Browsing by Subject "Intonation"
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Item Acquiring Variable L2 Spanish Intonation in a Study Abroad Context(2013-06) Trimble, JohnThis dissertation identifies and describes some of the major ways second language (L2) Spanish intonation changes over time in a study abroad context. It focuses on the intonation of two specific utterance types: broad focus declaratives and absolute interrogatives. Additionally, it explores a few important factors in how L2 intonation changes over time, namely: intonational characteristics of learners' first and second languages, task style/formality, and interaction with native Spanish speakers. The methodology employed combines traditional methodological approaches of intonational phonology and second language acquisition to analyze the data of nine English speaking learners of L2 Spanish who spent a semester in the Andes of Venezuela, a region known for its distinct absolute interrogative intonation. The results indicated that the L2 Spanish intonation of most learners was considerably different at the end of the semester abroad. Seven of nine learners adopted a new most frequent intonational pattern for broad focus declaratives. One learner also adopted a new preferred contour for absolute interrogatives. The learners were also dramatically more consistent in their use of particular patterns for each of the two utterance types investigated. A few learners showed evidence of an expanded pitch range. These changes resulted in an interlanguage intonation that was remarkably more like the target language and less like the learners' first language. Additionally, task formality or style was shown to be a significant variable related to variation in L2 Spanish intonation. At the end of the semester, the learners used the target dialect specific absolute interrogative pattern significantly more often in the informal task than they did in the formal one. Finally, native speaker interaction was another variable shown to have a significant effect on the development of target dialect intonational features. The proportion of time the learners reported speaking Spanish and English significantly interacted with change in dialect specific pattern use over time. Moreover, the three learners who showed the most L2 intonational development expressed what appear to be signs of high levels of social integration into the target language community.Item The L2 Acquisition of Buenos Aires Spanish Intonation During a Study Abroad Semester(2014-05) Thornberry, PhilipThe present longitudinal study describes and categorizes the primary changes in L2 Spanish intonation over time by 11 learners studying abroad in Buenos Aires, Argentina for one academic semester. Via the autosegmental metrical model of analysis, this dissertation classifies intonational contours for absolute interrogatives and declarative statements at the beginning and end of the semester in a variety of speech styles. It also isolates extralinguistic factors, such as attitudes and degree of social interaction, that promote or hinder acquisition of Spanish intonational norms. Results show that learner absolute interrogative intonation is considerably different from that of their native Buenos Aires Spanish-speaking peers. At the beginning of the semester, the learner contour is classified as L*+H L* H%, which is marked by a final rising F0 movement. This contrasts with the native Buenos Aires Spanish preference L+H* L+¡H* L%, which is most notable for a final falling F0 contour. By the end of the semester, 9 of the 11 learners continue to produce the non-native-like rising intonation in all speech contexts. However, two learners--Eve and Samantha--begin to approximate native norms by producing an interrogative contour characterized here as L*+H L*+H L% in all speech contexts. The learner declarative contour changes very little over time, regardless of speech context. It is analyzed as L*+H L* L%. All 11 learners produce this contour at the beginning and end of the semester. However, Eve and Samantha periodically demonstrate a handful of native-like declarative intonational characteristics when speaking in the informal speech contexts, such as the long fall melody (Kaisse, 2001), early prenuclear peak alignment, and low phrase tones. The analysis of extralinguistic factors reveals that the learners developed generally favorable attitudes towards porteños, which might promote acquisition of native intonational norms. However, learner exposure to the target language was limited by sporadic and superficial interaction with native speakers. Eve and Samantha, the learners who evidenced the most change in intonation over time, stood out from the rest of the learners by developing more robust, supportive relationships with native Spanish-speaking contacts.Item When Theory and Reality Collide: Exploring Chilean Spanish Intonational Plateaus(2016-05) Rogers, BrandonAbstract The current theoretical framework used to describe Spanish intonation, or the Autosegmental Metrical theory (AM), asserts that in any given utterance stressed words have their own individual high or low tones, each independent of the last (Pierrehumbert 1980). When mapped in Spanish, this intonation exhibits a rhythmic “rising and falling” pattern. Recently, Rogers (2013) documented an intonation pattern in Chilean Spanish not previously seen in any other