable Low target usually near the bottom of
the speakers range
Nucleus in neutral/broad focus statements and
questions
Frota 1993, 1997, 2000, 2002a Falé 1995
Vigário1998
7
2. Basic tunes in SEP pitch accents

• Description
• HL HL LH H!H H LH

Peak within the accented syllable immediately
followed by a fall usually followed by
compressed pitch range within the same IP
Nucleus in narrow/contrastive focus declaratives
Frota 1993, 1997, 2000, 2002a Vigário1998
Fernandes 2007
8
2. Basic tunes in SEP pitch accents

• Description
• HL HL LH H!H H LH

Low target in the accented syllable followed by a
rise, starting within this syllable and usually
reaching its peak on the next syllable
Nucleus in initial/internal IPs within statements
(continuation) nucleus in contrastive yes-no
questions
Frota 2000, 2002b Frota et al. 2007 Vigário 2003
9
2. Basic tunes in SEP pitch accents

• Description
• HL HL LH H!H H LH

Three main nuclear accents
Pre-nuclear position
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2. Basic tunes in SEP pitch accents

• Description
• HL HL LH H!H H LH

Accented syllable preceded by immediately
previous peak Accented syllable around mid range
Common prenuclear accent in statements
Frota 2002b
11
2. Basic tunes in SEP pitch accents

• Description
• HL HL LH H!H H LH

Accented syllable is high F0 peak not after a
(substantial) rise or fall
Frequent initial accent in statements and
questions
Frota 2000, 2002b 2003 Vigário1998
12
2. Basic tunes in SEP pitch accents

• Description
• HL HL LH H!H H LH

Accented syllable is high and immediately
preceded by a low target leading to a rise in the
accented syllable
Fairly infrequent accent in SEP
Frota, DImperio, Elordieta, Prieto Vigário 2007
13
2. Basic tunes in SEP boundary tones

• Simple and complex intonational phrase-final
  boundaries
• L H LH HL !H H

A low target on the boundary syllable
Pre-final and final IPs in statements
Wh-questions
Viana 1987 Vigário 1998 Frota 2000, 2002b
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2. Basic tunes in SEP boundary tones

• Simple and complex intonational phrase-final
  boundaries
• L H LH HL !H H

A high target on the boundary syllable
Initial and internal IPs in statements
(continuation)
Viana 1987 Vigário 1998 Frota 2000, 2002b,
Frota et al. 2007
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2. Basic tunes in SEP boundary tones

• Simple and complex intonational phrase-final
  boundaries
• L H LH HL !H H

Low and High targets (rise) on the boundary
syllable
Neutral yes-no questions, Contrastive yes-no
questions (early nucleus) Polite wh-questions
Frota 2002b
16
2. Basic tunes in SEP boundary tones

• Simple and complex intonational phrase-final
  boundaries
• L H LH HL !H H

High and low targets (fall) on the boundary
syllable
Contrastive yes-no questions (late nucleus)
Frota 2002b
17
2. Basic tunes in SEP boundary tones

• Simple and complex intonational phrase-final
  boundaries
• L H LH HL !H H

A downstepped high target on the boundary
syllable (also responsible for sustained pitch)
Initial and internal IPs in statements
Frota, DImperio, Elordieta, Prieto Vigário 2007
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2. Basic tunes in SEP boundary tones

• Simple and complex intonational phrase-final
  boundaries
• L H LH HL !H H

Initial high boundary (optional)
Unsettled issues labelling of the initial
phrasal tone Iw
Statements and questions
Frota 2003
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2. Basic tunes in SEP neutral statement
the poet sang a
morning angelic
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2. Basic tunes in SEP neutral statement
the blond girl recorded a song
wonderful from-the olive-pressman
HL, as in Italian varieties (Grice et al.
2005), or American Spanish (Sosa 1991)
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2. Basic tunes in SEP neutral statement vs focus
What about John and Mary? What happened to them?
John and Mary broke up ?
(they got) married
(they got) married
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2. Basic tunes in SEP narrow/contrastive focus
Was it an angelic night that the poet sang ?
focus
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2. Basic tunes in SEP narrow/contrastive focus
Who offered spices to the journalists ?
focus
HL, as in Bari or Palermo Italian (Grice 1995,
Grice et al. 2005)
24
2. Basic tunes in SEP wh-question
who painted a morning
amber ?
Same contour as in neutral declarative statements
(like in e.g. Standard Italian, Avesani 1995)
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2. Basic tunes in SEP neutral yes-no question
the poet sang a morning
angelic ?
Interrogation is signalled by the tonal boundary
(like in e.g. Standard Italian or French, Avesani
1995, Post 2000) unlike in Southern varieties of
Italian or in Catalan, Grice 2005, Prieto 2000)
26
2. Basic tunes in SEP neutral yes-no question
the girls Angolans-FEM
read-to-us-it ?
An accentual fall plus a boundary rise placed
enterily on the final syllable the pitch in
between not controlled by L but resulting instead
from interpolation (as in e.g. Bengali)
27
2. Basic tunes in SEP contrastive yes-no question
Ive seen that movie but I dont recall who
drives a Porsche.
focus
the hero drives a
Porsche ?
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2. Basic tunes in SEP contrastive yes-no question
I would like to know if they bought slides and
not something different.
focus
the boys bought
slides (for the microscope) ?
LH HL acounts for the higher level of the H
target (as in LHH, Vigário 1998, Frota 2000)
the end point of the rising pitch is always the
pre-final syllable (Frota 2002b)
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2. Basic tunes in SEP intonational phrasing
parenthetical
Major IP domain for sandhi, e.g. Fricative
voicing final lengthening wider boundary rise
nuclear accent plus a H boundary (Frota 2000)
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2. Basic tunes in SEP intonational phrasing
parenthetical
Minor IP smaller final lengthening smaller
boundary rise but the same sequence nuclear
accent plus a H boundary phrasing into minor IPs
depends on phrase length (Frota 2000)
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2. Basic tunes in SEP intonational phrasing

