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The Development of Lexical Pitch Accent Systems: An Autosegmental Analysis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 June 2016

Mitsuhiko Ota*
Affiliation:
University of Edinburgh

Abstract

This article presents an autosegmental analysis of the development of pitch phonology in Swedish and Japanese, which mark both lexical accent and phrasing through movements in fundamental frequency (F0). Predictions that follow from the autosegmental model are tested against spontaneous production data from child Japanese. In support of the analysis that lexical pitch accent and phrasal intonation are acquired as separate sequences of tonal features, the falling and rising slopes of F0 contours are shown to develop independently. The late emergence of the phrase-initial rise is attributable to the allophonic surface realisation of the low boundary tone. Moreover, developments in contour shapes are characterised by demarcated emergence of F0 turning points that are aligned with specific segments, providing further support for the view that pitch phonology is acquired as strings of tonal units associated with segments and prosodic constituents.

Résumé

Résumé

Cet article présente une analyse autosegmentale du développement des systèmes tonaux du suédois et du japonais, deux langues qui marquent l’accent lexical et phrastique par un mouvement dans la fréquence fondamentale (F0). Les prédictions découlant du modèle autosegmental sont testées à l’aide de données du japonais produites spontanément par un enfant. L’analyse, qui pose que la hauteur tonale de l’accent lexical et l’intonation phrastique s’acquièrent comme des séquences de traits tonaux distinctes, est soutenue par le développement indépendant des montées et descentes des contours de la F0. L’émergence tardive de la montée en début de syntagme est attribuable à la réalisation allophonique de surface du ton de frontière bas. De plus, les développements dans les formes du contour sont caractérisés par l’émergence marquée de points tournants de la F0 alignés sur des segments spécifiques. Ceci appuie l’idée que le système de hauteur tonale s’acquiert comme des chaînes d’unités tonales associées à des segments et des constituants prosodiques.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Linguistic Association 2003

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