In this study we measured patterns of pitch alignment, pitch range and duration in relation to broad and contrastive focus in Romanian. In declarative sentences with broad focus, speakers place a pitch accent on each lexically stressed syllable with peaks that become progressively lower towards the end of the sentence. In pre-nuclear accents, the peaks align with the post-tonic syllable. In declarative sentences with contrastive focus, speakers use strategies based on pitch and duration in order to build a maximum contrast between the word under focus and those in pre- and post-focal contexts: an expanded pitch range under focus and a reduced pitch range and shorter stressed syllables in pre- and post-focal contexts. Thus, the flat F0 and shorter segmental durations in pre- and post-focal contexts constitute a background that, in contrast, highlights the segmental durations and expanded pitch ranges found under contrastive focus.
2021. A study on the perception of prosodic cues to focus by Egyptian listeners: Some make use of them, but most of them don't. Speech Communication 132 ► pp. 55 ff.
Andreeva, Bistra, William John Barry & Jacques Koreman
2017. Local and Global Cues in the Prosodic Realization of Broad and Narrow Focus in Bulgarian. Phonetica 73:3-4 ► pp. 256 ff.
Sadeghi, Vahid
2017. Word-level prominence in Persian: An Experimental Study. Language and Speech 60:4 ► pp. 571 ff.
Sónia Frota & Pilar Prieto
2015. Intonation in Romance,
Ordin, Mikhail & Marina Nespor
2013. Transition Probabilities and Different Levels of Prominence in Segmentation. Language Learning 63:4 ► pp. 800 ff.
Vanrell, Maria del Mar, Antonio Stella, Barbara Gili Fivela & Pilar Prieto
2013. Prosodic manifestations of the Effort Code in Catalan, Italian and Spanish contrastive focus. Journal of the International Phonetic Association 43:2 ► pp. 195 ff.
Ortega-Llebaria, Marta & Pilar Prieto
2011. Acoustic Correlates of Stress in Central Catalan and Castilian Spanish. Language and Speech 54:1 ► pp. 73 ff.
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