• Compound IP (Ladd 1992, 1996, Frota 2000, Vigário
  2003)
• IPs sandhi, final lengthening, nucleus plus a
  tonal boundary (H or L)
• Relative length of IPs gt Compound
• Inner IP boundary within a Compound or Major IP
  is weaker than the outer IP boundary (degree of
  final lengthening and size of pitch excursion)
• Proposal Major IP gt T, level 4
• Minor IP gt T- , level 3

• Why not the intermediate phrase?
• No evidence in terms of the distribution of
  categorical phonological markers, e.g. T-T for
  the IP and just T- for the ip
  Frota 2000, 2002a,b
• No evidence for an edge tone that determines the
  contour from the last pitch accent until the end
  of the phrase, as in the definition of the ip
  (BP 1986, Ladd 1996, Beckman et al. 2005, Grice
  at al. 2005) Frota 2002a,b

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2. Basic tunes in SEP intonational phrasing
Long subject
the boyfriend megalomaniac of-the Brazilian
looked (at the) dark-haired women
Subjects more than 8 syllables long (Elordieta,
Frota Vigário 2005)
33
2. Basic tunes in NEP neutral statement
L
the daughter-in-law of mother talked about
the boyfriend
Rich distribution of pitch accents (Vigário
Frota 2003) more IPs by utterance
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the daughter-in-law of mother talked about
the boyfriend
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2. Basic tunes in NEP wh-question
who painted a morning
amber ?
Same nuclear contour as in NEP neutral
declarative statements L L
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2. Basic tunes in NEP neutral yes-no question
the boys bought
slides (for the microscope) ?
Interrogation is signalled by the tonal boundary
H(L)
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2. Basic tunes in BP neutral statement
the researcher already
gave-back the money
Same nuclear contour as in SEP, but rich
distribution of pitch accents
(Frota Vigário 2000, Tenani 2002, Fernandes
2007)
38
the researcher already
gave-back the money
39
2. Basic tunes in BP narrow (informational) focus
Who died in the lake ?
focus
the girls beautiful
died in-the lake
Two possibilities main option is different from
SEP (Fernandes 2007)
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Who died in the lake ?
focus
the girls beautiful
died in-the lake
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2. Basic tunes in SEP, NEP and BP summary

• SEP NEP BP
• Neutral Decl HL L L L HL L
• Focus in Decl HL LH L- (or HL)
• Wh-question HL L L L
• Neutral yes-no Q HL LH L H(L)
• Contrastive yes-no LH LH/HL
• I-phrasing long phrases short phrases
• Sparse/rich accent
• distribution sparse rich rich
• (accented I-phrase internal w) 27 74 80

Accent on every IP PhP PW (Hellmuth 2007)
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3 Professional Spontaneous Speech

• Independent evidence for
• Tonal inventory
• Main tunes
• Whats new (for SEP)
• Nuclear H, L, LH and H!H
• Pre-nuclear and nuclear H
• Problematic issues
• Boundary tones
• Final HL, !H and L
• Initial H and L
• How to deal with the equivalence of LH and L
  H ?
• How many levels of phrasing?
• (a supplementary level for sentence-like
  chunks?)

43
3. Pre-nuclear and nuclear LH in SEP
Statement New information (professional reading)
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3. Nuclear LH
Statement new information - list qualities
(high-school presentation, non-scripted)  
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3. Nuclear L in SEP
Statement, given information, continuation (high
school spontaneous presentation)
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3. Nuclear L in SEP
Given information (topicalization), new
information, continuation MapTask corpus
(INSTRUCT, non-final)  
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3. L vs LH
Yes-no question versus agree-proceed   (Map Task)
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3. Nuclear H
Imperative - polite/exhortative (lab speech)
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3. Nuclear H
Question confirmation seeking
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3. Nuclear H
Question confirmation seeking
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3. Nuclear HL
Question information seeking (neutral)
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3. Other contrasts Nuclear H
Emphatic statement - inferable information (prof.
reading)
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3. Nuclear H
Statement- highlighted specification 2nd and
final part (MapTask - EXPLAIN)
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3. Nuclear HL
Statement- narrow focus, new information 1st
part (MapTask - EXPLAIN)
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3. LH and H
Reactivation of given information inferable
information/ correction (high-school prepared
presentation - teacher)
56
3. LH and H
New information given/ highlighted
specification (high-school spontaneous
presentation - teacher)
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3. LH and H
New information given/highlighted
specification (professional reading)
58
3. Higher level organization (professional
reading)
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3. Higher level organization (prepared spont.
speech)
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3 Professional Spontaneous Speech

• Independent evidence for
• Tonal inventory
• Main tunes
• Whats new (for SEP)
• Nuclear H, L, LH and H!H
• Pre-nuclear and nuclear H
• Problematic issues
• Boundary tones
• Final HL, !H and L
• Initial H and L
• How to deal with the equivalence of LH and L
  H ?
• How many levels of phrasing?
• (a supplementary level for sentence-like
  chunks?)

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Obrigada !