variety of Spanish that cannot be adequately explained by AM. This pattern is described as a “plateau” that consists of two portions: a low-tonal portion, or “valley” and a high-tonal portion, or “plateau”. In both portions all the content is realized at the same relative tonal level. In other words, every word spoken in the low-tonal portion is maintained at the same low tonal level with little to no variation among traditionally stressed words, and words spoken in the high-tonal, “plateau” portion are maintained at the same high tonal level with little to no variation among traditionally stressed words. Likewise, each portion can extend or contract to include a wide variety of content. That all the respective words in these plateau patterns belong to the same singular low- or high-tonal levels stands in contrast to the rhythmic, “rising and falling” pattern that is widely acknowledged in applications of AM to Spanish intonation. In addition to its contrast with AM more broadly, these plateau patterns present two further, more nuanced challenges to the current understanding of Spanish intonation. First, one of the cognitive/linguistic roles that intonation contributes to in human language is the parsing of an utterance into smaller “chunks”, or portions, of information (D’Imperio et al. 2005, Ladd 2008 among others). This division of information is regulated by specific rules (Gussenhoven 2004, Ladd 2008). These rules have been used to construct what is known as the Prosodic Hierarchy wherein an utterance can be divided into smaller phrases and parts. Each level of the Hierarchy governs all the levels below it and is simultaneously governed by those levels above it (Gussenhoven 2004). Of particular interest to the current dissertation are the levels of Intonational Phrases (IPs) and Phonlogical Phrases (PPhs). Studies on Spanish intonation have suggested that the absolute limit for content words in a PPh is four, with the ideal number frequently being two (e.g. Prieto 2006, Rao 2007). These limits are thought to be determined by cognitive processes and the intended meaning that a speaker attaches to a given utterance (Christophe et. al 2004). Chilean Spanish intonational plateaus frequently push and exceed these previously established thresholds. Second, the different subsyestems that make up language do not work in isolation; rather, they frequently work collectively to create unique meanings. One of these subsystems that often works with intonation is syntax (e.g. Price, et al. 1991, Frazier et al. 2004). The data show that the Chilean Spanish plateau patterns create nuanced challenges for analyzing the intonation-syntax interaction. Specifically, because of the sheer amount of information that speakers can include in both the low and high portions of these patterns, for speakers of Chilean Spanish the intonation-syntax interaction potentially plays a different organizational role in conveying meaning than in other varieties of Spanish. The current dissertation examines these theoretical problems using natural speech data from 40 speakers hailing from 3 different regions of Chile: Santiago, Concepción, and Temuco. Through analyses of the prosodic and syntactic behaviors of the plateau patterns, it is demonstrated that the theoretical frameworks AM and the Prosodic Hierarchy cannnot adequately account for all of the data. As a result, significant modifications are proposed to allow the current AM and Prosodic Hierarchy frameworks account for all the Chilean Spanish intonational plateau data. Specifically, it is proposed that to satisfactorily account for all of the data, any theoretical approach must first seek to describe the patterns from a more speaker-centered pragmatic angle while acknowledging that tonal events can be extended to contain a varying amount of traditionally stressed and unstressed content. While such an approach does not discard the phonological origins of the patterns, it asserts that pragmatics and the communicative intentions of speakers are the principal motivators for the realization of the Chilean Spanish intonational plateau patterns, with phonological factors assuming a secondary role. Finally, barring an ex nihilo explanation, the lack of intonational plateau patterns in any other dialect of Spanish is suggestive of an outside origin for the Chilean Spanish plateaus. One possible explanation is that these patterns came into Chilean Spanish via contact with another language. Studies have shown how intonation in other Spanish dialects has been influenced by contact with other languages (O’Rourke 2005, Colantoni 2011 among others). These scholars further suggest that intonation is one of the aspects of language most easily influenced by contact with other languages. Chilean Spanish has made contact with several Amerindian languages for decades, the principal of which has been Mapudungun, the language of the Mapuche people. The present dissertation analyzes Mapudungun interviews conducted by Smeets (2008) and documents similar intonational plateau patterns in Mapudungun intonation. The data demonstrate that Mapudungun intonational plateaus and Chilean Spanish intonational plateaus behave very similarly at different prosodic, syntactic, and pragmatic levels. Thus, it is also proposed that contact with Mapudungun is the best possible source for the emergence of these unique intonational patterns in Chilean Spanish.