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What do compounds and noun phrases tell us about tonal targets in Finnish?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 September 2015

Anja Arnhold
Anja Arnhold*
Affiliation:
Department of Linguistics, University of Alberta, Edmonton T6G 2E7, Alberta, Canada. [email protected]
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Abstract

This article compares three accounts of Finnish intonation using a perception experiment with manipulated f0 contours. The experiment involved compound/noun phrase minimal pairs differing in f0 pattern. To address the question of tonal specification, manipulations changed f0 contours of recorded compound words, associating them with f0 patterns having different components of the naturally occurring f0 rise-fall contour. Thus, the study investigated which tonal targets were crucial for the perception of a complete tonal contour inducing a noun phrase interpretation. Results suggested that the falling part of the rise-falls, modelled as realisations of a high and a following low target, was essential. They furthermore revealed evidence for these targets being associated with prosodic phrases, as well as for Finnish tonal targets being characterised by a flexibility that contrasts with accent realisations in languages like English.

Keywords

accentsFinnishintonationperceptionphrase languagesphrasingtonal specification
Type
Research Article
Information
Nordic Journal of Linguistics , Volume 38 , Special Issue 2: Prosody in the Nordic Languages , October 2015 , pp. 221 - 244
Copyright
Copyright © Nordic Association of Linguistics 2015 

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