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Abstract:
This paper explores phrase-length-related alternations in the association of tones to positions
in metrical structure in two melodic constructions of Spanish. An imitation-and-completion
task eliciting (a) the low–falling–rising contour and (b) the circumflex contour on intonation
phrases (IPs) of one, two, and three prosodic words revealed that, although the focus
structure and pragmatic context is constant across conditions, phrases containing one
prosodic word differ in their nuclear (i.e. final) pitch accents and edge tones from phrases
containing more than one prosodic word. For contour (a), short intonation phrases (e.g.
[
Ma
no
lo
]
IP
) were produced with a low accent followed by a high edge tone (L
∗
H% in ToBI
notation), whereas longer phrases (e.g.
[
El her
ma
no de la a
m
igadeMa
no
lo
]
IP
‘Manolo’s
friend’s brother’) had a low accent on the first stressed syllable, a rising accent on the
last stressed syllable, and a low edge tone (L
∗
L+H
∗
L%). For contour (b), short phrases
were produced with a high–rise (L+H
∗
¡H%), whereas longer phrases were produced
with an initial accentual rise followed by an upstepped rise–fall (L+H
∗
¡H
∗
L%). These
findings imply that the common practice of describing the structure of intonation contours
as consisting of a constant nuclear pitch accent and following edge tone is not adequate for
modeling Spanish intonation. To capture the observed melodic alternations, we argue for
clearer separation between tones and metrical structure, whereby intonational tones do not
necessarily have an intrinsic culminative or delimitative function (i.e. as pitch accents or as
edge tones). Instead, this function results from melody-specific principles of tonal–metrical
association.
